Album Review: Roine Stolt's Flower King - Manifesto Of An Alchemist

I don't know the issues that go on behind the scenes, and I'm not going to try to speculate on them. What I do know is that The Flower Kings had regrouped and put out two albums not that long ago, one of which ("Desolation Rose") I was very high on. In the meantime, something happened among the members, as Roine Stolt made a record with Transatlantic, made one with Jon Anderson, and put together The Sea Within. And now he's regrouped some familiar faces under the guise of a solo album that is branded to sound as much like The Flower Kings as possible. Oh, the joys of legalities.

Anyway, on to the music. We got our first taste in the form of "Lost America", which is the first full track on the album, after the introduction. It's a bit of an odd choice to lead things off, on record and in promotion. The song is rather slow, and features Stolt's guitar mostly dancing around in the background, while a sort of jazz groove from the bass leads the way. Stolt is on lead vocals for the majority of the record, and his limited range can be a blessing and a curse. This song, in particular, never seems to get out of first gear, which has been a problem with a lot of Roine's music lately.

When you couple that with the worrying trend that his records have been sounding darker and less sharp with each passing release, we wind up with an album that doesn't sound inviting the way his old music did. Yes, much of the music is rather slow and ponderous, but the actual sonics are more buried in the mix. Nothing stands out from the rest, which doesn't help listeners (dedicated or surface-level) dig in. Perhaps the point has come where Roine has heard so much of his own music he needs fresh ears to put the right gloss on it.

"Ze Pawns" has a strong main line to it, recalling a few of the laid-back 80s easy rock hits, but so much of the track is slow wandering to get there. There is not only no immediacy to the track, but seemingly no desire from Roine to let us know there is a destination if we're patient enough. I've talked before about him being one of those musicians who makes records that are more interesting for him as a musician than for us as listeners, and songs like this one are exactly what I'm talking about.

I was surprised by "The Sea Within" early in the year. I didn't expect that record to be as soft and slow as it turned out to be, and that sound has carried over to this one as well. Listening to it, I get the mental image of a group of musicians sitting in the same room, staring at their instruments to get a glimpse of their watches, waiting for the clock to hit quitting time. There simply isn't anything here that sounds inspired, or that sounded like fun for the band to record. It's a record that sounds like the stereotype of what a group of middle-aged men would be doing. Sure, they are of that generation, but Roine's compatriot Neal Morse hasn't gotten this flaccid on his prog albums.

There is simply too much talent on this album for it to sound so dull. Given the capabilities on display, the fault has to lie with Roine, who has composed music that doesn't use anyone to their full potential. Or perhaps the music needing to be written for his voice is the problem, because Roine is capable of hitting but a few notes, and relies on charisma in his vocals to get by. Since he doesn't put much passion into these performances, that charisma is lacking, and so too is the end result.

This is a record for completists. I know a lot of Flower Kings fans didn't think their comeback measured up to their classic period, and I know this album doesn't live up to that comeback either. So if we use a little logic, and this isn't as good as something that wasn't as good as something else, it means "Manifesto Of An Alchemist" is one of the weakest efforts in Roine's history. Alchemy was the attempt to turn the worthless into gold. Roine hasn't done that on this album. Not at all.