Progressive Rock
The Flower Kings have put out “The Gods of Rome, Pt. 2”, the second taster from “Hope”, which InsideOutMusic release on 23 October. It is the band’s eighteenth studio album and comes a year and a half after “Love”.
There are four tracks: “World Spinning – The Final Curtain” (18:45), “In a World of Fools” (5:35), “Mars & Minerva” (4:40) and “The Gods of Rome” (28:15). The new single is an excerpt from that last one, which takes up almost half the record.
Roine Stolt explains where it came from: “This is one of several parts of an epic piece that has been going round in my head for a few years… ancient Rome works as a metaphor for the power game of today.” The music came out of orchestral ideas from more than a decade ago and nearly ended up on an Anderson & Stolt project before going back to the full band.
Playing on it are Stolt, Lalle Larsson on keyboards, Hans Fröberg on vocals, Michael Stolt on bass and Mirko DeMaio on drums. It comes on CD with Blu-ray — carrying Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes — on single CD, on gatefold double vinyl and digitally.
Text by Guillem Cardós