I haven't yet seen The Flower Kings in a true live concert setting, but they were rather boring to watch in this setting. Kind of like a mini prog-rock orchestra. To make matters worse, they blended all kinds of bizarre film footage, such as modern dance, juggling, ballet, fire-eating, or simply scenes of the Swedish countryside, throughout the song performances. Didn't they see The Song Remains The Same for Christ's sake! The camera editing doesn't exactly help matters either. Although the director mostly uses slow sweeping motions that rarely change angles too quickly, a good thing, he often ignores the person who is playing the key part or solo at the time, and kind of just meanders about freely. The guest musicians are almost completely ignored too.

The songs on the second disk are slightly less compelling than the two masterworks that filled the first disk. That is, until you get to the 26-minute, magnum opus "Stardust We Are," which closes out the performance. Before that, you get an unremarkable 23-minute performance of "Humanizzimo," which is actually from the 2001 Roine Stolt solo album The Flower King, followed by the King Crimson-esque instrumental "Circus Brimstone," and then "Silent Inferno," the second choice from Unfold the Future. Maybe I was just already exhausted after the first disk, or there were better songs I would have loved to hear such as "I Am the Sun" or "Church of Your Heart." But hell, even a mediocre Flower Kings song towers over most of the other prog-rock competition out there.

Some of the behind-the-scenes extras were interesting, but most were fairly bland. It doesn't help that only Swedish is spoken throughout, and even if you do understand the language, the dialog is usually barely audible. Unfortunately, the only audio mix provided is PCM stereo, but it is one of the best I have ever heard. Every instrument and vocal clearly stands out and is perfectly balanced in the mix. The video quality is also outstanding.

Overall, this is an impressive documentary of the music and musicianship of The Flower Kings. Some of the performances will make you shake your head in awe, especially the amazing playing of their new young drummer Zoltan Csörsz, who joined the band in 2002, just in time to play on the Unfold The Future album and this DVD. Watching him mess around on the skins during the behind the scenes footage was probably the most impressive stuff of all. Stolt was also at the top of his game, and his guitar playing has never been more dazzling. It's about time you meet The Flower Kings.

Set List
The Truth Will Set You Free
Garden Of Dreams part 1
Garden Of Dreams part 2
Humanizzimo
Circus Brimstone
Silent Inferno
Stardust We Are

Performance 7/10
Production 8/10

Read all of my DVD concert reviews at Roy's Reviews