Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion – Future past
Who doesn’t know the name Hasse Fröberg? Afterall he is the vocalist and guitarist of one of the best progressive rock acts on our planet: The Flower Kings (TFK). Before that he played in bands as Spellbound (fun add: check the site of Hasse and you will see a hair metal band picture!!) and Solid Blue before joining The Flower Kings after being asked by Roine Stolt. Since TFK had a break in 2009, besides a few live gigs, Hasse started with another band .
Let me state one thing first. When you are on of those people who wants to consume music without even really wanting to listen to the album you might miss out on stuff that is neatly hidden away in layers of music. For instance when you listen to the track “Song for July” you might think it’s a simple straight forward progressive rock song and push the next button. But when doing that you will miss the jazzy keyboards woven into the music which all of a sudden makes the track far less easy and straight forward.
Some influences you hear would be TFK (of course) Pink Floyd and at times Spock’s Beard. The album itself, which lasts for 71ish minutes, opens up with “Sounds from the empire” which sounds a bit Floydian and get’s continued with the track “Fallen empire” which has a bit of an orchestral feeling over it, of course without even needing an orchestra to make that happen. “Piece of the sky” could be a TFK track but around the 5th minute mark it becomes all of a sudden a bit catchy. See if would have pressed play next again you would have missed another thing!
“I wouldn’t change a thing” would be a great track for an single or EP. Catchy track which still lasts for 6:49 minutes. “Above” is walking between progressive rock and progressive metal and if you make the same mistake as me and put up the volume you might get someone knocking on your door too telling you the music sounds good but a bit to loud in the metal passages.
The last three tracks of the album are “Every day” which is a bit to poppy to me even with the good sounding keyboard solo, “The ultimate thrill” which blasts out of the speakers and as the grand final “Only my blood” which starts off as a ballad but quickly explodes between the progressive rock and metal mix as mentioned before.
Conclusion? About a week ago i said that with the “Godsticks - Spiral Vendetta” album i had found a top then for the year 2010 album. “Future past” belongs in there too and i dare to say it’s even closer to the top 3 as the Godsticks album will be. Top quality album being played by top quality musicians. Progressive rock/metal with a little bit of jazz hidden away is what you will get. A must in everybody’s cd-wall at home which means a buy for me to since i work with a review copy.
95/100 Reviewed By Gert For Harmonic Lizard
Harmonic Lizard
Who doesn’t know the name Hasse Fröberg? Afterall he is the vocalist and guitarist of one of the best progressive rock acts on our planet: The Flower Kings (TFK). Before that he played in bands as Spellbound (fun add: check the site of Hasse and you will see a hair metal band picture!!) and Solid Blue before joining The Flower Kings after being asked by Roine Stolt. Since TFK had a break in 2009, besides a few live gigs, Hasse started with another band .
Let me state one thing first. When you are on of those people who wants to consume music without even really wanting to listen to the album you might miss out on stuff that is neatly hidden away in layers of music. For instance when you listen to the track “Song for July” you might think it’s a simple straight forward progressive rock song and push the next button. But when doing that you will miss the jazzy keyboards woven into the music which all of a sudden makes the track far less easy and straight forward.
Some influences you hear would be TFK (of course) Pink Floyd and at times Spock’s Beard. The album itself, which lasts for 71ish minutes, opens up with “Sounds from the empire” which sounds a bit Floydian and get’s continued with the track “Fallen empire” which has a bit of an orchestral feeling over it, of course without even needing an orchestra to make that happen. “Piece of the sky” could be a TFK track but around the 5th minute mark it becomes all of a sudden a bit catchy. See if would have pressed play next again you would have missed another thing!
“I wouldn’t change a thing” would be a great track for an single or EP. Catchy track which still lasts for 6:49 minutes. “Above” is walking between progressive rock and progressive metal and if you make the same mistake as me and put up the volume you might get someone knocking on your door too telling you the music sounds good but a bit to loud in the metal passages.
The last three tracks of the album are “Every day” which is a bit to poppy to me even with the good sounding keyboard solo, “The ultimate thrill” which blasts out of the speakers and as the grand final “Only my blood” which starts off as a ballad but quickly explodes between the progressive rock and metal mix as mentioned before.
Conclusion? About a week ago i said that with the “Godsticks - Spiral Vendetta” album i had found a top then for the year 2010 album. “Future past” belongs in there too and i dare to say it’s even closer to the top 3 as the Godsticks album will be. Top quality album being played by top quality musicians. Progressive rock/metal with a little bit of jazz hidden away is what you will get. A must in everybody’s cd-wall at home which means a buy for me to since i work with a review copy.
95/100 Reviewed By Gert For Harmonic Lizard
Harmonic Lizard