THE SUM OF NO EVIL

I think there are two types of Flower Kings albums, the grassy albums, and the aquatic albums. The grassy albums are more of the pastoral, almost prog folk albums that contain more of a flowery atmosphere, whilst the aquatic albums feel a lot more seaside oriented, with a lot of marimbas, blue images, and very tranquil sounds. The only exceptions for me in these two Flower Kings archetypes is Retropolis, Stardust We Are, and The Rainmaker, though sometimes they skirt on the edges of the two types. For The Sum Of No Evil, it is an aquatic Flower Kings record. What we find here is a really sweet undertaking from these wonderful prog guys. A lot of The Flower Kings material since here have been very long, clearly as a band who wishes to not leave anything on the cutting room floor, but here we may get quite the opposite of those undertakings with 6 songs, all taking their time in establishing this oceanic view of an album.

For starters, I think Love Is The Only Answer is a magnificent epic. How the song weaves through these boundless oceanic plates, some of which have sounds that feel very much in-tune with bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X (though with a Flower Kings coat of paint). If there is one thing this band does right every time, it is to make masterful prog rock epics, which isn't quite surprising due to Roine Stolt's track record within multiple bands he is, or was a part of.

The smaller tracks on here are also superb, such as Trading my Soul and The Sum Of No Reason. These tracks really do showcase the band's strength in song structure, creating these very vibrant tracks that meshes the innate joyfulness of the band's image with very classical prog rock sounds to create some very nicely made music that I have fallen in obsessed with.

I would say, though, that this feels less like an original Flower Kings record like Flower Power or Unfold The Future, and more like the band trying to recreate their older workings. Many tracks on here feel a bit too similar to ones on previous albums, and whilst I know this band never quite changes sonically from album to album, here it feels almost like they aren't quite being completely original for themselves. It is also quite apparent as this is their shortest album in terms of track listing, and also after this released, the band went on hiatus until their 2012 comeback of Banks Of Eden. I guess by this point the band ran low on steam and so had to take a bit to refuel.

A very great album from this lovely band, however the lack of originality is quite apparent, especially when you've been listening to a band of this caliber quite a lot. I definitely can recommend this record, but I think it shouldn't be the first record you check out from them, as it isn't quite a definitive album in the band's catalog in my mind.

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