THE SUM OF NO EVIL

Zoltan is back! One of the key components of The Flower Kings' glorious rhythm section on their masterpiece Unfold the Future, drummer Zoltan Cszorz, recorded drums for the band's latest out put, The Sum of No Evil. Ulf Wallander is also back to play some sax as well! A typical TFK output, a full disc of music including a 24-minute epic and three tracks over 10, the group runs their signature hippy-happy goopy prog rock. After several albums of experiementing with new sounds and styles, the band returns to their roots with this one. While not introducing anything new to their sound, though they did record this whole album using strictly "vintage" instruments, the group lays down a really solid record. It's more consistent than their past two albums, Adam & Eve and Paradox Hotel, and it manages a few moments of equivalent greatness as the high points of those records as well. While the lyrics are probably the cheesiest and most pedestrian lyrics they've ever written, even at times embarassing, the music is consistently good or better. The opener, "One More Time" has several fantastic instrumental passages and the epic, "Love Is the Only Answer" lays waste to their last epic, "Monsters & Men," which is still a pretty good song. This epic has the instrumental goodness, both powerful sections and quirky ones, and a majority if the best vocal passages on the entire disc. While it's most peppy, the band used one of the shorter pieces, "Trading My Soul," for a slow, dark song. It's nothing special until Roine tears it up for the last couple of minutes. Then we move into "The Sum of No Reason," which along with the epic is a highlight of the album. It's got some metal, the rest of the great vocal passages, and more creative passages. The other short piece, "Flight 999 (Brimstone Air)" is a really quirky and really fun instrumental piece. The closer, "Life in Motion," is the weakest of the longer tracks, but it gets pretty good toward the end, again, thanks to the guitar genius.

This band, despite sounding terribly goopy or cheesy, gets me every time. They really are a great band. Most of their albums aren't without serious drawbacks, but often the good outweighs the bad. The Sum of No Evil is another such case. It manages to be another solid record, but with this return to a traditional sound and a poor set of lyrics, one has to wonder how much fuel the band has left to run that musical hippy fish bus. We'll just have to wait and see what comes next.