THE SUM OF NO EVIL

The Flower Kings' tenth studio album happens to be one of their most adventurous, captivating, dynamic and front-to-back relentless works of theirs, a 75-minute-long album contained just within six tracks, 'The Sum of No Evil' from 2007 is a gorgeous and expansive symphonic prog record full of bold and unexpected turns, strong melodies and overall excellent, soulful playing; briefly put, here are all the elements of a TFK album delivering all the goods, in spades. Narrowing things down to a single-disc set (in contemporary terms) seems to have allowed the band to organize a rather focused work, and a surprisingly accessible one, too, thanks to the myriad of fantastic and highly memorable hooks and melodies. Needless to say, Stolt's guitar work here is driven and flamboyant, with the experienced Swedish axe-man delivering some of the most delightful and appealing riffs of the entire back catalogue of the The Flower Kings.

The opening scene here is the uplifting and "flowery" 'One More Time', a longer piece that features prominent lush instrumentation all over, some really fine singing, and beautiful build-ups, definitely a nod to good ol' Genesis. This is followed by the centerpiece of the album, the 24-minute suite 'Love is the Only Answer', a virtually perfect long epic from The Flower Kings, a multi-part song with tons of unexpected twists and turns, incredible arrangements, strong licks and some emotive playing. This might as well be the perfect representation of the vivid symphonic rock style of the band, it has both the pace, the grit and the atmosphere of some of the most inspiring prog epics of the genre's classic era. A trippy and elegiac shorter piece comes up next in the face of 'Trading My Soul', after which we get another very powerful longer song, 'The Sum of No Reason', a slightly darker but no less impressive piece that definitely hints at a possible future itinerary for the band (thinking of 'Banks of Eden' and 'Desolation Rose'). An excellent and avant-garde instrumental gives way to the sixth and final song off the album, 'Life in Motion', a more upbeat and pastoral trip that dares to close off the work on a high note. The entire album is nothing short of excellent, and while one might "devise" minute flaws here and there, with the song lengths and some of the arrangements coming up as challenging, this is an eclectic and rewarding listen that keeps you acutely interested in what's going on all throughout.

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