Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
The Flower Kings - The Sum of No Evil CD (album) cover

THE SUM OF NO EVIL

The Flower Kings

 

Symphonic Prog

3.82 | 634 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

J-Man
Prog Reviewer
5 stars It's no secret that I am a huge fan of The Flower Kings. They are some of the most talented musicians around, and are one of my favorite modern progressive rock acts. And on no other album (except for maybe a few others) will you understand their greatness so easily. This is the ultimate modern prog rock album. There is incredible songwriting, production, musicianship, arrangements, and singing. So what else could this possibly be if not a 5 star masterpiece? The skills of the band are undeniable here, and few prog bands can pull off an album as good as this.

So what makes this album better than many other Flower Kings albums?

The simple answer that there is absolutely NO filler. There isn't a weak track, or even a weak moment. One of the problems I have with many albums by The Flower Kings is that there usually are songs worth skipping. They will make a double album, with material that could have easily fit on one awesome disc. Or they will make an 80-minute single disc with filler, when they could have made an album with 50-minutes of genius. That is far from the case here. This is a 78-minute long album, but every minute deserves to be here without a doubt. This whole album just screams masterpiece from beginning to end, so I can't give it anything less than a 5 star rating.

The Music:

"One More Time"- This is a classic Flower Kings song, and is a great way to start off the album. It starts out with a cool opening and it has a beautiful chorus used throughout the song. It has some great instrumental parts, particularly highlighting the synthesizer.

"Love Is The Only Answer"- The Flower Kings are known for their excellent 20+ minute epics, and this ranks up there as one of the best. The lyrics aren't great, but the music is so good it makes up for every aspect of it. It has a perfect blend of emotions and has a classic sound trademarked by The Flower Kings.

"Trading My Soul"- After two longer epics, this is a shorter song to serve as a breaking point between another epic. This is an excellent song anyway, though fairly simple. It creates great chord changes between the dark and moody verses and emotional choruses. This is a very good song with some great hooks.

"The Sum of No Reason"- This is another epic song on this album, and this is probably the darkest one, though it does have some lighter moments. This is a good song with the occasional metal leaning. This song is often overshadowed by some of the other songs here, but this is still a very good song.

"Flight 999 (Brimstone Air)"- This is the only instrumental song here, and it is somewhat in between a jam session and an actual song. It has a cool drum solo that progresses very well.

"Life In Motion"- This is one of the best songs on the album, and is definitely a highlight track. The last minutes on this song get me every time, and there isn't a bad second on this song. The Flower Kings couldn't have possibly ended the album better than this.

The simple conclusion is that this is essential, and should be in any progressive rock fan's collection. This is a masterpiece of modern prog, and represents The Flower Kings excellently. This is a great starting point to listen to The Flower Kings, and it won't disappoint any long time fan. It's a shame these guys are so underrated. Their music is really excellent.

5 stars.

J-Man | 5/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this THE FLOWER KINGS review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.