THE SUM OF NO EVIL

'The Sum of No Evil' is the tenth studio album by The Flower Kings, released on 25 September 2007. Zoltan Csörsz returns on 'The Sum of No Evil,' and would be his final album with The Flower Kings. The album opens with "One More Time," starting with a melody that was alluded to briefly on "Monsters & Men" from the previous record, 'Paradox Hotel.' Despite being 13-minutes in duration, "One More Time" is fairly stagnant. There are good melodies and instrumental passages, but this is The Flower Kings at their most ordinary. The 24-minute track, "Love Is the Only Answer," is among the weakest Flower Kings epics. "Love Is the Only Answer" starts as a standard pop song, and then goes in a million different directions while failing to create a cohesive piece. Roine Stolt's guitar solo is the only redeeming moment of the whole epic; the rest is lackluster. "Trading My Soul" is a slow song with a dark atmosphere. The chaotic and heavy moments of "The Sum of No Reason" remind me of "Circus Brimstone" and "Silent Inferno," except those songs do it better. "Flight 999 (Brimstone Air)" was written by Tomas Bodin, and allows Zoltan Csörsz to shine on the drumkit. The final track, "Life in Motion," is my favorite song on 'The Sum of No Evil,' mainly due to the finale, which is beautiful. In conclusion, 'The Sum of No Evil' is Flower Kings paint-by-numbers. While there aren't any bad moments per se, I feel like we've already heard the music on 'The Sum of No Evil' from previous Flower Kings albums, but done better.