Artist: The Flower Kings Album: The Sum Of No Evil Label: InsideOut Music Website: http://www.flowerkings.se Reviewers: Bill Knispel (BK), Chris Piccirillo (CP)

Track List: 1. One More Time 13.10 2. Love Is The Answer 25.50 3. Trading My Soul 7.25 4. The Sum Of No Reason 13.25 5. Flight 999 (Brimstone Air) 5.00 6. Life In Motion 13.30 BK: The Sum of No Evil is the Flower King’s first single disc release since 2004’s Adam And Eve. That’d not sound quite so impressive were it not for the fact that the intervening years saw the release of a 2 CD studio album, a 2 DVD/2 CD live album, and a 2 CD best of release. The Flower Kings are among the most prolific artists toiling in the progressive genre today…and oddly, despite their accessible sound, they are among the more controversial ones. Some people find their material refreshing in its willingness to look back at the past greats of the genre, while others find their profligacy to be the result of poor quality control. What do we think? Read on. Chris Piccirillo and I are looking at this release in a track by track fashion. Our usual third voice, Paulo André, was unavailable to participate on this roundtable review, though you can rest assured he’ll be back in the saddle for our third such installment sometime in January. CP: I have to admit, my knowledge of Roine Stolt projects is limited to basically the 2 Transatlantic records and the occasional Flower Kings song I’ve heard online. So this is kind of a “new band” for me. Onto the review! “One More Time” CP: Starting off with an electric piano melody that strangely reminded me of the “Taxi” theme, the song truly begins with a soaring keyboard melody straight from Tony Banks's keyboards. Soon the tune shifts into a total Yes “Tales”-era feel and I’m informed immediately as to what kind of record this will be. The verse bass lines performed by Reingold are jazzy, flowing and extremely interesting and stand out in a very Chris Squire-esque way. The vocals by Froberg are pleasantly performed, with some nice harmonies but something is missing…the melodies aren’t just as catchy as they should be. I think it’s an odd choice of phrasing that really sours me. One of the great things about the classic prog bands was their inherent ability to write catchy material that stuck in your head for weeks. Next up is a instrumental section which is straight from Genesis’ Foxtrot era, complete with tasteful playing and great dynamics. A brief vocal reprise ushers in more instrumental fireworks, especially in the drum department. The song concludes with a final verse and chorus revisit. Overall, it moves quickly for a 13 minute song and is very “major” and is a sprightly opening track. BK: The Flower Kings in self-referential, meta mode. “Is this the beginning of the end…or just the end of the beginning?” “Play that song just one more time.” The big thing is, this almost sounds like playing that song one more time. By this point, The Flower Kings have a formula, and they are successful with it. Epic keyboards, positive sounds, major keys, lengthy tracks with long instrumental workouts…this is almost symphonic prog by numbers. One can’t say that this isn’t competently done…perhaps even expertly crafted. But that’s the thing…it feels crafted. I don’t feel the same kind of emotion that I heard in tracks like “Church of Your Heart” or “Stardust We Are.” Hearing Roine and Hasse harmonising vocally is nice, and the ascending riff at 10:20 is nice and very Yes-like, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. “Love Is The Answer” BK: The obligatory TFK epic. It can’t be a Flower Kings album without a twenty-plus minute epic, and “Love is the Only Answer” fills that position on The Sum of No Evil. Roine takes lead vocals out of the box, with a fairly restrained, laid back arrangement behind him. The vibe is slow, typical TFK ballad territory in many ways. Again, the song just feels and sounds like a TFK composition by numbers…cosmic references, vaguely positive lyrical philosophising, and enough sugary sweet keyboards and guitars to give even the most jaded symphonic prog listener a serious case of aural diabetes. I do like the shift to heavier territory around 2:40 in, and for a time, it actually feels like we’re exploring darker ground than TFK normally do, but the sun shines through not long after, and as the clouds and darkness dissipate, everything is as bright and technicolour as ever. CP: The longest of all the tracks also, expectedly contains the widest variety of styles and influences. I detect some Zappa and a bit of the Transatlantic/Spock’s Beard in there amongst the usual Yes, Genesis and Beatles. I love the “heavy” section (starting around 2 and a half minutes in) for its Zappa styled breaks and overall cool/headbang factor. As usual with the FK’s the musicianship never disappoints. They truly show amazing prowess shifting from hard rock, to gentle symphonic pieces to jazz all within the same song. There in lies my main complaint with this piece. It doesn’t feel very coherent to me. It’s long for the sake of being long, ala some people’s feelings for Yes’ Tales record. The Transatlantic songs while long were coherent pieces that felt like one big track rather than cool parts and solos pasted together. The unfortunate thing for me is, I really love the individual parts and with some editing and arrangement changes, this epic could really shine. “Trading My Soul” CP: This odd ballad divides me. Roine’s affected voice and sparse instrumentation during the intro melts into a tremendous chorus section with wonderful piano and mellotron and vocals but Froberg. The next verse is sung by Roine and is more straightforward than the intro. I await the choruses and when it finally arrives I revel in its explosion of sound and emotion. Great bass work punctuates the track with subtle, yet critical melody. What also is wonderful about this track is the lack of noticeable outside (read: Yes & Genesis) influences and style. Probably my favorite from the album. BK: Can it be? A Flower Kings song under 10 minutes in length? Say it’s not so! Actually, TFK have a number of solid sub 10-minute tracks in their CV…they’re just overpowered by all the massive 20 to 60 minute epics that are scattered a few here and there on every album. Here the band checks out some more blues based musical areas, to fairly good effect. Restrained by a shorter song length, we have far less playing for the sake of playing, and instrumental sections are designed more for the song than anything else. Where many people find Roine to be a weaker singer, I find myself enjoying the vaguely Wetton-esque tone to some of his work (the first time I heard him sing, on “In The Eyes of the World,” I swore I was hearing a lost Wetton track), and I like his vocals here. His soloing is nice as well, with lots of bent note blues influence dripping through. Honestly, this is probably my favourite track on The Sum of No Evil. “The Sum Of No Reason” CP: This mid-length tune starts off slowly and quietly, using some interesting production effects on the drums especially, setting an ominous tone. The Sum then moves into a more aggressive section with some great lead work from Roine. Time and feel changes abound, keeping the listener on their toes. A total Zappa-esque use of marimba and sax add depth to the riff-dominated section. The Zappa influence continues with the solo section of marimba and layered sounds. A tremendously cool Zoltan drumming performance holds this song together. He moves effortlessly between pseudo-latin, metal and an almost ambient electronica feel, really pushing the song along. The songs ending section is full of the Zappa-isms like distored vocals, quick musical breaks and extremely dense, multi layered instrumentation. The harmonized vocals somehow rise above the fray and add a nice touch to the music. This song is the one of the strongest on the disc and keeps you locked in for it’s entire 13 minutes. BK: TFK remains a little laid back at the beginning of this piece, but a minute twenty in, guitars are crunching (Froberg) and wailing (Stolt), keyboards are risking critical mass (Bodin), and the rhythm section is pulsing (Reingold) and attempting to hit as many percussion instruments at one time as possible (Csorsz). There’s a definite vintage vibe here, with Bodin’s choice of organ patch, combined with some tasty Moog, taking the listener back to the early 1970’s. There’s a bunch of elements here that could have built an interesting piece (some of the instrumental breaks…especially the one that starts at 5:10, which actually got me to bopping my head and bouncing in my seat…offer a freshness I’ve not necessarily heard from this band in 10 years), but pasted together, layered one atop the other, the end result is stereotypical Flower Kings mid-length symphonic epic. Next track, please. “Flight 999 Brimstone” BK: Roosters. Is this “Chicken Farmer Song” redux? No, not really. Listening to the opening, I’m sure I have heard this song before. I’m not just saying this to be trite. It really does sound like another Flower Kings song…I just can’t figure out which one it is. Having said this…this is an enjoyable quick paced rocking instrumental, and at a practically single length for the Flower Kings (5:10), it says what it has to say without overstaying its welcome. Many of my favourite TFK songs are among their shorter pieces, and while it’s really very early to say if this will join those, it’s got the potential to. Hasse Bruniusson (founder member Samla Mammas Manna) can be heard all over this track, and his insanity helps to take this piece to another level. I wish he were more than just a frequent guest… CP: The beat that leads into this peculiar instrumental sets you up for the freight train to come. Quirky, warbling synths shimmy their way over cartoon-esque backing tracks in a frantic dance. I guess this does sound like the title (albeit turned upside-down); a flight to hell. Or a descent to madness. The drum solo reminds me of the frenzied guitar solo in Yes’ “Sound Chaser” in its structure and pace. A treat for drummers, Flight 999 is an interesting and extremely difficult to play piece. “Life In Motion” CP: The closing track starts off with some “Close To The Edge”-esque sound effects and quickly mutates into a post-Gabriel era Genesis number. The verses are reserved and filled with some of the most catchy vocals on this album. The choruses also exhibit restraint and taste over wacky instrumentation and overplaying. More genesis sounding synths dominate the early portion of this track. However, the tones are used in an original sounding fashion. The track moves along at a mid-tempo pace until a beautiful and soulful guitar solo occurs, taking this track to a very serene place. Echoes of “And You And I” fill the solo with Roine’s use of a slide. This piece has a very spiritual feeling to it, begging us to live our lives to the fullest and explore all that is out there. A soaring chorus crashes like waves, only to have the water recede to a beautiful and peaceful ending, gently lapping at the shore. A great album closer for sure! BK: The final track on The Sum of No Reason. Amazingly, we started this trip over an hour ago. And there’s still nearly a quarter hour to go. Read just about any other track review above (save perhaps for “Flight 999 Brimstone Air”), and you could probably copy it here, nearly word for word, and have it be applicable here. I know that I’ll catch a lot of flack for this, and I fully realise that my criticism doesn’t amount to much more than enough loose change to pick up a cup of coffee at WaWa (or 7-11 or your local convenience store of choice), but…The wrapping paper may look a little different, but in the end, the music hews close to the same general sound. Not groundbreaking, not pushing any boundaries, a perfectly adequate song on a perfectly adequate album that won’t win new fans, won’t push away old fans, and does very little to instill any belief that anything changes for this band. Play this after Retropolis…or Back in the World of Adventure…or Unfold the Future…and I doubt you could pick up any differences. Some call this consistency. I call it stagnation. IN CONCLUSION: CP: My overall feeling about this CD is that I really, really want to like it a lot more than I do. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find it to be terrible; there are some really strong songs on this record as well as some absolutely monstrous playing. However, I think that some of the songs are too long for their own good and they’d benefit from some editing and restraint. Some of the vocal melodies were lacking, possibly chalked up to odd phrasing, but when they fit and worked, it was magical. I also understand that the group was trying to channel their elder prog influences but sometimes they reached back, grabbed huge chunks of sound and threw it into pro tools. This is a very interesting record, sort of a prog rock time machine and I think maybe one day it will click with me…I hope so! BK: I have no say over what the Flower Kings do musically. Their fans, not that any of them know me, are probably happier that way. Because if I had my say, I’d make the following suggestions/decisions: 1) Take a year off from recording. No more album a year. 2) Hire an outside producer, one with enough force to make production decisions, not simply act as an engineer. 3) Limit the album length to no more than 60 minutes. 45 to 50 minutes would be superb. The end result may be an astonishing failure…but at least it will be astonishing, rather than a rehashing of what has come before. Band Members: Zoltan Csorsz: Drums Hasse Froberg: Voice & guitars Tomas Bodin: Keyboards Jonas Reingold: Bass & voice Roine Stolt: leadguitar & voice