For Flower Kings fans 2007 will without doubt be viewed in years to come as a “vintage harvest”. Earlier in the year the band released “The Road Back Home” a double CD retrospective of their career together so far. Rather than just pick some of the “juicy” bits from their extensive back catalogue Roine Stolt remastered, re-mixed, re-recorded parts, included different vocal performances, new and extended guitar solos and an unreleased track. The end result felt like a completely new album and songs which were familiar to fans now sounded even more vibrant thanks to Roine's loving attention (which deserves the affectionate term of Pixie Dust).

Following closely on the heels of this release it was revealed that the band had a new album in the pipeline which would be released before the year was out and while we waited the band gave away live downloads on their MySpace site and booked a tour for Europe for the latter part of the year.

Well the new album is now with us entitled “The Sum Of No Evil” and, before going into more detail, I can reveal it is simply breathtaking. Being asked to review the album left me in some trepidation and even more so after listening to it as I was left with the feeling that I might not be equipped with the right words to describe it. Hopefully that statement will impart to you how special this release is.

The album was originally going to be called simply “Love” but Roine got wind that The Beatles had an album coming out with the same name so he began to think of ways to describe love in a different way and came up with “The Sum Of No Evil”. The more you think about it the more it makes perfect sense and in the big picture of things is perfectly in keeping with the Flower Kings ethos.

To describe the approach to the new album I’ll quote Roine .”There are way too many dark serious and melodramatic bands out there; we wanted to be the colourful, friendly alternative. You could describe this album as Flower Kings to the max. We wanted to make a real hardcore symphonic rock and prog’ album. We took away all the pop, jazz and experimental or ambient stuff and concentrated on the pure prog that we do best. To make this a real trip for the prog rock fans we have worked in a studio that specializes in 60’s and 70’s vintage recording equipment, plus we used lots of real vintage analogue keyboards, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and grand pianos plus lots of Mini Moog and old tube amplifiers for the guitars.

The album consists of just six tracks two of which in keeping with Flower Kings tradition clock in at over eighteen minutes. These mini epics allow the band to develop melodies and themes in a way that other bands can only dream of.

The opening track “One More Time” opens with some truly glorious keyboard (very Tony Banks of Genesis circa “And Then There Were Three” and “Duke”). Jonas bass is punchy and vibrant and in his own indomitable way he manages to perfectly accompany the music but also provide his own melodies to compliment everything around him. Roine's guitar skips and dances between the chords and joins hands with the keyboard melody to take us on our first musical journey of the album. When Hasse Froberg enters with his lead vocal the arrangement is cut right back and as a result his gloriously pure yet rocky voice gets the listeners attention. In classic Flower Kings fashion the song is riddled with intriguing melodies and rhythms. Roine's first solo of the album is wonderful, it has an Allan Holdsworth vibe to it and also a gorgeous breathy quality (without doubt Roine has slowly defined his own lead guitar sound). The song has some great use of rhythmic interplay which brought to mind Focus and if one listens carefully there is an almost morse code pattern which the drums and bass take turns in tossing back and forth. It’s playful music making at its most sublime. Lyrically the song had me feeling that the Flower Kings are declaring firmly that with the music they are playing now they are really at home and back to their roots. Towards the end of the track Zoltan Csorsz plays some crazy drum fills and had this reviewer in “air drum heaven”.

The next track is “Love Is The Only Answer” and at nigh on twenty-five minutes it’s the albums central epic prog’ tour de force. The song is melodically exquisitely beautiful. Roine and Hasse sing in harmony for a lot of this track and they sound fantastic. There are tremendous shifts in light and dark to the music and Roine shows that he can rock with the best of them with his muscular riffing and dazzling flurries of notes. Orchestration plays a major part in this track and gives the music a wonderful wide and big sound. At about the five minute mark Roine delivers a cool guitar solo which with Tomas Bodin’s keyboards develops into a great ride which when backed up by Jonas fast and nippy bass playing had me thinking we were back in the seventies and listening to Weather Report. At the nine minute mark there is one of the gentlest musical patterns the Flower Kings have come up with in their career so far. It is almost Caribbean and I must be honest I would have loved them to have developed it a bit more as I really took a shine to it. Within no time the band are off and running at full tilt doing what they do so well firing off melodies and patterns at will. The tempo goes up and the music gets wilder and more intense and for prog music lovers the end result is very satisfying. Somehow the band manages to steer the song back to how it started and still leave room for Roine to deliver and outstanding play out guitar solo.

“Trading My Soul” is a real slow burn track. It opens with one of Roine's affected but intimate vocal lines with sparse accompaniment. Hasse brings in his vocal line and the band slowly joins together. The rhythm of the song had me imagining that I was floating through space and looking down on earth. It is supremely melodic and Roine's guitar is sweet and at times so pure you can almost hear the air in his amp moving around. The track builds towards a great guitar solo and shows Roine currently is “on fire” as he weaves wonderful lines throughout the music.

“The Sum Of No reason” opens with music that displays fabulous tones and textures to the keyboards and gives the track an almost trippy vibe. As the track gets moving the band supply some of their heaviest playing on the album and at times the upward guitar riff gives off a claustrophobic like vibe. It’s like being on a ride that you can’t get off. Tomas provides some dazzling keyboard lines to this song that go by like shooting stars and show him to be at the top of his game. The end of the song sees the band all going for it together and creating a tremendously loose and yet tight jam like feel.

“Flight 999 Brimstone Air” opens with a chicken having a good squawk. (I remember Tomas having a lot of fun with this when the band played Rotherham on their “Unfold The Future” leg.). This track is a very wild and crazy instrumental and shows the Flower Kings haven’t lost their love of doing the unexpected. I can see this track transferring to the live environment with ease as at a gig the band could take this anywhere they wanted. Zoltan is one of the stars of this track and shows he has some of the scariest chops in the drum world.

“Life In Motion” is the final track on the album. It’s an uplifting and spirited track that once again sees Tomas showing off his keyboard chops with devastating effect. At about the eight minute mark Roine plays a beautiful guitar solo. You can hear him digging into the string and plucking away with glee. His tone is woody and earthy and so natural before he moves onto some lovely slide passages. As Hasse sings “it’s like coming home again” I was left in no doubt that the Flower Kings are definitely back in their spiritual musical homeland of lush and creative progressive rock.

Flower Kings fans will rejoice at this release as it shows the band creatively are currently making some of the finest music of their career so far. It has the spirit of their earlier albums such as “Retropolis”, ”Stardust We Are” and “Flower Power”. For the fans who may have been wondering if the band would ever get back to capturing the sense of musical wonder that was so prevalent on those albums “The Sum Of No Evil” delivers in proverbial bucket loads. Further listens reveal this album to be more impressive on each play and that’s quite an achievement when you look at their back catalogue.

If you’re quick there is a limited edition pack of this album featuring three new tracks and two videos and I have to say it shouldn’t be missed. Watching the videos is fascinating especially the shots of the studio that show an Aladdin’s cave of instruments.

I have no reservations as to awarding this album the full ten points, as it truly is a marvelous and wonderful achievement. It is one the best progressive albums to come along for a very long while and deserves every praise that is will hopefully receive. If I could hand out Oscars this album would sweep the board. For anyone who thinks progressive rock is a dying genre or is becoming swamped with bands playing things too dark and too heavy pick this album up and rejoice.

Let us know your views on The Sum Of No Evil

 Track Listing

One More Time
Love Is The Only Answer
Trading My Soul
The Sum Of No Reason
Flight 999 Brimstone Air
Life In Motion

Line Up

Roine Stolt - Vocals/Guitar
Tomas Bodin - Keyboards
Hasse Fröberg - Vocals/Acoustic Guitar
Jonas Reingold - Bass
Zoltan Csörsz - Drums
Hasse Bruniusson - Percussion