The Flower Kings, Chapter 10: The Sum Of No Evil

10) The Sum of No Evil (2007)

It's like coming home, coming home again...

Confession time! When this album came out, I didn't like it very much. When I went to see the band on their subsequent tour, it was a very dissappointing experience. In fact, I retroactively started to like Adam & Eve and Paradox Hotel less and less and felt the band was on a downward curve. After all these disappointments, I was done with The Flower Kings for a while. And I wasn't the only one: it turns out The Flower Kings were done with The Flower Kings for a while – but more on that later. The Sum of No Evil was, relatively sepaking, a commercially succesful album. It got some extravagantly glowing reviews but some real stinkers as well. It remains one of TFK's more controversial releases.

Of course, during the previous decade, the band steadily climbed the ranks from “obscure” to “cult” to “well-known” to “famous”, and by 2007, they counted as “legendary” among prog afficionadoes. Once your status has reached such lofty heights, everything you release is put under a magnifying glass, and it becomes impossible to please all of your fans.

So now, more than ten years on, what do I make of The Sum Of No Evil? Now that my initial disappointment has waned and I can listen to it again with fresh ears, how does it hold up?

Actually, it holds up really well! It's a lot better than I remember it being. It's certainly a lot more traditional than Paradox Hotel and Adam & Eve, and Unfold The Future for that matter. No silly pop songs, jazz jams, vampire operas or metal riffs on this album. It's pure, distilled prog in the best Topographic Oceans tradition, full of nods to the '60's and '70's. Now, I happen to think all the offbeat escapades are part of what makes The Flower Kings fun, but it is refreshing to hear the band bring things back to basics, as it were.

Speaking of which...

In terms of line-up, young Marcus Liliequist has left the band again after barely two years to seek other challenges, and the prodigal son Zoltán Csörsz has agreed to help out his old mates One More Time, as it were. He remains the best drummer The Flower Kings have ever had, and he is an important reason why this album ultimately succeeds.

This album is the polar opposite of Paradox Hotel. If that album revelled in leaving traditional flowery prog as far behind as Roine dared and made the shorter songs the main course, The Sum once again puts the long pieces at the forefront, of which it has four. If the songs on Paradox Hotel mostly rested on one singe hook or musical idea, the pieces on The Sum are among TFK's most complex, sometimes unforgivingly so. If Paradox Hotel would serve as easy listening to the most casual of progressive music fans, The Sum is a challenging piece of music for even the diehard progaholic.

That isn't to say it isn't lighthearted as usual. The Sum might in fact be TFK's most optimistic album to date. As a matter of fact, it was originally going to be called simply Love, had not Cirque du Soleil beat them to it by releasing a Beatles compilation bearing that very title earlier that year. Roine figured that “Love” and “the sum of no evil” basically meant the same thing. Roine was never one to shy away from the big themes, but this album in particular is meant to be his ultimate mission statement: Love is the only answer. Let's all hold hands and be excellent to each other. Hippie stuff, which is reflected in the cute artwork.

The music itself isn't so much a throwback to the progressive music of the '70's as it is about the progressive music of the '70's. No actual '70's piece sounds as nostalgic and sentimental as “One More Time” does, a song that pines for the hippie days of old. Filled to the brim with vintage keyboard sounds, it really sets the mood that Roine must have been going for: a warm bath for all those who, as it were, were “there in the beginning”. Although it has an instantly hummable chorus, “One More Time” is a very rich and complex musical piece that feels longer than it actualy is (and it's pretty long to begin with) because it's just so chock full of music. Vintage Flower Kings.

Then, without warning, the mega-epic starts at track two. “Love Is The Only Answer” is 24 minutes long and really makes you feel it. So what is “Love” the only answer to, then? Mostly to “Monsters and Men”, by the sound of it. It is no secret that Roine – much like myself – was no great fan of his previous attempt at a side-filling rock symphony, and the new one is almost the perfect antithesis to “Monsters and Men”. “Monsters”, in its defence, was rigidly structured and easy to follow with its three-act structure, but lacking in exciting dynamics, and just a little bit dull. “Love” is none of these things. It goes completely the other way. It's a wild, unruly thing. It's not so much a rock symphony as a crazy stream of conciousness that goes all over the map seemingly at random.

It takes a long time for this song to work. It doesn't really take off until a minute or five in, but after that point, it's basically an unstoppable barrage of one frantic theme after the other, sometimes dark and aggressive, sometimes manically happy. When it's over, it leaves the listener in utter confusion. What was all that about?

Of course, this mad journey through Cloudcukooland takes the listener to some damn entertaining places. Wallander's saxpohone adds a world of melody, in fact, I think this may be the best work he's ever done for this band. Zoltán's drumming is fantastic throughout. It just takes many listens before it all sinks in, and it will probably remain a challenging listen even then. At least it's never boring, and I'll certainly take it over “Monsters and Men” any day.

“Trading My Soul” is a bit of a downer. It's the shorter piece at the halfway point. As expected, it's a ballad which brings things down a notch before the prog breaks loose again. Although it's a good enough song in its own right, I think it doesn't function too well within the context of the album: it should be a breather, but its mood and subject matter are a little too heavy and depressing to really be that. So I tend to skip it, which is probably unfair to it, but it just doesn't fit the album's flow. Great guitar solo though.

Every TFK album has at least one song I completely love with no reservations, and on this one, it's “The Sum of No Reason”. This one brings a harder edge to the album, but mostly it's just a whole lot of fun. The verses are submerged in a warm bath of psychedelic synths, contrasting the angular and rocking main theme which also moves into blues and funk territory. Hasse Bruniusson shows up again on this track to give it his madcap blessing. One of the true late-career classics from The Flower Kings.

Above: Actual photo of Tomas Bodin's studio personnel.

“Flight 666 Brimstone Air” could only have sprung from the mind of mad genius Tomas Bodin. Filled to the brim with animal noises and other jokey sound effects, it's one of those crazy TFK instrumentals that you either love or hate. Mischievously, it deflates the tension set by the previous song. It doesn't fit the album's flow at all, it's like a kazoo solo in the middle of a symphony, but I can appreciate the audacity of it. It contains musical nods to “Circus Brimstone”, although this bit of slapstick isn't quite in the same league as that. Zoltán's drumming is once again on point.

Finally, “Life in Motion” gets to close the proceedings. Altough TFK's trademark “bookends” trick is absent from this album, this song does share a mood with “One More Time”, if none of the actual music. It's again an emotional, highly nostalgic piece, especially the finale. It's the most straightforwardly melodic piece on the album, not as busy or complex as the other long songs, something to tug at the heart strings. It's quite beautiful.

The Sum Of No Evil is homage, bordering on pastiche. But what is it a homage to? One thing I can't help but notice is the myriad ways this album references, not only the history of progressive rock, but the band's own history as well. I've found explicit nods, both in the lyrics and the music, to “The Flower King”, “There Is More To This World”, “Circus Brimstone” and “The Truth Will Set You Free”, and it wouldn't surprise me if there's some I've missed. Is this the past we're being nostalgic for? Are these the memories that are being brought back? Is this what we're coming home to?

What I'm left with is the impression that The Sum Of No Evil is a deliberate attempt to sound, not like Yes or Rush or Genesis, but like The Flower Kings. Let's face it: this isn't the band that made Stardust We Are anymore, and this album feels like an attempt to bring back some of the magic that was lost somewhere along the way. So, even though this album isn't particularly sad, it ends up feeling a little sad when you think about it.

But after all is said and done, The Sum Of No Evil is a beautiful and engaging prog album that really rewards repeat listening, and, while not my personal favourite, might just be Roine Stolt's crowning achievement in songwriting on a purely technical level. With his unmistakable goove, Zoltán is often the one to push it over the edge. I should also mention that it's one of the most emotional albums in the canon, which probably goes a long way toward explaining why the reactions to it were so mixed. You either feel it, or you don't.

Above: The most notable achievement of the Heden/Hammarström lineup

After the Tour of No Evil was over (and that is its own can of worms – see you next time), The Flower Kings announced their new six-man lineup. Their new drummer was Erik Hammarström, while jazz singer and pianist Ola Heden became the new third singer and extra instrumentalist. This lineup didn't record any albums and didn't go on any tours. They played a handful of one-off shows here and there during 2008 and 2009, but that was it. This lineup is more notable for the promo photo it took, which gets used everywhere, than for anything else it did.

After that, The Flower Kings quietly disappeared. Oh, the idividual members were busy as always. Jonas Reingold released his Karmakanic masterpiece Who's The Boss in the Factory in 2008, Tomas Bodin formed a new band called Eggs and Dogs (featuring TFK alumni Michael Stolt and Marcus Liliequist) and Hasse Fröberg formed his own solo band, called Hasse Fröberg and Musical Companion (or HFMC). Roine, when not touring with the reformed Transatlantic, teamed up with everybody's favourite vampire Nad Sylvan and formed Agents of Mercy, which toured with Karmakanic. But The Flower Kings themselves were gone, just like that. Would they ever return?

RATING: Three Existentialist Philosophers out of the Marvel universe

CHURCH ORGAN COUNT: Lots and lots. The finale to "Love Is The Only Aswer", all of "Flight 999 Brimstone Air" and the end of "Life in Motion". Coming home again, indeed.

BETTER 50 MINUTE VERSION:
One More Time
Love Is The Only Answer
The Sum Of No Reason
Life In Motion

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