I did at one point have a big fascination for Roine Stolt, Thomas Bodin and The Flower Kings, and did at one point even run a tribute site for the band. Albums like 'Stardust we are' and 'Flower Power' marked the highlight of their career for me, and gave me great pleasure back then. And even though the following albums all had a lot of fascinating material, I somehow felt that they had covered all the bases, and had become a bit stale.

To call a progressive rock band stale might be a contradiction in terms, but I never quite felt the same sensation when I put on an album like 'Paradox Hotel' or 'Unfold the Future'. 'The Sum of No Evil' is an album, which brings back some of the fascination of The Flower Kings. The album has hints of their earlier albums, first and foremost an album like 'Retropolis' comes to mind when I listen to this one.

Traditional 70's prog is the name of the game, and the vision they had early on of atmospheric and multi-faceted timeless prog rock is back. The trademarks of epic songs with a lot of prog-fusion parts combined with big symphonic parts all wrapped in a traditional old school sound are brought back, and this is their best album in many years.

The sound and style is still 100% Roine Stolt, but the style and sound on this album has been cut into the bone, and there's almost no room for more experimental like ambient and jazz, which has had a big part of their sound on the previous albums.

They have written one of the best songs in a very long time in "One More Time", and the fans of big epic epos get their satisfaction in "Love is the Only Answer", and the instrumental "Flight 999 Brimstone Air" is even for The Flower Kings an unusual piece of experimental rock.

'The Sum of no Evil' is a step in the right direction for me as a long time fan of the band. The Kings are back in good shape doing what they do best; play symphonic prog rock with roots in the 70's.