TOUR KAPUTT

I got this at an Agents of Mercy show, for a good price, and I'm so glad to have this document of their last tour to date (with no real word on whether or not there will ever be anything else from them).

I'll start with the one drawback to this album for me. Hasse Froberg's vocals. I normally find this guy quite good, and on the Instant Delivery DVD he is incredible. Here though, at least for the first few songs, it seems like he is struggling to hit notes and maybe his voice is a bit worn out from the tour. I don't know what it is, but it was noticeable to me from the very beginning. However, he does improve as the show goes on, and even early on it doesn't really detract from the enjoyment for me.

The Sum Of No Evil was one of their best albums, being something of a symphonic assault as Roine had decided to "get back to the basics" of their sound, so to speak and focus on the extended symphonic pieces. It worked very well for me, and it's wonderful to hear almost the entire album (minus the opening track, One More Time, sadly) in live format since I wasn't able to see any of the shows for that tour.

Aside from the minor vocal issue I mentioned, the music is fantastic. I had been a little skeptical of Pat Mastelotto being on the drum stool, but I shouldn't have worried. He does an excellent job, slotting in somewhere between Zoltan and Salazar in his approach. I still would have preferred Zoltan, but being that I always felt he was the perfect FK's drummer, that isn't surprising. All things considered though, Pat Mastelotto does an outstanding job.

The set list is excellent, featuring some of my favorites along with the new material, with Hudson River Sirens Call being the most interesting addition, continuing the tradition of taking rather obscure instrumentals from older albums and expanding them into jams that are very different from the original album presentation. In this case it's a total success, with Roine giving a stellar performance on this one. Across the whole album Roine is in excellent form, as is Reingold and Bodin.

All in all, a live album every Flower Kings fan should own, especially if you love the last album. I don't normally give live albums 5 stars, and this is no exception, but easily a solid 4 stars, maybe even inching up on 4.5.

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