KARMAKANIC & THE AGENTS OF MERCY - THE POWER OF TWO

Two worlds, two politicians (signifying President Nixon and President Mao sketched on the cover) and two bands shakin' hands, great symbiosis with bigger emphasis put on the better. These are the words best describing this unique performance between the two bands belonging in the Flower Kings family, having recorded live in California, USA. While I'm not a big fan of Agents of Mercy, the musicians performing in the group are undoubtedly great and talented, I definitely prefer the music of Karmakanic, which is more wanton than Agents of Mercy's neo-prog tendecies in music. The songs here can be apostrofised as being cut into sections on the disc having the first three coming from AOM's Fading Ghosts and the others from Karmakanic's second and third discs. The songs Afterglow and the Solo are new brats from the same-mixed vein, so to say. The performers are also mixed from both groups with Nick D'Virgilio known very well in the prog world recruited among them. The sounding of the album is superb as well as the way instruments sounded, with prefect artistic balance on the keyboards and guitars. Göran Edman's vocal style and voice-lines are in their best shape as always, and there's no complaint filed against the lenght of songs either. Where the Earth meets the Sky and Eternally (with the heartbreaking introduction) are endlessly beautiful even under the most rigorous lense, true heart and sonic embrace of life is there everywhere. This album would be characterised as excellent addition if all the songs were as so beautiful as the two ones mentioned.

Reposted here from the Agents Of Mercy listing:

This is a pretty accurate document of the Agents of Mercy/Karmakanic "Power Of Two" tour from the fall of 2009. This band was amazing. The Agents Of Mercy material seems to have much more impact here in the live setting compared to the album proper. So if you felt The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight was a little too lightweight, you might find yourself seeing those songs in a new light upon hearing this.

Karmakanic sounds like....Karmakanic. Complex, melodic, symphonic music played with great skill. The musicians for both bands are the same. Nad Sylvan performed lead vocals for Agents Of Mercy and Göran Edman sang on the Karmakanic material...each singer also did backup vocals for the other as needed.

The presence of Nick D'Virgilio on drums really brings another aspect of interest as he doesn't play on the albums and pulled this off with just a few hours of full band rehearsal just prior to the tour. With that in mind, his performance is really mind-boggling.

The one slight letdown here is that Agent's Of Mercy's "A Different Sun" was not included. The solo by Lalle Larsson was intense and the interplay between Lalle and NDV (not to mention the rest of the band) was truly stunning (at least at the Boston show).

Interesting live album of the combining tour of Karmakanic and The Agents of Mercy. The musicians are the same on all tunes, the only varying factor is the lead vocals spot (Nad Sylvan for the AOM parts and Göran Edman for the Karmakanic material, although it seems they both participate on each other songs as backing vocalists). There are three songs from the first Agests of Mercy CD, three by Karmakanic, an instrumental solo track by keyboards player Lalle Larsson and a Genesis cover (Afterglow) sung, obviously, by Sylvan. The album has strong and weak points.

The good parts are clearly the brilliance of all musicians involved, truly masters of their instruments and proven artists by their own merits for a long time, the excellent production and the live sound recording, absolutely perfect. The weak parts lie on the songs selection and the fact that the CD is only a single disc (too little room for too much talent). The three Agents Of Mercy tunes: I really didn´t like that Nad Sylvan/Roine Stolt project, at least not much of their debut. It looked too much like just another Genesis influenced stuff that was more interested in working Peter Gabirel´s former group whimsical side than to try to replicated their beautiful melodies. However, I must say that at least two songs (Heroes And Beacons and Jesus On The Barricades) came across much batter here than on their studio counterparts. Roine Stolt´s guitar on the former is specially moving.

The Karmakanic tracks are the big disappointment here: that side project from The Flower Kings bass player Jonas Reingold has much better stuff to present than the three tracks they performed here. Not that Where Earth Meets The Sky (the best one), Do You Tango and Eternally are bad tracks. They are good, but I was really expecting them to perform their tryully great stuff like Send A Message From The Heart or Entering The Spectra or any other of their better work. Maybe I was expecting too much for them to perform such long and complex epics, but since they proved they were more than capable of doing exactly that on their other projects (like Transatlantic playing the entire 78 minute Whirlwind suite live on their last tour), the tracklist provided here is rather frustrating. Besides the inclusion of a drum solo and a keyboards solo in a single CD for two bands take precious running time from what could be at least a couple of good songs instead. I don´t know anybody who really like those explicit displays of technique to be recorded for posterity other than the musicians themselves (and even then, not all of them).

In the end it´s good to see those seasoned players do a good cover of Genesis Afterglow.

Conclusion: considering the amazing talents reunited here, this is a rather disappointing CD. The incredible musicanship and performance of all involved, the excellent sound quality and some good tracks saved this album from being a failure. Still, I´m not convinced that this is the best those bands can give to audience in a concert. For such great names involved, it doesn´t show as much power as the title of the album suggests. Karmakanic specially still owe us a ´real´ live album. Three stars.