For many years, this Floridian band have fascinated their fans with melodic power metal, vocalist Roy Khan's operatic voice and Thomas Youngblood's powerful guitar work. With drummer Casey Grillo and bassist Glenn Barry, the band's work keeps getting better.
Kamelot was formed in 1991 by guitarist Thomas Youngblood and drummer Richard Warner in 1991, but their first release was not until 1995. They signed a record contract in '94 and released Eternity in '95. What can I say? This album is truly magnificent. With blistering guitar and solid drumming, it was the debut from heaven. But as good as Eternity was, there were better albums ahead.
1996 saw the release of Dominion, an even better album than Eternity. This album was much more diverse, with each track being a huge hit. But once again, there was a big change in store for Kamelot. In '97, Kamelot picked up Roy Khan's magnificent vocals and Casey Grillo's drum skills, giving the next album a promising success. Siege Perilous. Siege Perilous spawned the biggest Kamelot tour yet, with the new line-up having incredible "chemistry" together on stage, and becoming great friends in the process. This tour lasted for 1 year, resulting in huge success on spreading the word about themselves. Then came The Fourth Legacy, a great CD that unfortunately didn't seem to gain enough attention from America.
Finally, a live album. The Expedition took up listeners on an amazing journey into one of Kamelot's concerts. Sweet. Karma and Epica came in the new millennium, both being two of their bigger CDs, Epica being my favorite of the two. For both these albums they embarked on a huge European tour, spreading from Germany to Spain. And now the time has come.
Enter, The Black Halo. What else can you say about The Black Halo other than that it is their most impressive CD yet? They have taken a different root in this hit, going away from Power-Metal and into Progressive-Metal. And yes, it was definitely for the better. The Black Halo features cameos from Shagrath and Stratovarius' amazing keyboardist Jens Johannson, both adding incredibly atmosphere to this awe-inspiring album. Who knows what lies in the future for Kamelot...And now to the review! Yay! I will focus on the tracks I found to represent the albums sound the best, and my personal favorites.
March of Mephisto
This song features Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir singing as Mephisto, and was the CDs second single and video. This is a very prog-metal type song. This song opens up with a march leading into the chorus with pounding guitars and great orchestral sounds. The chorus cuts off into the first verse, where Khan comes in with his best performance yet. The verses are mainly drums and vocals. It cuts into another chorus, then into another verse. Then comes the interlude. The interlude is a nice little Khan solo, and then it goes into a great solo by Jens from Stratovarius. It goes into another chorus, and then the song ends. A very powerful song. This is one of my favorites off of the CD. 4.5/5
Abandoned
Soothing piano? Ahh.... This is one of the most beautiful songs ever. Even if you don't like Kamelot, listen to this song. It's so melodic and heavy at the same time, the first half of the song being the melodic part, whilst the second half is melodic and heavy. It starts getting heavier around the 3:00 mark, and it still remains beautiful. This song is so full of emotion, I could cry. Reminds me of 3 Libras by A Perfect Circle. They don't sound anything alike, but they both have the emotion/heaviness to each song. 5/5
Moonlight
Ahh... more soothing piano. This song has the greatest intro ever. It?s sort of Japanese like. Once the intro is over, it breaks into one of my favorite riffs ever. It has the best pre-choruses and choruses ever. They?re so good while still being melodic. Once again, this song has Khan completely destroying all of his past vocals. This is the best song on the CD, along with March of Mephisto. 5/5
The Black Halo
Great opener for this track. The entire band is very powerful on this song. It makes you want to get up and break stuff, plus the chorus is overwhelmingly amazingly incredible. I like it that much. This is a very easy song to get into. I could listen to it over and over and over all day long for the rest of my life. It has really good drumming too, which is a definite plus. 4.5/5
Memento Mori
Epic. At 9:00 minutes, this is the longest song Kamelot have ever written. I can't explain in words how beautiful and good this song is, so you'll have to listen yourself. This song once again features Shagrath on vocals. At about 2:12 it gets completely orgasmic. It features pretty much everything I could want in a great song. Beautiful vocals, shredfests, climaxes, etc. It shows you pretty much everything that is on this album, sort of like an overture. It starts out with an Abandoned-esque intro, works into Mephisto, etc. Best song on the CD, may be one of the best Kamelot has ever written. 6/5
Serenade
The intro to this song is very reminiscent of the Great Fairy Fountains in Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time. This is a very dark and angsty song at some parts, but not in a bad way. It's a very standard Kamelot song for this CD, with pounding guitar and drums and operatic vocals. A pretty good song, but not that good of a closer to a kickass CD. Great song overall, though.4/5
Pros
Guitars
Shagrath and Khan
Jens's Solos
Great song format
Memento Mori
Kickass album art!
Cons
More bass!
Mediocre drumming.
Unnecessary interludes.
Nothing Ever Dies
It gets a 9 out of 10 on my ass kicking chart.
4.5/5
Credits -
Current Line-up
Roy Khan: Vocals
Thomas Youngblood: Guitars
Glenn Barry: Bass
Casey Grillo: Drums&Percussion
All songs written by Kamelot.
Keyboards and orchestral arrangements - Miro
Additional guitars - Sascha Paeth
Keyboards solos on "March of Mephisto" and "When the Lights Are Down" - Jens Johansson
Mephisto character on "March of Mephisto" and "Memento Mori" - Shagrath (Courtesy of Nuclear Blast)
Cabaret singer on "Un Assassinio Molto Silenzioso" - Cinzia Rizzo
Marguerite character on "The Haunting" - Simone Simons (Courtesy of Transmission Records)
The Usher at the Theater and Mayor of Gatesville - Geoff Rudd
Helena character on "Memento Mori" and "Abandoned" - Mari
Baby Alena on "Soul Society" - Annelise Youngblood
D-bass on "Abandoned" - Andre Neygenfind
Oboe on "Memento Mori" - Wolfgang Dietrich
Rodenberg Symphony Orchestra
Kamelot Choir: Herbie Langhans, Amanda Somerville-Scharf, Michael Rodenberg, Gerit G?, Thomas Rettke and Elisabeth Kjaernes
But now you probably know that 
