Review Summary: Extremely solid power metal.
Kamelot is currently one of the top names in power metal. Ask everyone about a recent power metal classic and fans will inevitably point towards 2005's excellent The Black Halo as one of the best recent releases in this style. What people usually don't know about Kamelot is for how long they've been going. They may have peaked with the Black Halo, but that is like, their 7th studio album. They've been making power metal for longer than that, but their first four releases (up until the Fourth Legacy) went mainly unnoticed and for good reason as the first two were without illustrious frontman Roy Khan, and Siege Perilous is a dreary power metal affair.
But with Karma, the band really came into their own for the first time. Khan's vocal range takes this album to new heights, with its soaring choruses and expertly sung slower passages. Khan uses his higher range more on this album than on the later ones: The Black Halo and Ghost Opera would see him expand into his lower range as well, finally establishing him as one of the premiere prog/power metal singers. Here, he restricts himself to higher-range vocals and the occasional falsetto, but he doesn't sound screechy like most other power metal bands: it's more comparable to a power metal version of Russell Allen than a lower-ranged Timo Kotipelto or Michael Kiske.
The music sounds eerily like Sonata Arctica and Nightwish's early material, hinging very much on the European school of power metal. After Regalis Apertura, a classically-influenced opening, the band storms out of the gates with Forever, introducing a supreme lead melody and the high-speed double bass whacks this style of music is famous for. The band then drops off song after song with a winning chorus, Wings of Despair being the second highlight and Across the Highlands also is an example of how to play that old Helloween-style power metal properly.
However, Kamelot are still best when they aren't playing the standard power metal stuff. The title track continues an ongoing Middle-Eastern theme the band have going on (See also: Nights of Arabia, Edge of Paradise, etc..), and the closing epic Elizabeth (divided into three tracks on the record but very much one continuous piece) show Kamelot's gift for making songs crescend and decrescend rather than battering away monotonously: part 1 is a slow ballad-esque part (and Khan's vocals on this are sumptuous), part two is more mid-paced, in the vein of Ghost Opera songs and the last part is just full out power metal. Of course it's pretentious, but the thing is, even with the over-the-top sound and the fantasy lyrics about Queen Elizabeth Bathory, Khan keeps you mesmerized during the song: his vocals drive every minute of this song.
The only problem are the ballads. Don't You Cry may be written about guitarist Thomas Youngblood's father, but it's fully acoustic and it's also boring. Temples of Gold is the other one and it too, is exceedingly dull. Kamelot would later refine their hand with these kinds of songs (Abandoned/Love you to Death, anyone?), but the slower songs disrupt the flow of the album and they serve as snoozy interludes between all the hyper-frantic power metal going on in other portions of the album.
You could say Kamelot still haven't reached the pinnacle of their songwriting here, and no, they haven't. They were to become even better. But almost every song on this is really well written (short, to the point, rousing choruses), and Khan's gift for carrying a song is nearly unparallelled. If you hanker for some good power metal songs, but don't like the over-the-top epic progressive tendencies of bands like Rhapsody or can't stand those nauseating high-pitched vocals, this is the album for you. One of Kamelot's worthier releases.
