Kamelot : "Dark Asylum"

The 14th album by the band finds them leaning further into conceptual grandiosity. With a bigger symphonic sound. Their last album The Awakening," was disappointing, as it was filled with melodramatic power ballads and only earned 7.5, which, considering what they have proven themselves capable of  is more of a letdown than that score might suggest. However, they are still at the top of the game for a genre that can get mired down in flowery layers of synths and orchestras.  The opening song "Ashen World  " is heavier. It features death metal vocalist Ignacia Fernandez, who created a bit of a buzz for winning Miss Chile. She is lower in the mix, so hard to get a grasp of her vocal power. The title track is too anthemic for its own good and the chord progressions feel too happy for my taste.  It compromises their brand and identity by sounding like everyone else.

In many ways, you can hear on "Sanctuary" how they are making many of the same mistakes Dream Theater did over the years by sounding more like something Andrew Lloyd Webber might have written, instead of making metal. Though this works better than the previous song. They redeem themselves a bit with "One Last Masquerade" . Tobias Sammet from Avantasia lends his voice; he sounds better than he has sounded on his band's albums, and these guys find more grit in the verse riffs. The chorus flirts with the kind of power metal cheese I am not a fan of, but overall the song balances out.  "Ivey, My Dear" finds them reverting to ballads; this one has almost more of a folk metal feel, emphasis on folk.It's ok for what it is but I can see this opening the door to the mistakes made on the last album. 

Then things begin to get hit or miss. Where "Godlike Alchemy " works with more grit, they seem to dial into their formula for the more predictable "The Sleeping Mind". Then we are back to metal with the chug of "Kaleidoscope", that recalls the "Ghost Opera" and "Black Halo" era of the band. I'm ok with some of the more melodic ballad songs if they are done right; "Enigma" serves as a good example of what works for them. While "Cassandra's Disease" is not a ballad, it lacks the aggression needed to give metal its balls. "The Puppet King" gains their footing until hitting some of the genre tropes in the chorus. I will give this album a 9, it's unlikely that I am not going to listen to one of their earlier albums over this when I am in the mood, but for their fans who do not need them to be at their heaviest and listen to symphonic power metal regularly, this will exceed expectations and is a much better direction for them than their last album. It drops on Napalm Records on August 28th

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Kamelot : "the Awakening"

 These guys were one of the few post-80s power metal bands I liked . Then they lost singer Roy Khan and things changed. Granted it's been 12 years, you would think I would have moved on. Well the band is certainly trying to recreate that sound, so why should I? One of major components that was lost in the release after Khan left, was the grit and attitude that placed them in a heavier sonic zip code. In some ways they feel like tribute band to themselves. The first song is a watered down return to what they once did. They begin to put a little muscle on by the time we get to "Eventide", then they remember they are a metal band with "One More Flag in the Ground" . They are joined by Mekong Delta drummer Alec Landeburg, who certainly get's the job done with some double bass to spare. 

They devolve back into the overly symphonic grandiosity that saps the heaviness from them on "Opus of the Night" .  Five songs in is never too soon for the ballads. It sounds like it should be from a Disney cartoon. The melodies are less catchy. There is a slight folk element to it. Not really sure what would inspire a band to write a song like this. Who thought this was going to be a great idea? The line fit for a queen certainly rings true here. The violin solo is the best moment. "Bloodmoon" has a more interesting groove at first, though at this point any groove works. The guitars need to come up in mix for sure. It sounds like they are trying to tone them down, as if they are apologetic for being a metal band at one time. The chorus is way too happy and kills it for me. They put more into "My Pantheon" show not all of their melodramatic power ballads have to go limp. 

"Nightsky" has parts and melodies than work, but when we get to the chorus , it turns into an anime theme song. The synths continue to over power any metallic elements on "the Looking Glass" . More balls in the bass and drums would also help. They are writing on cruise control , but it works better here. Tommy is a decent singer, who does a good Roy Khan imitation at times. They throw more solos at you on this one, which is more effective as it brings more fire to the song. Melissa Bonny of Ad Infinitum joins them for "New Babylon". It's is very them, but nothing new is brought to the table here or really any of the album. They punch in a bunch of melodramatic dramatic power ballads I might feel different about if they were darker. The new drummer kicks it into gear for this one. The last track is just an outro, that sounds like video game music. I will give this album a 7.5, which might be better than some bands are capable of but disappointing when you know what these guys are capable of.

 

the Top 10 Power Metal Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. This is a sub-genre that split off from my mainstream metal lists. Typically power metal is too happy for me, so with my list it should be no surprise that you are getting the darker and sometimes more aggressive side of it. Considering the genre this is not going to be  the most hipster of the lists that say Vice puts out, what matters is the fact; these are the albums I listened to the most. Any ways here are the Top 10 Power  metal  albums of the decade.




10- Witherfall - " a Prelude to Sorrow"







9- Symphony X - "Iconoclast" 2011 








8- Nevermore- "the Obsidian Conspiracy"&nbsp ;







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7- Judas Priest-"Redeemer of Souls" 2014




 



6-Khaotika<- 2015="<br"> - " the Flame Unleashed " 2015 
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 5- Primordial- "Redemption at the Puritans Hand " 2011




 





4- Ghost Ship Octavius-'Delirium" 2018




 




3- In solitude - " the World , the Flesh, The Devil" 2011




 






2- Kamelot- "Poetry For the Poisoned "2010



 





1- Iron Maiden - the Final Frontier" 2010



 

Kamelot : "The Shadow Theory"

The album opens with "Phantom Divine" which is certainly good enough to help me continue to get over the fact Khan is not coming back. It's pretty much what you want from Kamelot other wise. Not their heaviest song, but not weighed down by an over abundance of symphonic fluff. Not that the symphonic elements are not in the synths lines, they just don't obscure the fact this is a metal band. Karevik gets credit for a very nuanced vocal performance that is high lighted on " Ravenlight". This album marks the debut of new drummer Johan Nunez from Firewind / Nightrage. He has a punchier double style. They wrestle with wanting to get heavier and the generals pit falls on modern power metal on "Amnesiac". They combat these very same power metal moments on "Burns to Embrace" with a quirky almost folk metal syncopation in places that feels like they just put more thought into this one. The guitar solo is very tasteful for this sort of thing as well.

For this kind of melodic power/ prog metal the songs are very compact. They throw a lot i in under the six minute mark. "In Twilight Hours" feels like it is going to be too much of a sappy piano ballad going into it.The female vocals that trade off with him don't help things stray from Celine Dion territory. It's just cheese all the way around . I would much rather have another song along the lines of "Kevlar Skin" that than. "Kevlar Skin" has enough muscle to it's chug to compensate for the more frolicking build the song speeds up into.  I would not say this song is as good as any track off "Ghost Opera" but it works for what they are doing now. This album doesn't feel as thematic as the others. The keyboards that open the more up beat "Static" could appear on most of the songs, but lyrically they are all over the place. Its the chorus where things seem to border on being too happy. The verses are darker and more brooding then it's like they hit the jack pot at a self help seminar.  This was not an issue with Roy Khan.

"Mindfall Remedy" takes another stab at getting heavy. Here is my theory. Karevik might have more colors to his vocals, but Roy Khan had more balls. The inclusion of growls vocals in the background, is not unfamiliar to what these guys do , but I am not sure it is as convincing as what we have heard them do in the past.  As  you might know the rule around here is "cool riffs alone do not a good song make" here this could be applied to vocal phrases , as there we be a cool passage that pops in here or there on "Stories Unheard" that keep it from being totally middle of the road , color by numbers by a few degrees. "Vespertine"  finds more balls in the solo section , but is otherwise to hopeful mood wise for me to really connect to it. This persists to a greater extent on " the Proud and the Broken". It is this problem that makes me round this down to a 7.5. To put this in perspective "Ghost Opera" was a 10. Sure I have continued to out grow power metal, so some of the cheese I can stomach a little less, but these guys used to be dark enough to make me not have so say "Oh, they are good for power metal"  Power metal should be as good as any other genre I can think of a dozen awesome power metal albums this one is just an " Ok for what it is " which is still better than most modern music of this kind.

Kamelot : "Haven"

Sure it's melodramatic and Tommy Karevik is still in the shadow of Roy Khan, but right from the first song I can tell this is better than what most of the other bands in this sometimes awkward sub-genre of metal. They have a a little more heft in their chug and darkness in their song writing even though Karevik has more of a Broad Way tone and less grit than Khan. The chorus to "Insomnia" is a little on the over done side , but the verses have a multitude of cool colors  in its depth. Then the chorus begins to stick with me before the songs over.

There is a more ominous pitch harmonic march to "Citizen Zero" that could have been a song from the Khan era, though the chorus once again has some much pageantry its hard for me to latch onto in first listen and I find the variations in verse to be more interesting. Queensryche used to be one of my favorite bands, and during the Khan years so did Kamelot, "Ghost Opera" is a classic in my book ...for what it is. They get into some Andrew Loyd Weber vocal layers and Dream Theater like synth solos. They succeeded in making something larger than life. The majesty of the massive sound feels like than band is more confident that they can get the job done with out Khan, where the last album there was some hesitation to go as big. Which is what made "Ghost Opera" work and the last album just a  more commercial step away from "Poetry For the Poisoned".

They chug almost gets heavy on "Veil of Elysium" until the go all "Final Countdown" on the melody that sweeps in leaving the singer to pick up the pieces on the verse. This song just sounds like every other band that does this sort of thing. Five songs in and it's ballad time. Even worse it's a duet with some Nightwish like female singer. It's more than I can even though technically his voice sounds great on it. "My Therapy" is more along the lines of what I want from this band. The vocals can soar all they want as along as there are balls and it's not too happy. The latter can be a challenge with this genre. This band is unique in the sense the guitarist cares about the songs and is not just looking for the right riff to solo off of .

I'm all for keyboards in metal. Hell, I am a keyboardist, but sometimes not only Kamelot , but many of these power/prog bands use them in a way that puts a coat of cotton candy over the guitar, which is what takes the edge off of "End of Innocence" and the chorus doesn't help this song out much. The band does give me more of what I do want from them on "Beautiful Apocalypse" which might be their best song that Roy Khan doesn't sing on.They come close to  keeping  up the intensity on "Liar, Liar". It's clear on this album every one has a better understand of how this machine works best.  Even when they back off to give Tommy his American Idol moments it works with the song. I think the first guitar solo on the album is on here is as well. They throw in some mean riffs and harsh vocals come in as do female vocals that work better than those on the duet.

"Here's to the Fall" sounds more like an interlude or the intro to "Revolution" than a song in its own right. "Revolution" is another one that packs the kind of punch these guys could get away with always delivering because they throw so many dynamics in. The title track track is pretty much just an outro. I'll give this one a 9 as it's moving in a much better direction than the first album they did with this guy which wasn't terrible, this is just better and worth Khan fans giving them a shot.

The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums: 50 to 41

Diving into the top 50 of our Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time



50- Nachtmystium- Assassins:Black Meddle pt 1

Blake Judd and Friends redeem American Black Metal.



49- Opeth -Deliverance

The Swedish death metal band takes another step forward into the perfect blend of prog and heaviness, which they later get carried away with.



48- Life of Agony - the River Runs Red

This album defined the Road Runner era of metal in the 90's. It hit the perfect blend of darkness and groove where they others drifted into mall metal.



47-Helloween- Keeper of the Seven Keys

While they borrowed heavily from Maiden, this album influenced power metal for years to come.



46-Kamelot - Ghost Opera

Their fans might suggest albums preceding this one, but the songs on this album are flawless with the band at their peak.



45- Iced Earth- the Dark Saga

This 1996 album by America's beefiest power metal band, was based on the Spawn comic.



44- Diamond Head - Lighting to the Nations

The album Metallica stole most of their earlier riffs from.



43-Agalloch -Ashes Against the Grain

They hit the sweet spot on this album finding the perfect cross roads for their folk, black metal and post-rock influences to all meet at.



42-Mayhem- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Written in 1987 murder and suicide delayed this albums release until 1994.



41-Katatonia- Viva Emptiness

Bleak and depressing as it is full of melodic beauty, this Swedish band carved their niche with this album.

Weekly shuffle

Ok ...you know the drill, I give a click to shuffle Mose and review whatever tracks pop up.

"The Web" by Neurosis, Back when these guys were awesome and there songs crushed you rather than put you to sleep. "Souls at Zero" is my favorite album by them and if I was or when I do make a post about my favorite metal albums of all time this will be on it. I like the reverse delay on the vocals and here is a good example of how do drone with out being a pussy about it. Even though this came out in the nineties the production is great the bass tone is incredible. This is why it's hard for me to take their new stuff seriously.

"Bloodied Yet Unbowed" by Primordial, I'm glad we are getting a lot of metal on here as it seems like I haven't been able to review much of it lately as nothing has grabbed me. I think these guys have popped up on here before, I use to have their whole discography on my iPod and now just "Redemption at the Puritan's Hand". The vocals are a perfect blend of grit and melody here, he is a better singer than growler, his voice like Ics Vortex instantly makes things epic. The double bass build into the blast beat work and is good example of it being put to creative use rather than being a cop out.

"This Place is a Prison" by Postal Service, This song has great lyrics it describes how I feel on most days and it darker than most metal lyrics these days so headbangers set up your game. The vocal melody is subdued which is par for the course the , I like when the stronger beat and the lyric "what does it take to get a drink in this place " sits over it. It's like Death Cab Cab for Cuties album for goths.

"Cursed" by Atriarch, This was my metal album of the year last year, so you already know how I feel about this one , go check out my review for more info if you are unfamiliar them. It's a dark slab of doom, with all the ugliness of black metal you can want. The vocals here are more like old Swans, and the guitar creep in behind it like funeral doom, so everything I could want in one song, so any question as to why I would have set it on such a pedestal.

"Night Witches" by True Widow, These guys fall some where in the same realm as Jesus and the Mary Chain or a Place to Bury Strangers, this album is underrated. The bass player I think is a metal head at heart as he drives this thing harder than you think it would be in the opening strains. This is indie rock done right with some balls to the too hip for their own good attitude.

"Take it Easy" by Bright Eyes, Back in the early 2000s when Conner Oberest was poised to be the next Bob Dylan by hipsters at the time he put out two albums one was country ish the other kinda of dark wave electronica called Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, which was the better of the two any way this one who is Cure influence he could no longer hide, I saw him get blown off the stage by the Faint once so it soured the taste in my mouth I had for him, I think the Fevers and Mirrors album is incredible and he was a great songwriter who fell by the wayside.

"Inarborat" by Negura Bunget, A couple of years ago I was blown away by these guys but the last e.p they put out seemed like they were jumping on Enslaved's band wagon, who is jumping on Opeth's bandwagon.Never the less their older material is incredible . This song has legit pagan/ folk elements to it which darken things up like Dead can Dance rather than dance around the maypole. The use of clean vocals here works really well and this song works for every angle.

" A Mutiny" by Red Sparowes, While I can appreciate the whole post-rock instrumental thing the majority bores me after a while. This band is an exception to that rule as they make their guitars sing in a way that doesn't leave me looking forward to vocals that never come. Their guitar tones are close to perfect, maybe they even are perfect and I just don't want to say it. This song drifts around like something from Pink Floyd's Animals album. They go from more melody and dynamics than being content to drone which wins in my book, the build on this one has a very cinnamic feel.

"Die with Me" by Type O Negative, They got wrongly lumped in with mall metal bands after awhile, but this album is a ten with no question, their pinnacle they never touched this one afterwards. Sure it starts very lazily like Queensrcyhe wanting to be pink Floyd, but by the time their signature fuzz comes in ns the chorus hovers at the rain splatter window we are all...stoned ...I mean enthralled .

"Up Through the Ashes" by Kamelot, "Ghost Opera" would be on that top one hundred metal albums I mentioned earlier. It's too bad they are following NightWish into the where are they now files. The mid paced chug of this once balances it out for. Getting too melodramatic like bands of their ilk are prone to do, the thing I have have like about them is as pretentious as this sort of thing tends to be they darken it up, of the post nineties era bands like this these guys are pretty much the only one of their kind that I listen to , they were amazing live and heavier than you would suspect them to be, but Alas no Roy Khan and I think that intensity is diminished despite the new singer being better than I anticipated.

Kamelot : Sliverthorn

So lets go ahead and get the elephant in the room that is Tommy Karevik out of the way. The bottom line is he isn't as bad as I thought he might be. Primarily because of the Roy Khan impersonation, not as convincing as the old Alice in Chains trick they pulled with much better results due to Jeryy Cantrell's heavy harmonies. There are frequent guest vocals and choral vocals as well as studio tricks but his rather star search like vocal tone has more in common with James Labrie than Geoff Tate who I associated as an influence of Khan. The YouTube videos didn't lie and he has a more generic rock sound than Khan who's voice was darker in some way.

I started writing this review on my second pass through on the album, so began to notice sections which took on a happier prog metal element that I don't like because it reminds me of Europe, though I suppose they are going for more of a Helloween feel. I associate it with what I don't like about bands like Stratovarious and Hammerfall, though this album is not as shreddy or obviously metal as those.

Now on my fourth pass through I think I can have a more even handed listen.
"Sacrimomy" is one of the albums better tracks so a fitting opener, they are going for another " march of Mephisto" as The Agonist vocalist Anissa Gluz does her best Shagrath impersonation, so there's a lot of mimicry going on, as Amaranthe vocalist Elize Ryd doesn't have a distinct style of her own but tries to be a metal Sarah Brightman, fitting as the new singer Tommy was inspired to start singing after he hear Phantom of the Opera...the Andrew Loyd Weber musical not the Iron Maiden song.

The problem with this song that is more forgivable seems like the made a table of possible power metal chorus progressions and just rolled a twenty sided dice to pick them, they are very generic for the genre see Symphony x for details.it way to happy and frolicking for me where Roy Khan vocals had tighter hooks and don't sound so obviously European Festival in the rousing fist pump.

"Ashes to Ashes " works for me even though the bridge had a very radio hrs rock feel to it like Trapt or Lost Prophets mixed with Dream Theater. Granted Kamelot has a big itch to scratch as they are only of the only bands I still listen to who do the whole symphonic power metal thing , aside from Night Wish.

"Torn" the melodrama goes up a notch and the stage fans really start blowing the frilly pirate shirts once the chorus kicks in where the problems occurs and it begins to become a test in how high my threshold for cheese. The progressive metal label once tabbed to the band is even more unfounded as songs are even more straight forward than the previous two albums

"Song for Jolee" the ballad I knew was coming, isn't as offensive as I was braced for. Sure there's the whole Dream Theater almost Styx element, I like what is voice does on this one and might even say I like him as a balladeer better than Khan, just not better for Kamelot.

"Veritas" yTakes a darker turn like classic Kamelot and chorus isn't as offensive as the bulk of the albums the counterpoint the chorus the choir provides helps ns the "you will confess I am god" hook works well. This one gets in and out pretty quick so there not chance to muck it up with too much cheese.

"My confession" stays darker in the verse , with the chuggy pre chorus but were turn to the twenty sided dice for the chorus. I know Youngblood is the bands primary song writer so I began to think this is more of his doing and the new kid just came in and sang pre-written melodies, which explains the blandness because I session singer never holds as much emotional investment as one who shares in the song writing process. His girlish head voice which pops up before the guitar solo is one of the few original moments on Karevik's part.

The title track lays on the symphonic element from the get go. The get s heavy in a ghost opera sense. The chorus here skips going to the default dice roll though this one isn't very compelling, as it's more of the same.the choral break midway through is different bunch stays consistent with the more of the same feel to the album. The guitar blazes into attempt change, but it doesn't feel heavy at all.

"Falling like the Fahrenheit " clever song title though it's apparent they are trying to re create Ghost Opera here than break any new ground , the lyrics " like the shadows in my head/ you will play that ghost again" take a little different meaning here and I wonder how many of these lyrics are about Khan. The chorus goes slight Dream Tehater but are a little more like a Hoobastank power ballad. The final two minutes there's a brooding symphonic breakdown,another formulaic element to this album.

"Solitaire" starts off with a riff straight from one of the Helloween rip off bands, then the pre chorus gives you a little hope before the dice come out forte chorus. They tease you with the one heavy riff that only pops it head in for the pre-chorus.

The ballads are actually this albums stronger moments now which is an inverse of the Khan years."Prodigal son" is very ambitious but well executed it starts off as almost an aria with Karevik singing in a delicate sotto voce head register. It builds there skimming some of the happy territory I dislike and the guitar solo was a rather uninspired Brian May knock off. The guitar solos on this album seem to be an obligation to the genre rather than ever adding something to the song , they could stand to take a lesson from Karevik's country men the Swedish Shining on this front .

In scoring this album I didn't bother factoring in cinematic opening and closing pieces as they are not really needed. Since I was surprised this wasn't as bad as my fears of a Roy Khan less Kamelot had me imagine, I rounded the score up a half a point to an 8.5 which might be generous considering I don't see this being something I am really going to wear out like "Ghost Opera" which is a clear 10, even with the ballad missteps.