Kamelot - Karma

Every once in a while, albums are released that instantly become what they call “Classics”. This was the opening line of my review of Queensrÿche’s all-time masterpiece “Operation: Mindcrime”, and also a line I feel is not far from well-suited to describe the latest effort by the American/Norwegian Euro-Metal constellation Kamelot. “The Fourth Legacy” was a complete gem in my opinion, and if it were not for the fact that our Alanna had done a brilliant piece on it already I was seriously considering writing a high-9 review of it myself. Instead, here I am writing about its follow-up “Karma”, an album to which there are huge expectations not only from me, but from thousands of other Metalheads, who (like me) discovered the band with the mentioned offering. This means that it is very hard not to go on comparing “Karma” with its predecessor, as one do with most follow-ups to such masterpieces. I mean, who didn’t try to level Blind Guardian’s “Nightfall…”, Stratovarius’ “Destiny”, Savatage’s “Edge of Thorns” or Dream Theatre’s “Awake” with “Imaginations…”, “Visions…”, “Streets” and “Images and Words”, respectively? The need for setting things up against each other lies deeply rooted in the nature of Man, and I guess it’s just something we’ll have to live with. But why am I dwelling so long with this subject now - am I not to just go ahead praising this new Kamelot effort as an all-time classic and best 2001 release by far?

Well, no. Some of you may be a bit surprised by this, as this album inherits every possible requirement needed for an album to be rated as a top one. It has a huge label to support it, a Sascha Paeth production, a top 10 of European studio musicians on the “guest musician” list, streamlined, still orchestral, arrangements, an intro with a title in Latin, a pretty-faced singer (there’s no wonder about 90% of Khan’s lyrics is a bout his former girl friends), and about anything else you may ever demand. Still, I’m not saying it’s a bad album, and not at all claiming that the aforementioned criterias make for a bad album. (Of course they don’t, I would actually do anything within my power to make them present on the debut Throne of Thor album…). So why am I complaining? We get a set of catchy, melodic, well-played and -produced Metal anthems with above average lyrics and packed in a beautiful booklet behind the excellent cover by American artist Derek Gores. Still, I feel there’s something missing. “Karma” has none of the hyper-killers “The Fourth Legacy” had (the title track, “Until Kingdom Come”, “Nights of Arabia”, “Alexandria” or “Sailorman’s Hymn”) , and although I do not enjoy it at all, I have to say that there also are a downright ridiculous tune here - which one you’ll see soon enough. This is a song that could never ever have been included on neither “The Fourth Legacy” nor its predecessor “Siege Perilious”. There’s also a couple of other numbers in here that not at all are completely up to par, and rating-wise these three tunes alone secure the album a score safely below the 9,0 mark. The rest varies from very good to excellent, as usual with Kamelot, but what surprises me more is the way the material varies in originality. Where most of “Wings of Despair” is so stereotypically German-sounding that Paragon, Iron Saviour or Primal Fear would have been jealous songs like “The Spell” or the title track sounds surprisingly inventive and fresh, with the latter even incorporating “trance” elements (the simple keyboard line which runs through the second half of the intro plus the chorus). Yep that’s true - Kahn & Youngblood goes Ibiza! Don’t let that scare you away, though, as the technoish is (of course) supported by crunchy guitars and double bass kicks from hell. Actually this is the kind of impulses that can make a tune stand out from the bunch, and a welcome addition to the overall soundscape.

Playingwise, then? Well, Casey Grillo is a rock solid drummer, with tasty fills, entertaining cymbal rhythmics - the bridge in “Forever”, for example - a double bass speed/precision most stickholders could only dream of (there’s no chance he does for example songs like the fast “Forever” or “The Fourth Legacy” in one take, though, listen to Kamelot’s live album “The Expedition” and you’ll soon realise that he’s not even close to keeping that speed through an entire song), Glenn Barry is a steady and capable bassist (although bassists using a pick will never reach the same level of stardom as their fingering colleagues in my small world), Miros keyboards are amazing throughout, and of course Roy Sætre Khantatat, or Khan as he’s known as nowadays, as Kamelot’s getting bigger and bigger, is a flat out godly singer. His ability to express passion, hate and anger all through the same clean voice is astounding, and those small nuances combined with his brilliant vibrato and breathing techniques (also live) makes for a truly great vocalist who’s not too far from the level of such living legends as Russell Allen (Symphony X) or Martin Sandsæther (Throne of Thor). So everything’s just milk and honey then, or what? Well, to some extent yes, but I’ve got one band member yet to discuss. My opinions about Mr. Thomas Youngblood, guitarist and main songwriter, are namely quite divided. He is definitely a skilled “musician”, in terms of composing and steadiness and keeping a tight rhythm when comping a singer, and he’s also got quite a few nice rhythm fills and short licks here and there. BUT, he is not a very good lead player, and thus he makes for the only thing that Kamelot really lacks. I’m not saying that every fast guitarist is a good one, or that every band should have a downright shredder in it’s line-up, but in this style of music, and since most of the tunes feature some kind of a guitar solo, the one who takes care of those should be good enough for the job. Don’t get me wrong - leads like the ones in “The Spell” or “Across the Highlands” are very good indeed, and his work on the acoustic on songs like “Don’t You Cry” or the two ballads on the last album is excellent - but especially when he speeds up his solos they sounds quite dull and even uninspired. There are other players who also may suffer from this syndrome, Andre Olbrich in Blind Guardian may very well be one, but what they do is to compensate by playing a different way. The mentioned German composes every lead before recording, and focuses on melody instead of speed (there’s nothing wrong with speeding up, as long as one has the technique to do so, though) as Youngblood tends to do a bit to often. (And that works, as far as I remember I once rated BG’s “Imaginations…” album to a 10,0 playingwise.) I hope I don’t get any murder threats from the Kamelot fan club after this, but hiring someone to do the faster leads (like maybe a Larry Tarnowski in Iced Earth, Jim Morris in Demons & Wizards, or even Kirk Hammett on his first album(s?) with Metallica) would maybe not be a bad idea. No offence, OK?

And after this rant I guess we’ll just move to the song-by-song part of the review while I’m still alive, right? OK, here we goooooooooooooOOOOAAAAARRRGGGHHHH! NO, PLEASE, NO!!! **PANG**

- Silence -

Note: The following is written by Torgeir’s father, as his son is on his way to the c/Crematory after an assault by Roy Khan and six of his former girlfriends, who could really not stand such brainless thrashing of the poor and hard-working guitarist.

1.] Regalis Apertura
As is the standard of Symphonic/Power Metal releases today “Karma” also features a short orchestral intro. This one is composed solely by Sascha Paeth’s assistant and arranging genius Miro, and works very well indeed, possessing a highly appealing Celtic/Medieval kinda feeling. Still it never reaches the level of “New Allegiance” from the band’s last platter, which still ranks as the by far most entertaining intro piece my son’s ever heard. Maybe is it the lack of strong enough themes, or maybe the lack of crescendo up to the beginning of…

2.] Forever
…which of course is a blazingly fast hyper-catchy thingy, and quite a good one too. I, will, as my son also would, from now on TRY to stop comparing these tracks with the ones on “The Fourth Legacy”, as I’m fully aware that too much of that makes for a review that misses the point completely. Thus I will not rant at all about the fact that this one is far from as good as the title track from the oftenly mentioned last effort, and instead focus on the track itself. It is based around a smoothly rearranged version of the main theme from Edvard Grieg’s “Solveigs Sang” (“Solveig’s Song”, “The Song of Solveig” or something), which can be found in both the intro, perfectly executed by Youngblood, and in the chorus, perfectly executed by Khan. In between those parts we get plenty of amazing strings/keyboards bombastics, varied and dynamic vocals, and nice and tasty drumming. Now is also the first one may realise how much crunchier the rhythm guitar sounds on this record as opposed to the maybe a tad sloppy guitar sound on previous albums, a welcome addition to an already enchanting soundscape indeed. Thematically the lyrics, which unfortunately are quite cliched and among the worst on the disc, deal with love that was and longing for someone. This fits excellently with the choice of main theme, as the original Grieg composition was a part of the soundtrack to the play “Peer Gynt”, by legendary Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen. It described the years Solveig waited for her lover, the lazy and Peer, who travelled around the world looking for fame and glory. (Among other places In the Hall of the Mountain King.) A nice way of making the music and lyrics work together as a whole.

3.] Wings of Despair
After that fast and furious opener we this one, which another quite speedy tune. It’s triplet-based throughout, and very catchy yet completely unoriginal Power Metal chant. It’s not surprise this one was chosen to be the first track of the album to be presented to the public, as it’s “radio potential” is there, without doubt. Still I’m not satisfied. Of course it’s completely OK throughout, and Sascha and Miro have done their best to stop it from being boring through several clever twists in the arrangements. But the melodylines are completely run-of-the-mill, with a chorus that’s reminiscent of every speedy Stratovarius, Gamma Ray or Rhapsody tune you may think of. Same goes for the lyrics, which also are pretty standard - “You, and you alone/is forging the path/leave your sorrows with the past” is pretty standard Tolkki/Kotipelto material if you ask me. This is also one of the tracks were I’m not to fond of Youngblood’s lead playing. When speeding up he seems to stick to the fast lick from the “Fourth Legacy” solo, a lick I already then thought sounded quite dull. Why don’t come up with some more melody-based thingys instead - you do it on other songs and it works very well! Everything’s not that bad, though - the cymbals in the first verse are freshly sounding, and Khan also shines, especially during the verses. The diminished moves in the end, where real strings accompanies the ensemble, are also interesting moves, and overall I’m sure this is a track that works better live.

4.] The Spell
If the previous track may have been to predictable and run-of-the-mill, this one is definitely not that. Although it’s not really inventive, it has that kind of “fresh” touch to it that makes good music attractive than bad. Maybe it’s the clever electronics that run through most of the tune, maybe it’s the marvellous bombastic accents in the end of the bridge section, maybe it’s the nice rhythm guitar riffing that run through the choruses, maybe it’s Casey Grillo’s clever tempo changes in the second verse, or maybe it is the solo, which ranks among Youngblood’s best in a long time - It’s not very long, but perfectly fitting as it is. I really don’t know which of these points are the most important one(s), but probably it’s just the overall vibe of the tune, which sort of reminds me of a more sophisticated version of “The Inquisitor” from “The Fourth Legacy”, that appeals to me. The only major complaint I have towards this tune is probably the opening guitar riff - it works very well as a support for Khan in the choruses, but could maybe need some more “punch” when played alone. It sounds much better on a huge stereo rack than through a disc-man with earplugs, to put it that way. Still this is an excellent tune, which hopefully is a part of the bands set at this year’s Wacken Open Air festival.

5.] Don’t You Cry
Kamelot are good at ballads, and here we go again. This time it’s composed around quite a personal topic, namely the tragic death of Thomas Youngblood Sr., the father of Kamelot’s axeslinger. Metal ballads is a very difficult genre to move into, but this is definitely one of the best tracks I’ve heard in the genre for a long time. Except for the intro, that is, as it’s one of those which I really can’t get the scope at - it sounds to “standard” for my tastes, kinda like the short symphonic number on Sinergy’s “Beware the Heavens” (can’t remember the name - that’s Torgeir’s CD and as we all know he’s not with us anymore), where they include strings just to include strings and end up with an overall arrangement without the necessary logic to make it work 100%. The rest of the track, though, is magnificient, with Kahn’s falsetto moves in the choruses (singing that’d make Morten Harket in AHA jealous for sure) and the “I can see you tonight…” part towards the end as personal highlights. I also enjoy greatly the way horns are included in the bridges, as the English/French horn is an instrument I really enjoy the sound of.

6.] Karma
We’re in the best part of the album now, and this tune, which I rank as the definite highlight of the album, tops it all. This is a masterpiece throughout - from the oriental sounding very powerful intro, through the “choppy” verses and the tension-building bridges all the way to the completely heavenly choruses this is musical magnificence throughout. In the beginning of this review I mentioned the Trance influences in this track, and no, that was not a joke. Both during the choruses and at 0:37 in the intro the simple piano theme and swirling synth arpeggios strongly recall music (?) most likely to be found at rave parties or in pre-teen CD racks. Still it works very, very well, as mentioned, and the track would never have been able to reach the level it is at now if it were not for Khan/Youngblood’s courage in diving into unknown musical territory. This is also the guys at their best lyrically, as they tell the story of a king who’s gained great power and riches, but wonders if there’s more to life than just that. And once again the chorus has to be taken as an example: “Who will trade his karma for my kingdom/A sacrificial rite to render truth/The fire in my soul rejects my wisdom/’Cause all you do in life comes back to you”.

7.] The Light I Shine On You
As mentioned we’re in the middle of a steady stream of highlights now, and this is another nice tune. Although it’s very reminiscent of Stratovarius’ “A Million Light-Years Away”, especially structure-wise (with a short intro motif, then a full-on band intro, then a calmer verse and a more driving bridge before the chorus) this one also has that “fresh” touch which makes Kamelot sound unique. The guitar groove from 0:07 and onwards is excellent, as is the bass fills before the first verse. When I said a calm verse you’d probably expect clean guitars or something but Youngblood still has only full-on distortion on offer, but it’s the overall vibe which makes the whole sound a bit less aggressive. The chorus is excellent with Khan’s diamond pipes offering the most magnificent of vocalisms and Grillo delivering the goods with steady double bass kicks. The solo, though, is not that much to brag about. Once again our Thom falls back to the dull pattern from “The Fourth Legacy”, but luckily the thing is not very long. Better, on the other hand, is the “falling, I’m falling down”-part before it, where the interaction between Khan’s “lazy”-sounding, but still excellent, vocals and the cleverly arranged keyboards makes the whole reach an extra dimension.

8.] Temples of Gold
This is a much more calm and relaxed tune, but unfortunately one of the duller on the album. Still it’s never BAD, so to speak, but as a whole it lacks that little extra. The clean guitars in the opening section for example, are rather dull, and on this one Khan’s way of sounding over-confident and arrogant when singing almost ruins the entire thing, as his sleezy singing style here is just a bit too much for my tastes as I feel he goes from arrogant to almost uninspired at times. But as I said it’s not really bad, and the Indian sounding middle-section is very nice indeed. Excellent is also Youngblood’s choppy playing during the last parts of the laid-back chorus, and I’d even give him thumbs up for the lead towards the fade out. All in all a completely OK tune (or “good song”, as Joseph White would have put it), but not among the best of the bunch.

9.] Across the Highlands
Youngblood and Khan are very proud that “the Kamelot fans are so tolerant with the band’s unpredictable twists” and that “Kamelot is a band that’s not afraid of trying something new”. Very well, I’m sure, but I can’t really see how they can get away with such words when they at the same time spends time and money on recording a tune like this - a song so overly stereotypical German Bierstube-Metal that I’m not really sure if one can take it serious. This is a cliché throughout, featuring every possible worn-out Lederhosen-trademark one can ever put into a piece of music. The intro is Rhapsody on a very, very bad day, making Highlord and Heimdall seem like Spiral Architect, the verses with their small, melodic fills and A4 one-chord comping sounds like the obscure midi-files I and a friend used to make trying to sound like Gamma Ray. Surprisingly enough, the bridge section isn’t really that bad, with the “thus my freedom…” part being quite enjoyable, actually, but of course that standard could not be maintained for too long, and with the chorus we’re back in Christmas carol Metal territory again. Thomas Youngblood’s solo is on the other hand quite good, definitely one of the best on the album. It mixes speed and melody into a nice, easy-flowing little thingy, too bad the rest of the track isn’t even close to doing that at all. And if you wonder, this is the track Torgeir referred to as “downright ridiculous” in the beginning of this review. By the way, the lyrics also suits the track perfectly. This is I usually a good thing, I guess, but not in this case. What it means is of course that the lyrics too are rather bad - the “rising high above the mountains/reaching for the sky” factor is dangerously high here, and that from a band where 3 of 4 members have an English-speaking background. Urk…

Elisabeth:
10.] (I) - Mirror Mirror
Now this is something else. Although the calmish intro doesn’t entertain me very much, the chords chosen are too worn-out, and the pseudo-“dramatic” effect the arrangement’s supposed to create has been used in every “epic” sort of movie made the last 10 years, but Khan’s vocals are indeed very beautiful throughout, and the vocal melodies over Youngblood’s tasty clean guitar backing are very nice indeed. After this the band kicks in together with the string ensemble, creating a powerful and majestic backing to the great vocals, and the following lead guitar lines are not bad at all.

11.] (II) - Requiem for the Innocent
After an interesting and quite “cold” sounding intro where the band moves into more Prog-kinda territory (in spite of the quite Iron Maiden-sounding galloping rhythm) the verse parts from “Mirror Mirror” are repeated, only in a different arrangement. This may be difficult to hear at first, but as you gets to know the pieces better you’ll see what a clever device this is to make the different tracks connect to each other and thus also to the theme - the life of legendary countess Elisabeth Bathory. My countrywoman Liv Nina Mosven guests on operatic vocals on this and the next track, and this works very well, as she’s got a very nice voice indeed. (She’s no Tarja Turunen, though, but then again, who is…) The track ends gently and very beautiful, featuring only piano and strings, and the expectations to the last track of the trilogy are quite big, as both this and “Mirror Mirror” are excellent pieces of music.

12.] (III) - Fall from Grace
Luckily these expectations are fulfilled in every possible way, as this one is one of the best tracks on the entire album. It’s very heavy, especially in the beginning, where Youngblood’s riffing is as powerful as anything else. Once again my compliments goes to the producers Sascha Paeth and Miro, who definitely have managed to improve the guitar sound quite a lot. To make sure what already is a very nice intro becomes nothing but great out Thomas also plays what is to be the chorus melody over it, adding whammy-bar squirls and small improvised bits in between to make it even better. After the excellent verses, which are very bombastic while still having a definite dark feeling to them, and a just as good bridge, where the brilliant arrangement shows why Sascha and Miro are among today’s hottest producers, the intro section is repeated as a chorus. It sounds just as good with Khan taking care of the melodywork, executing the quite simple, still interesting, lyrics with uttermost perfection: “What if there’s a God a hell and heaven/fire is the torment I must face/dying by the souls I have forsaken/no one’s going to catch my fall from grace”. These three parts are repeated before the tune fades out with a quite interesting non-guitar part, which actually reminds me a bit of “New Allegiance” rhythmically, making for a great ending to an excellent trio of songs. But why those ridiculous 10 minutes of silence after the fade? Of course it’s nice to have the band’s fifth album clocking in at 55:55, but it’s pretty damn irritating if you’re using the “repeat” function on the CD player…