2005-07-18
This is Kamelot's seventh album in the ten years they are active, and, to my humble opinion, their best yet.
The band started out in the US with a different vocalist, a not-so-clear musical direction, and weak sound by Jim Morris, of Morrisound fame, the result, their debut album, Eternity, wasn’t too hot, a mish-mash of an album, which certainly didn’t do much to elevate the band to their current stature as power metal monarchs.
The change began with the enlisting of Roy Khan, ex-vocalist for progressive metallers Conception, the fist album with him, Siege Perilous was a definite step forward, but it was with the following album, The Fourth Legacy, that the band truly hit their stride.
With Sacha Paeth, the man behind Rhapsody, producing, the band released what I still consider to be one of the best power metal albums ever recorded, a steady flow of fast, melodic power metal, with Khan amazing vocals being the cherry on top.
The following album, Karma, was a natural continuation of that album, fast paced power metal with rich production values and excellent songs.
But it was in the following release, Epica that a change was starting; the band started to incorporate symphonic elements and some female vocals, and moved from pure power metal to a slick combination of progressive elements with the power metal ones.
The Black Halo is the band's tour de force, a rich tapestry of prog-power metal, with stellar performances from all involved.
The opener, March Of Mephisto, sees guest appearances from Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath and Stradovarious's Jens Johansson, it’s a mid-tempo anthem, strong vocals, and an ethnic sounding chorus.
The album's sure hit, is The Haunting, featuring a guest performance from Epica's Simone Simons, its melodic, catchy, and works great in all aspects.
The album contains some power metal anthems as well, with When The Lights Are Down serving as one of the best power metal songs ever recorded, also clearly setting Khan as one of metal's finest vocalists.
Being a concept album, based on Johan Wolfgang Goethe's Faustus, the album contains plenty of middle sections, with speech and atmosphere setting moments, meant to bring an opera-like feeling to the proceedings, but even for those uninterested in the story-telling side, its an amazing album musically as well.
One of the last tracks on the album, Memento Mori, is a nine minute reminder of how the band has progressed, and of their new-found complexity and ingenuity, finishing the album is Serenade, sealing what is probably one of the finest metal album recorded.
Alon Miasnikov
