The saddest Kamelot album I have ever heard --- cheer up guys!
Silverthorn --- Kamelot --- 2012 (SPV/Steamhammer)
I've said this before about Kamelot; they seem to have a bad reputation among metallers and prog metallers as something of a generic, boring, formulaic and very commercial band. I've never quite been able to see that myself. Kamelot have remained one of my favourite prog metal bands, and even with their recent slide into more gothic areas in the last few years, I still prize every album they release. This, their tenth. sees them for the first time without their longstanding vocalist and frontman Roy Khan, who quit the band in 2010 for personal reasons, his last contribution being to that year's "Poetry for the poisoned". So what is life like after Khan for Kamelot? Have they still got that spark, or are they exposed as being a one-man band, as it were? Although I didn't like their first two albums, it was mostly the histrionics of vocalist Mark Vanderbilt that I failed to warm to, and truth to be told, though "Eternity" and "Dominion" are not a patch on later albums, they do have some good tracks. But it was only with the arrival of Khan that the band really took off. So how do they now fare without him?
Well, the creative and driving force behind Kamelot has always been guitarist Thomas Youngblood, and while Khan may have been for twelve years the voice and face of the band, Youngblood has always been its beating heart and its inspirational brain, and thus it proves here, with the compositions mostly written by him and keyboard player Oliver Palotai. Although everyone in the band is given writing credits, the whole concept behind the album, the story that runs through it, is a joint effort between these two. And it
is a concept, Kamelot's third album to be based on an overarching storyline. The plot itself is I think intentionally vague --- Youngblood refuses to go into too much detail about it even on their own website --- allowing the listener to make up their own mind as to what it's about, which is all fine and good, except when it's so ambiguous that you really have no hope of working out what's going on. The basic premise seems to concern a wealthy family who have a dark secret, which results in the death of their daughter, quite possibly at the hands of her two brothers. There may very well be some incest involved, something unsavoury certainly, and it takes place in the nineteenth century: that much the writer has confirmed.
But when it gets right down to it, the story is not as important as the music. Sure, it's great to know what the lyrics are about and how they tie the songs together, but if the music is not that good then that becomes very much a secondary concern. Now, I've read several reviews of this album and almost all have raved about it, some even describing it as Kamelot's best album, but I have to say I don't see it. I'm not saying the album is bad, because it's not: in fact, it's very, very good. But I fail to be moved in the same way as others have been about how different, ground-breaking or intense it is. I'm still waiting for them to equal "The black halo", and for me, this doesn't really come close.
But enough about comparisons, come with me and let's explore the music, which is, after all, the most important part of any album.
It opens (and closes) on an instrumental, with lovely harpsichordal piano from Oliver Palotai, then heavy strings and choral vocals as it builds dramatically, and you can see right from "Manus dei" Kamelot continuing on the path towards more operatic, gothic and cinematic metal that they began to show on albums like "Ghost opera". The first contribution from new vocalist Tommy Karevik is a low, muttered prayer of sorts, then we pile into "Sacrimony (Angel of afterlife)" and it's quite amazing to hear how similar to the man he replaced Karevik is. In some ways --- many ways --- you might think it was still Roy Khan singing, as indeed I did when I first heard the album. It's a fast rocker with some great guitar from Thomas Youngblood and a choir which goes under the name of Silverthorn Choir, featuring among others Amanda Somerville from Epica and Elize Ryd from Amaranthe. It continues the practice established by Kamelot since 2003's "Epica" of featuring female vocals, mostly guest artistes, these supplied by the aformentioned Ryd here; Kamelot also use another female vocal, with "death vocals" as her speciality (here credited as "unclean female vocals") in the shape of Alissa White-Gluz. The rocking tempo continues into "Ashes to ashes", but despite the pace you can already see this is going to be a very bleak and desolate album, lyrically speaking.
The great Kamelot sound is there as ever, with powerful guitar runs from Youngblood, great keyboard passages from Palotai and thunderous drumming from Casey Grillo, while Karevik gives it all he's got, his voice here perhaps not as strong or commanding as Khan's usually was but still very satisfactory. Very prog-rock keyboard solo from Palotai, and there are "unclean vocals" again, male this time, from Sascha Paeth, who also adds extra guitars to some of the tracks. Very dramatic and powerful is the following track, "Torn", on which Karevik gets to shine properly, but as I say the story is somewhat lost in the lyrics, and I've read them all but still can't get the idea behind the concept, other than something very basic. The recurring theme seems to be one of despair, guilt and a wish for forgiveness from, I think, the ghost of the murdered girl, who is called Jolee, as we find from the next track, the first ballad, "Song for Jolee". This is a beautiful song, with sublime piano, beautiful strings and laidback guitar, Tommy Karevik's voice almost bleeding with passion and regret as he sings. The lyric is a little silly, as one of the brothers talks about writing to the angels to keep his sister safe. Er, yeah. Great combined guitar and keyboard solo with strings backing near the end, and it fades out on soft piano.
Lovely strings intro to "Veritas", and you think it's going to be another ballad till Youngblood's hard guitar cuts in and it takes off as a metal cruncher, Karevik unleashing the full power of his vocal again, backed by Elize Ryd and the Silverthorn Choir in a real chant that evokes the best of Within Temptation and Nightwish. There's a lot of latin in the lyric here, and showing how thorough they are and how authentic they want to be, Kamelot have hired in Luca Turilli from Rhapsody to make sure they get it right --- guess he knows a lot of latin. Lovely accordion passage from Istvan Tamas closes the song, and it's a powerful, punchy track with a great sense of drama, but the darkness runs through it like black thread or smoke. Kicking up the tempo somewhat is "My confession", with perhaps one of the most commercial hooks in the chorus and some great keyboard work from Oliver Palotai. Sean Tibbets' bass is the pulsating heartbeat of the opening to the title track, joined by sweet strings before Youngblood racks up his guitar and the track takes off with a powerful vocal from Karevik and some almost manic piano. This is very evocative of previous Kamelot material, rather a lot I think like "March of Mephisto" from "The black halo", a real rocker that thunders along with great purpose and drama.
Kamelot even enlist the help of children to add that lost innocence touch to the album, with a choir featuring, among others, Annelise Youngblood, whom I have to assume is the daughter of the Kamelot guitarist, and they add quite a spooky feel to this track. Youngblood's guitar features heavily right from the start in the Sabbath-like "Falling like the fahrenheit" (stupid, nonsensical name for a track), that stomps and grinds along in a murky, moody fugue that at times feels almost claustrophobic but has a great hook, one thing Kamelot know how to do so very well, and possibly one of the reasons so many people accuse them of being commercial and generic, and yet they've never had so much as one hit single. You only have to glance through the tracklisting to see this is not a happy album --- "My confession", "Prodigal son", "Torn", "Ashes to ashes" --- they all speak of dark thoughts and feelings, despair and woe, sorrow and pain. No love songs really, and nothing uplifting. And yet the music doesn't come across as doomy or dark, quite uptempo and not cheerful but not despair-laden either.
I do have an issue with their titling a second track "Solitaire" though: they already have a song of this name on the "Ghost opera" album, so why call this track the same? Surely they could have come up with a better more individual name? It's a good song though, recalling the best from "Epica" such as "Centre of the universe" and "Descent of the archangel", and powering along on Grillo's incessant, vibrant drumbeat and driven as always by Youngblood's incisive guitar work. The standout comes however in the form of the usual Kamelot epic, and it's very good indeed. "Prodigal son" is broken into three parts, the first, "Funerale", an emotional hymn which starts off with soft church ogan and pealing bells, almost Mozart's "Requiem" in tone, with a pure, beautiful yearning vocal from Karevik backed by only Palotai's sad organ but then joined by the Silverthorn Choir in an impressive and moving performance, just like a mass, which I suppose is the idea it's meant to convey. Two minutes in Youngblood adds acoustic guitar and Karevik sings solo before Grillo hits in the percussion, after which Thomas breaks out the electric and fires off an emotional and searing solo, taking us into Part II, "Burden of shame (The branding)" as Karevik's vocal gets stronger and more determined, while Youngblood's guitar rages behind him. Another beautiful solo in the fifth minute and then he lets the guitar loose properly as Casey Grillo fires up the drumkit and thunders along, the song picking up tempo heading into the final part.
Part III, "The journey", ends on a dramatic, fast, powerful instrumental and the album closes on "Continuum", which although it's not really a true instrumental is close enough to rate it as one. Bookending the album very well it takes us out of the story --- which I doubt anyone properly understands --- and is a nice way to close the album, a sort of reverse overture, a coda to a very fine album which has had Kamelot reaching for the stars, even if they have fallen more than a little short of that goal. You can't fault their ambition.
TRACKLISTING
1. Manus dei
2. Sacrimony (Angel of afterlife)
3. Ashes to ashes
4. Torn
5. Song for Jolee
6. Veritas
7. My confession
8. Silverthorn
9. Falling like the Fahrenheit
10. Solitaire
11. Prodigal son
(i) Funerale
(ii) Burden of shame (The Branding)
(iii) The Journey
12. Continuum
(Note: This will probably be one of the longest, if not the longest afterwords I've written in an album review, but I have a lot to say about this album, and Kamelot in general)
So is this the album Kamelot were always supposed to make? Is it "the best Kamelot album ever", as many have postulated, and is all the hype justified? Well I've listened to the album about ten or more times now and I can't truthfully put my hand on my heart and say yes it is. It's a great album, of that there's no doubt --- Kamelot don't
do bad albums, at least not since their third --- but is it one of my favourites of 2012? No it definitely isn't. I was a little underwhelmed with it when I heard it the first time, though as it progressed I felt it got much better, especially towards the closing section, but on repeated listens, while I haven't revised my overall opinion of "Silverthorn", it remains a good, possibly great album, but not the greatest they've produced. For me, they attained that peak with "The black halo", and have yet to surpass or even equal that. I did like "Ghost opera", but it wasn't close to their best.
Due credit must of course be given to new vocalist Tommy Karevik, who handles all the songs with great skill and heart, and manages to sound so close to departed Roy Khan that longtime fans of the band won't be shaken or put off by the change; in fact, some may not even realise he's a different singer. Yet for all that he retains enough of his own individual style to be able to stamp his identity and personality on the album, not an easy thing to do with such massive shoes to fill! I do miss Khan, but I think he probably articulated his decision best in "Anthem" from "Ghost opera", when he obviously realised he must prioritise his new family over his career, over his music, and who would blame him? Perhaps we'll see him popping up again, perhaps not, but either way he's been a worthy and faithful servant to Kamelot, and his input with and influence on them is and always will be appreciated.
This is, though, by far the most depressing, bleak, sad and bitter album Kamelot have ever put out. Even "The black halo", with its themes of revenge, betrayal and death, had its "up" moments --- lots of them, in fact. This has few if any. Oh, the music is mostly uptempo, but listen to the lyric and you'll glimpse the true heart of this album. If you're easily depressed, I'd avoid unless you want to be brought down. If you're not already depressed before listening to it, it will suck you down into a deep, dark, bitter pit of despair, and though the music is excellent and it's very well put together, it's more like what I think that DBSM would sound like. Music to slit your wrists to? Not quite, but it certainly won't cheer you up or make you feel any better about the world. Someone in another review noted that the album was so dark and sad it was like the band's collective hearts were breaking. I can't deny that, and would wonder if there is any parallel to a similar incident that happened to any of them? Hopefully not, because it sounds really horrible and upsetting. The circumstances, I mean, not the music.
I never really linked Kamelot with depressing music before, bitter themes or bleak soundscapes, but this just sounds, on one level, like the hurt of all the world given voice. Much of that, it has to be said, is down to Karevik's pained and torn vocal, like a damned soul crying in the void, and also to the amazing choir Kamelot employ. Definitely leaning heavily towards the side of gothic metal now, I wonder if this is the direction the band are now headed in, and if so, will they ever sound happy again?