Kamelot: Combining The Old And New
When it comes to power metal, there are few bands that combine that traditional fast paced sound synonymous with the metal subgenre with bombastic, symphonic sounds, but this is exactly where KAMELOT fit in. With an incredibly ambitious new album right around the corner, and their biggest tour to date coming up, everything is full steam ahead for the five-piece.
If there is one thing that the symphonic power metal outfit are known for when it comes to their records, is that every release has a collective of guest singers who always have either a solo section or a duet with KAMELOT frontman Tommy Karevik. This time around, the band have opted for three carefully selected guest singers, all of which are incredibly well-known in the current metal scene, to contribute to Dark Asylum.
Speaking on this, and how the process of writing tracks with features on it, mastermind Thomas Youngblood tells Distorted Sound that the songwriting is the main priority, and that is how the band figures out if an individual track will work with a guest vocalist. “We do have some features, Tobias Sammet on the record, Clémentine Delauney from VISIONS OF ATLANTIS and Ignacia Fernandez. But every album we approach the same way. We basically focus as hard as we can on the songs, and on the concept. And then when we have a part that we think will be cool to have a guest on, we just look at it clearly then. There’s never any effort to increase guests or decrease guests. Everything happens really organically.”
Fans of the power and symphonic metal outfit know that on top of having guest singers for their albums, KAMELOT always have guest vocalists that join them onstage. For this tour cycle, this will also be the case, as VISIONS OF ATLANTIS frontwoman Delauney gets mentioned once more. “We always have amazing support bands with us, and the singers of the support bands join us for a song or two. Clémentine from VISIONS OF ATLANTIS is on tour with us in the US and she’s also on tour with us in Europe, so she’ll be one of our featured guest vocalists which will be exciting because she’s amazing.”
Most importantly though, every band needs their own superstar frontman, and it is no secret that KAMELOT have their own in Karevik. Immediately, however, upon diving into this record and hearing each song, it is evident that this is the most ambitious, and best that the Swedish singer has ever sounded. Speaking on this, Youngblood says that this time around, Karevik has been getting more, and more ambitious. “He’s spreading his wings a bit more now, even beyond what he did with his other bands. He’s a true artist and when I was exploring every facet of what he can do as a vocalist, and also his commitment to conveying sort of emotion from the way he sings, and translating this into storytelling is one of his gifts.”
Another aspect that the five-piece are known for with their albums is that their records, are mostly concept ones, and this time is no exception. “It’s a concept record. It’s based in this realm in hell, an asylum, and all the songs are different scenes from within the asylum. It’s not like a thread of the storyline. Basically it’s almost as if you’re walking through an asylum, and there’s a room here, and that’s a different story as to a room over here, which is a completely different story, and these are all micro-plasms of the album, these songs.”
With Dark Asylum in particular, according to Youngblood, the objective was to combine the old KAMELOT sound, with their more recent futuristic sound, and upon getting asked, one specific album gets mentioned, as well as a few songs from this record, to. “Godlike Alchemy mixes a lot of traditional KAMELOT with a little bit of the older stuff, like from The Fourth Legacy, and even we have a lot of stuff that could go back to the first album, where we had some folk like influences like Beneath The Moon which is sung in all Icelandic, which is really cool because it is features a girl who sung on The Fourth Legacy album.”
This album is rather long with 15 songs. This ultimately leads into the band having more variety, as well as many more choices to pick from to add to their new concert setlist. Ultimately, some revolving songs from previous tour setlists have to get removed too, and this is a challenge which the band welcomes. “Some fans want to hear songs like Forever, and some people don’t want to hear these older songs, or the new songs. Everyone’s got an album from their favourite band that’s their favourite, so we’re working on that right now. Obviously we’re gonna have at least four or five new songs, we’re going to have to eliminate some of the songs that we’ve been playing too. It’s a good problem to have.” After saying this, the world-class guitarist says that surprises are to be expected. “We’re going to play a song we’ve never played before, and we may have a medley of like three songs from our past. So we’re looking at making a really dynamic setlist, but also we’re going to make it really theatrical.”
This album, and tour cycle promises to be one of the most exciting for KAMELOT, as Dark Asylum, the brand new album releases in August through Napalm Records and tickets for the UK shows are now live.
Dark Asylum is out now via Napalm Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS132 here.
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