Kamelot, Haven

After a transition album with a new lead singer and after hearing what wonders said new lead singer can do with his voice in Ayreon, I was pretty curios about what Haven would bring to the table. Sadly the answer was “the same old potato salad, with some dressing on the side to make it seem like it’s another dish”, if you want to remain in the culinary scene…

The album kicks off with the two catchy, melodic and easy to sing along to Fallen Star and Insomnia and anyone could excuse me for the mistake if I’d say I already know these two songs. Both are typical Kamelot, from the drum rhythm, to the bass riff that keeps stopping before it’s finished, the background violins, the cheesy catchy chorus, the nervous instrumental that calms down as soon as the voice comes in, the ballady bridge in the middle of an otherwise power song, the mandatory guitar solo and yes, even the voice (more on that later, I have a special long rant dedicated to that chapter). Everything you like/hate about Kamelot is there and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Thank God for the electronic instrumental in Insomnia, or else I would’ve though we’ve gone back to… whatever the year was when Kamelot released a new album (any new album except for Poetry for the poisoned).

And, speaking of Poetry for the poisoned and the less conventional Kamelot songs, here comes Citizen Zero to give me some hope for this album. As the best song from Haven, Citizen Zero starts off with an intriguing and curious instrumental intro, continues with a slow and powerful chorus and finishes with an epic choir (because every symphonic band needs one) and an electronic keyboard solo in the vein of Ayreon. It doesn’t fully break off the deja-vu impression, as the chorus reminds me a bit of March of Mephisto and the atmosphere reminds me of the darker side of Poetry for the poisoned, but it’s still a huge improvement. Come to think of it, I have no idea why Poetry turned out to be such a flop. As a darker and more progressive record, it was a great idea on paper and even though it didn’t turn out to be their best album, I am a bit disappointed that they immediately abandoned that direction. It was a very good direction, it just needed a little bit of polishing when it came to the execution, and Citizen Zero is good proof of that.

Veil of Elysium safely returns to the typical Kamelot style, going through their whole catalogue with a beginning that reminisces of Karma, a middle similar to Epica & Black Halo and a chorus that’s straight out of Silverthorn (complete with the cheesy lyrics and all). 

Under grey skies is the first ballad of the album and, coming from the people who set a high standard for ballads with the beautiful Sailorman’s Hymn or Abandoned, is a very disappointing track. Cheesy, generic and boring, with a Charlotte Wessels who doesn’t bring anything to the song and could very well be Simone Simons or Elize Ryd (on second though, it’s better that she’s not Elize, I don’t think you can get any blander than that, and blander is the last thing this track needs). When not even the little wizard Troy Donockley can save it, as he has done countless of times with his Nightwish songs, you can tell it’s hopeless. I guess it’s not exactly a bad song, but it’s so forgettable that it’s not good either.

It’s hard to say much about the following songs, My therapy and End of innocence. They are playing it incredibly safe with this album and it’s starting to become a bit frustrating. I get why they had to play it safe with Silverthorn which was their first album with a new singer and a sort of a “rebound” record after Poetry‘s iffy reception, but this time I was hoping for more boldness and creativity. You know, they did their “damage control” album, now they can go back to experimenting, especially since they have a very talented new lead singer that could easily fit into pretty much every picture they could ask for. Again, they’re not bad, but there’s nothing new to catch my interest. Very few bands are able to pull this off without becoming repetitive and redundant and Kamelot doesn’t seem to be one of them. Maybe it’s because I’m expecting more from them than from Elvenking, for example… And you know what, spastic or not, even Elvenking are trying to do something new and evolve; it didn’t work with this album, but surely the next attempt will be better. Kamelot had one bad experience with it and apparently decided to stay away from innovation forever.

Beautiful apocalypse is a mild attempt to shake things up a bit, but one of rare changes of pace so far is quickly drowned by a much too corny chorus that unnecessarily sweetens a song that had some potential. Nice try, but you can do better.

Thankfully, the last four songs raise the bar a bit and, along with Citizen Zero, make the album an overall decent listen as opposed to the disaster that was being prefigured in the beginning. Liar liar has a very catchy chorus, that for once isn’t excessively sweet, and Alissa White-Gluz is a very VERY welcome addition. I don’t think her slow paced grunts fit the speedy instrumental part that well, but she adds a little colour to an album in dire need of it and her clean vocals are the best I have ever heard in Kamelot. Yes, that’s right, a badass death metal chick is the best clean female vocalist Kamelot ever had.  

Here’s to the fall is the good ballad of the album. I love the slightly creepy violins that remind me of the soundtrack from Dexter, the atmosphere, the growth, the bridge, everything. And I can actually sing most of it three days after listening to the album, which is always a good thing.

Revolution is another of the good ones. An infectious chorus, Alissa’s vocals adding the touch of aggressiveness that’s usually missing in Kamelot, a gentle and emotional bridge where Tommy finally uses his own voice, abruptly and interestingly ended by Alissa blurting out “Revolutiooooon”, all enough to create a nice catchy song. In a way it’s a bit sad that I’m getting excited for a song like Revolution, since it’s pretty much a bouncy headbanger and nothing more, but I guess you take what you can get and this one breaks the monotony.

Haven is an epic and inspiring instrumental track that makes me wonder where was this talent hidden for the rest of the album. In fact, this is something I noticed in Sirenia and Nightwish as well and I don’t get why so many metal composers are so good at writing awesome soundtrack-like songs, but the second they add the traditional metal instruments and the vocal line, they become drowned in cliches and offer nothing more than some safe repetitive riffs and choruses.

And now for the vocals. I was saying at the beginning of this review that the voice is typical Kamelot, even though, as you may know, they have a new lead singer. If you haven’t noticed that yet, it’s completely understandable and forgivable and that’s because for the most part, you can swear that Roy Khan is still in the band. Now, I’m a strong supporter of the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality, but still, it would be nice for the band to acknowledge that there is indeed a new person singing. Not only do I find it disrespectful towards Tommy, but he is such a talented guy that I think they are losing a lot by not letting him do his own thing. He has proven in Seventh Wonder and Ayreon that he has huge potential, to the point where I actually consider him a better and more versatile singer than Roy (I love Roy to death, but Tommy can do what Roy can and I’m not sure if the viceversa is valid) and I think it’s ridiculous to cling so much to the past when the present and future could be so bright. For me this is a huge minus. It’s a bit weird, because sometimes I forget that it’s Tommy singing and I feel like I’m listening to the old Kamelot with Roy and everything is ok, but for the most part I can’t shake off the fact that it’s not really Roy, it’s just someone who’s trying to sound like him. And if in Iced Earth it bothers me that Stu Block is trying to be Matt Barlow because he can’t rise up to that level, in Kamelot it’s bothering me because not only that Tommy can easily rise up to that level, but he can rise up far beyond it and it’s a shame he’s stuck being someone else.

Looking back, Kamelot have never been the height of complexity and creativity and maybe I’m expecting too much from them. Maybe most people will like this album because they liked the previous ones as well. Sadly, I am not one of those people and I’d like Kamelot to continue to remain relevant, especially now that they have in Tommy  the breath of fresh air they need to badly. If only they would be brave enough to use it…