Kamelot - Karma

*=Staff's pick	Regalis Apertura Forever* Wings Of Despair* The Spell Don't You Cry Karma* The Light I Shine On You Temples Of Gold Across The Highlands* Elizabeth · Mirror, Mirror · Requiem For The Innocent · Fall From Grace*

Genre	Power Metal	Khan	Vocals
Tracks	9	Thomas Youngblood	Guitar
Runningtime	56 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Noise Records	Glenn Barry	Bass
Release	19 Feb. 2001	Casey Grillo	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

America's leading power metal virtuosos Kamelot seem to be one of the rare bands out there who continually bring us metal lovers a new album every year. But that doesn't at all affect the quality 'cause Karma is even better than their previous release Fourth Legacy. The Norwegian vocalist Khan has fully grown into the sound of the band and the tracks are both of rapid and a bit slower character including two ballads. The Arabic influences that were present on Fourth Legacy also appear on Karma and are nicely orchestrated.

The production by Sascha Paeth and Miro (who also play keyboards and additional guitars) gets the highest of all marks and is as perfect as it can get. However, I don't really approve of the fact that there are not one but two ballads on the album.

One had been more than enough and as you have noticed by now the presence of these non-metal degenerated music arrangements usually put me in bad mood when it comes to chalice distribution. There are of course some real killer songs that I like on the album as well. The ones I especially love are Forever, Wings of Despair, the title track itself, Across the Highlands and the final part of the trilogy Elizabeth, that is, Fall from Grace.

So it's about time to wrap up this review with some catchy final words. I really like it when a band makes a song that's based on some true story, ancient legend or something like that. The final track, Elizabeth, is based on some very cruel and bloody acts performed by a Dutch countess back in the middle of the sixteenth century and this fact kind of makes up for the two ballads. But not so much that the grade shoots through the roof.

With a more true metal release next time Kamelot will begin to climb on my personal list but until then they have to settle for a bit lower mark.
But yet my karma tells me that this is not as bad as it may have sounded and it's definitely not a fall from grace. The album will be played many times in my CD and Kamelot is worth spending cash on.

See also review of: Haven , Silverthorn , The Black Halo , Epica

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	7,5	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Mat