{"id":49524,"date":"2015-05-26T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T21:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=49524"},"modified":"2015-05-26T16:39:03","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T21:39:03","slug":"kamelot-haven-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/kamelot-haven-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamelot | Haven<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Kamelot\"2015 is shaping up to be a very good year for fans of Symphonic\/Progressive\/Power Metal. We\u2019ve already seen outstanding releases from Nightwish and Damnation Angels; now Kamelot has delivered their much-anticipated follow-up to 2012\u2019s Silverthorn<\/em>. The new album, the band\u2019s eleventh studio release to date, is titled Haven<\/em>, and it\u2019s the second album to feature Tommy Karevik (also of Seventh Wonder) on vocals. As with the last few Kamelot releases, Haven<\/em> features guest appearances, this time by Charlotte Wessels (Delain), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Troy Donockley (Nightwish).<\/p>\n

Kamelot is arguably the best in the business at this kind of metal, and the musicianship, orchestration, melodies and vocals on Haven<\/em> simply cannot be denied. These are all completely enjoyable songs, and the melodies are extremely infectious; so much so that you\u2019ll find yourself humming them later in the day. As to the vocals, at this point Karevik totally owns this role. He pulls off the same aura that Khan had, but he has even more range and depth. And it still feels like they haven\u2019t quite tapped his full potential, which is pretty amazing.<\/p>\n

Haven<\/em> gets off to an extremely strong start with the one-two punch of \u201cFallen Star\u201d and \u201cInsomnia,\u201d both of which have melodies that go straight to your head. \u201cCitizen Zero\u201d has the kind of impossible-to-resist rhythms that bring to mind \u201cMarch of Mephisto,\u201d and \u201cVeil of Elysium\u201d (which features a duet with Charlotte Wessels) sounds like it could have come from Epica. On the second half of the album, \u201cBeautiful Apocalypse\u201d and the pair of songs with Alissa White-Gluz are the standouts.<\/p>\n

If Haven<\/em> has a downside, it\u2019s that it\u2019s perhaps too familiar. Kamelot played it safe with Silverthorn<\/em>, which made sense seeing as how they had to introduce a new vocalist without scaring away their long-time fans. Given how well Karevik was received though, it\u2019s a little disappointing to see them follow that same formula again on Haven<\/em>. Not that they needed to reinvent the wheel, but it feels like they took zero chances with this album. The song structures, melodies and vocal performances all seem interchangeable with those on Silverthorn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Even if they didn\u2019t stretch the boundaries with this album, Haven is still a very satisfying Symphonic\/Progressive\/Power Metal album from a band that plays this kind of music very, very well. Aside from those few disgruntled Khan fanboys still holding out, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone who liked the last few Kamelot releases not getting into Haven. It is very much a Kamelot album in sound and spirit, and is one of the better albums 2015 has to offer.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: There are various CD and LP formats of Haven<\/em> available. The best of them have a second disc\u2019s worth of acoustic, orchestral and instrumental versions of the regular Haven songs. None of which are essential to casual fans, but they\u2019re an interesting addition for the Kamelot die-hards.<\/p>\n

Genre: Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nSean Tibbetts (b)
\nThomas Youngblood (g)
\nCasey Grillo (d)
\nOliver Palotai (k)
\nTommy Karevik (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tFallen Star
\n2.\tInsomnia
\n3.\tCitizen Zero
\n4.\tVeil of Elysium
\n5.\tUnder Grey Skies
\n6.\tMy Therapy
\n7.\tEcclesia
\n8.\tEnd of Innocence
\n9.\tBeautiful Apocalypse
\n10.\tLiar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)
\n11.\tHere\u2019s To the Fall
\n12.\tRevolution
\n13.\tHaven<\/p>\n

Label: Napalm Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.kamelot.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 8.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — 2015 is shaping up to be a very good year for fans of Symphonic\/Progressive\/Power Metal. We\u2019ve already seen outstanding releases from Nightwish and Damnation Angels; now Kamelot […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[8921,2317,8926,9014,10841,1389,891,1097,1098,5918,1100,1565],"class_list":{"0":"post-49524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-alissa-white-gluz","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-charlotte-wessels","11":"tag-delain","12":"tag-haven","13":"tag-kamelot","14":"tag-napalm-records","15":"tag-power-metal","16":"tag-progressive-metal","17":"tag-silverthorn","18":"tag-symphonic-metal","19":"tag-thomas-youngblood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}