Kamelot - Silverthorn review
| Band: | Kamelot |
| Album: | Silverthorn |
| Style: | Symphonic power metal |
| Release date: | October 2012 |
Disc I
01. Manus Dei
02. Sacrimony (Angel Of Afterlife)
03. Ashes To Ashes
04. Torn
05. Song For Jolee
06. Veritas
07. My Confession
08. Silverthorn
09. Falling Like The Fahrenheit
10. Solitaire
11. Prodigal Son
1 - Part I: Funerale
2 - Part II: Burden Of Shame (The Branding)
3 - Part III: The Journey
12. Continuum
13. Leaving Too Soon [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [box set edition bonus] [instrumental version]
01. Manus Dei
02. Sacrimony (Angel Of Afterlife)
03. Kismet
04. Ashes To Ashes
05. Torn
06. Song For Jolee
07. Veritas
08. My Confession
09. Silverthorn
10. Falling Like The Fahrenheit
11. Solitaire
12. Prodigal Son
1 - Part I: Funerale
2 - Part II: Burden Of Shame (The Branding)
3 - Part III: The Journey
13. Continuum
14. Grace [bonus] [feat. Apollo Papathanasio & Niklas Engelin]
Milena: After the departure of their legendary vocal powerhouse Roy Khan, Kamelot had a difficult task of picking out someone equally talented and charismatic to replace him, and the general consensus is that they couldn't have picked a better person than Tommy Karevik, the outstanding vocalist of Seventh Wonder. He didn't come to steal the show (to my slight annoyance - imagine if he went all out for this!) but to provide vocal continuity without sounding like a Roy clone, and to contribute in writing as well, for it was his ingenuity for coming up with lyrics and vocal melodies that landed him the job.
Ag Fox: That being said, while listening to the album without paying full attention, I almost thought it was Roy singing, and this is a testament to how the album in general sounds like - just like Kamelot "of yore", as opposed to a band morphing into a new identity with a new singer. The dark progressions and the shaded vocal melodies in the lower part of the spectrum that are now a staple of the band's sound are both present and correct. In fact, Silverthorn feels exactly like Ghost Opera pt.2. Whereas Kamelot has mostly shown progress from album to album, the leap from Ghost Opera to Poetry For The Poisoned was a case of the band that, while going in a good direction, tried something too ambitious and failed in the execution. It seems like composer/guitarist Thomas Youngblood realized this and decided to take a step back to a place the band was comfortable in with Silverthorn.
Milena: The catchy tunes crafted by using all the tried-and-tested Kam-formulas and lined up to tell you a story of a family torn apart by tragedy are varying in quality, but the overall impression is positive. A few throwbacks to the pre-Ghost Opera days are noticeable - even the guitar/keyboard duels made several appearances. Each side of the band is well represented with songs such as the symphonic metal crusher "Veritas", the tear-jerking ballad "Song For Jolee", the multi-sectioned epic closer "Prodigal Son" or the power metal fun slide "Solitaire".
Ag Fox: While it's nice to have the band back to form, Silverthorn ultimately feels like a retrace from the misstep of their previous effort. Karevik's addition justifies this stall, but I am hoping that with more time together the band can progress again in their next output. Without a doubt, the velvet quality of Khan's voice is missed, particularly when the vocal lines go lower and Karevik has huge shoes to fill. However, he should realize his own feet are actually pretty big, and they still have potential to grow if his achievement with Seventh Wonder is anything to go by.
Milena: Seeing how every band other than Kamelot has failed to deliver metal of this type and quality in recent years, I'm glad they got back to composing the type of music they can nail. However, they shouldn't rest on their laurels, but use this momentum and be the bold power metal chameleons we once fell in love with. Perhaps, seeing how they're fronted by a young Scandinavian prog metal talent for the second time, the next album they make could be the Karma to Silverthorn's The Fourth Legacy.
Rating:
8.3
8.3
|
Rating: 8.3 |
"There's a pain within, that I can't define. There's an empty space, where your love used to shine" So, Roy has left, and there is one big hole left in each and every one of us. Well, at least he is alive, thankfully unlike in the lyrics above. Yet, every true Kamelotian feels the same. At least there wasn't some mass hysteria like Nightwish's 2005 case. Read more ›› |
Comments page 2 / 2
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| Sir Thrashalot Posts: 55 From: Canada  |
Written by musclassia on 20.11.2012 at 18:37 Exactly how i see it too. I really enjoy Angel of Afterlife, but aside from that, it's pretty much only "average to good" songs. Nothing great. 7.5 for me as well even though I do enjoy listening to it, it's nothing fantastic.
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 From: Canada  |
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 20.11.2012 at 08:28 No? ;-)
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| R'Vannith ghedengi Posts: 3099 From: Australia  |
I wonder how one of these dual reviews would read if you two were to completely disagree?  Anyway it works well. Safe seems to be the conclusion on this one. There also seems to be an idea that this means it plays to what they've done before, I don't think I'd agree with that. As a whole while this album sounds safe I can't liken it too strongly to any of the previous albums, it sounds very different to Ghost Opera to me, for example. I think it sounds far more inclined to the power rather than symphonic side of things in Khan's absence. If I were to compare I would say it sounds most similar to Karma but that's a pointless exercise really, given the band's evolution since that album. Noticeably there is no wonderful atmosphere to speak of, like that on The Black Halo, Ghost Opera or even the lackluster Poetry (sorry Susan  ). I think that is all brought about by the obviously shaky change of frontman, though he fills the role fairly well. I'm not familiar with Tommy's previous performances but I would agree he sounds fairly tame here, but maybe that's just in comparison to who preceded him.
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway  |
The reason why we DID do the review together was because we agreed on a lot of points. And because here at Metal Storm we dig shared reviews  Written by R'Vannith on 21.11.2012 at 13:59 A few introductory links then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGX5Jk7KBHU&feature=player_detailpage#t=280s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV0_2na4E8s&feature=relmfu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O88SXuQ_F8&list=UUZozBFOW2tXQqeBK-9FgdfA&index=6&feature=plcp I really wish they let him show all he's got here. You can see that some more adventurous vocal parts are "hidden" behind other parts of music or cut off, which pisses me off to no end in Silverthorn, but I can understand it, it all falls under playing safe. I don't necessarily like that they were doing that, but it did no damage to this album, it's a beautiful album. If the rest of their career falls under that influence, however, Kam and me will most likely part ways.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| R'Vannith ghedengi Posts: 3099 From: Australia |
Written by Milena on 21.11.2012 at 20:44 Sounds like an issue of adapting to a different style of prog, he does sound much more expressive on those tracks. Way I see it is he was sitting comfortably at "home" in that album (Mercy Falls) being with his own band there for a number of albums. Can be difficult for him to acclimatise with a new group I imagine. You know, find the best ways to make use of his voice. Still, surely they could have managed something more with vox like that!
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361 From: Slovak Republic  |
I'm not the biggest Kamelot fan at all but I would give this album an 8.5. Really close to a 9. Great vocal melodies which really hard to do, and great songwriting...
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| WorpeX Made of Metal Posts: 1347 From: USA  |
Some great songs on here, but the majority of it just feels like filler. Love Sacrimony... that song alone is worth giving the album at least a 7. Ashes to Ashes is great too. Can't seem to get into any other song on the album and i'm on my 10th spin.
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| F0110WER Posts: 1 From: USA  |
Safe? Yeah, maybe but filler? No, I wouldn't go as far as saying that. Yet another great album by Kamelot, as expected.
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