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Kamelot - Eternity review




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Reviewer:
8.2

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6.15
Band: Kamelot
Album: Eternity
Release date: August 1995


01. Eternity
02. Black Tower
03. Call Of The Sea
04. Proud Nomad
05. Red Sands
06. One Of The Hunted
07. Fire Within
08. Warbird
09. What About Me
10. Etude Jongleur
11. The Gleeman

Eternity is the first album of the Power Metal band Kamelot. It's also the first of the two the band recorded with Mark Vanderbilt doing the vocals. The guitarist and founding member, Thomas Youngblood, recently stated in an interview for the "Rock Hard" magazine, that when it comes to this album (along with their second one), 90% of their fans, are totally unaware of it. That's true and sad in a way, since it's a great album.

If you know Kamelot from their later works, this is something totally different. I'm not talking just about the vocals; the whole music is unlike Kamelot, so different that it could have been a different band. As a matter of fact, most people wouldn't even recognize them on this album. It is pure Power Metal, the one that I like and it has nothing to do with the usual Euro Power scene. It's too bad that they stopped performing this kind of music in their later works. Probably this is my favourite album of their whole career, even if the band has decided to forget about it...

The first thing you'll notice when listening to this album is how similar Mark Vanderbilt (the vocalist) sounds to the vocalist of Crimson Glory, Midnight. Many people accused him of copying Midnight, but I think he's just inspired by him. Ok he does sound like him in some songs and especially when screaming but generally it's not the same. I also think that these kind of vocals were more suited for this music, although sometimes the screams get on my nerves. Another thing that got my attention is the keyboards. They may not be that dominant but they do create a nice atmosphere. I can say that sometimes, I recognized some medieval melodies in their sound that reminded me of movies about knights and old stories. Really nice stuff, I wish I could see that more often. The only bad thing I've noticed, not only in the keyboards, but in all music as well, is that it's a bit cold; it's not as emotional as in their newer releases. Maybe this thing had an impact on the songs too because although there are some nice melodies that really go well with the music and the lyrics, it's hard to remember any after some time. I don't know, but the whole album didn't touch me much, this "cold" feeling blocks you from getting attached to the songs...and that's sad because the songs are good, with nice guitar work. But I guess this feeling that's missing, keeps this album from the spotlight.

I liked this album but it could have been better. Nearly all songs are above four minutes, giving it a descent play time. As I said, it's a different album than the usual Kamelot, so I don't know if all of their fans will like it, but I guess it's good for an average Power Metal fan.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 8

Written by iaberis | 28.04.2007




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 7   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 166 users
31.08.2007 - 17:25
Joey Jo Jo
Piece of shit
The vocalist sounds like Adam Sandler when he plays Operaman. Probably the worst I've heard in power metal. They had a good keyboardist, too bad he left. But the vocalist makes this album totally unlistenable. Also, they were still finding their sound... for Kamelot at their best, Karma is the way to go. No contest.
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"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys."
- Orson Welles
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17.09.2007 - 18:39
Rating: 7
Grumble

I agree, the music is good for a first album, but in some songs its the screaming that is really anoying like in "Black Tower"

But like said before, the music itself is not bad, to bad for the vocals.
I wish they did some more of the guitar work in their current songs, I miss that especially on Ghost Opera
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29.03.2008 - 23:48
Rating: 5
IconMaiden

What a shame. If they remade the first 3 albums, a la Days of Purgatory by Iced Earth, this would be tremendous. the songwriting is outstanding, and black tower, calling of the sea and red sands are all top songs, but their first vocalist was awful. with roy khan singing, this would have been a power metal classic! The second album, however, is hopeless, despite some quality tracks.
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25.05.2009 - 20:46
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
Written by Joey Jo Jo on 31.08.2007 at 17:25

The vocalist sounds like Adam Sandler when he plays Operaman. Probably the worst I've heard in power metal.


Nice analogy. But I didn't see much of a problem in the vocalist.. I'ts not the best but I've heard a lot worse.

It is weird listen to this album after their latest material. To me this is worse than the ''soften'' power metal of Epica and Black Halo, but it has some good aspects, the lyrics are good, songs structures are the same as always, kick-ass solos, and even the medieval atmosphere is present in some tracks. Not to mention the ok keyboards.
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member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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04.09.2009 - 01:40
Rating: 3
BlankFile

Awful album, very boring and uninspired, and the first vocalist was very bad indeed. Kamelot had a false start with this one in my opinion, and btw their sound nowdays is totally different from the one they used to do (Eternity, Dominion), well fortunetly for the band and fans.
Stay away from this one...
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28.09.2010 - 12:30
ponderer

The vocals are nothing short of awful. It's no wonder nobody gives a shit about the first two Kamelot cds because the vocals completely ruin both. I've even gone back years later to try and focus on the music only, and within a few minutes I want to jam a hot poker into my eyeballs, one at a time. There's rarely ever any mention of the first two cds because the vocals suck so horrid. Roy Khan is a god.
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13.03.2011 - 15:30
Rating: 6
Destructo

It really amazes me how good the music is on the first 2 CD's, but the vocals......oh god !!!
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