The Style
If you've ever heard of Rhapsody or Blind Guardian, you'll have a pretty good idea of what Kamelot sounds like if I say they're "power metal". For those of you who are completely new to this genre, I'll elaborate. Speed metal (or power or epic metal) is essentially a combination of a lead guitar, background "rhythm guitars", drums, and a vocalist with a really good range. One of the additions that make this music stand out somewhat from your typical heavy metal is the use of an orchestra, and usually a rather large one. An occasional accordion or harp is also thrown in. The music is called "power metal" for a reason, since an orchestra combined with drums and guitars can lead to a formidable amount of noise. The tricky part, of course, is getting this noise to flow together and produce a melodic result. Some bands are quite succesful at this, and some, I'm sad to say, are not. Fortunately, Kamelot happens to belong to the former. Their musical talents evolved over time, producing a somewhat different style with every album. Their latest release is dubbed "The Black Halo", and as you might infer it has a "dark" sound. Some of the songs even have a Middle Eastern touch to them, which is a little difficult to explain unless they are actually listened to.
The History
Kamelot was first started by guitarist Thom Youngblood and drummer Richard Warner in 1991. After they signed to Noise records in Germany, they released their first album "Eternity" in 1995. Around 1997, Kamelot started becoming significantly popular due to the release of their album "Dominion". In 1997, Richard Warner was replaced by Casey Grillo, who was very talented even at the early age of 21. After going through about 100 vocalist auditions, they finally came upon a Norwegian named Roy Khan, who used to belong to a group called Conception. One album later, in 1999, they found a producer, Sascha Paeth (who was actually the producer for Rhapsody) After August 1999, Kamelot really began sounding like an epic metal band after obtaining an orchestra, a choir, and even a guest keyboardist with the interesting name of Miro. Miro also happens to be a producer, and he worked with Sascha to help produce two more world-famous albums: Karma and Epica. Their newest album, The Black Halo, was released this March (2005), and is just as outstanding and even more unique than it's predecessors.