Description

Americas power metal act Kamelots debut album shows signs of what to come but still so different from their later albums. I'm not talking just about the vocals (this is one of the two albums the band recorded with Mark Vanderbilt on vocals), the whole music is unlike Kamelot, so different that it could have been a different band. If one influence can be said to reign supreme on this album, it would have to be Crimson Glory. Even though Kamelot were (and remain) a single-guitar band, on this album Youngblood's riff style is highly reminiscent of the first Crimson Glory disc. Even moreso are the vocals of Mark Vanderbilt, who does sound a bit like Midnight, though without the upper range. What is most noticeable is that Vanderbilt is trying so hard to sound like Midnight you become embarrassed for him. He works so much at mimicking that legendary singer's inflection and phrasing that it borders on parody at times. On the following release he didn't lean so hard on it, and so he sounds much less forced than here. The music is much more basic American-style metal than what Kamelot are making now, much more guitar-driven and a bit more aggressive. Most of the songs here are mid-paced, and that's a drawback, as after eleven tracks at pretty much the same speed it starts to wear. But there are some good songs on this thing: ‘Call Of The Sea’, ‘Fire Within’, ‘Warbird’- and no real bad ones. Even the ballad ‘What About Me’ doesn't suck. This is a good album, if not a great one. No one who heard this would ever guess it was the same band that would make ‘The Fourth Legacy’ or ‘Epica’, but even if this sounds nothing like Kamelot sound now, it is still worth picking up. 1999 re-release Track listing: 1. Eternity 2. Black Tower 3. Call of the Sea – Kamelot, Youngblood, Thomas 4. Proud Nomad 5. Red Sands 6. One of the Hunted 7. Fire Within 8. Warbird 9. What About Me – Kamelot, Warner, Richard 10. Etude Jongleur 11. The Gleeman