Kamelot

Huh, here I was thinking SW was on kinda-hiatus already. Anyway, he quit the wrong band (but wise choice, financially).
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
This is wild.

The Awakening might be more of the same watered down modern Kamelot, but it’s light years better than Siege or the abysmal Shadow Theory. Also, really rough rating for Fourth Legacy and pretty damn high for Silverthorn.
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I gave The Awakening two listens and I dread giving it another one. I guess I will and I'll even honestly try to change my mind (I usually do so with stuff, I'd rather like things than not, especially by my favourite bands), but so far it's really been an abomination to me.

Shadow Theory at least has Burns to Embrace and Mindfall Remedy (and Kevlar Skin is, like, halfway to a good chorus as well); overall to me ST is the same as Siege - a bit unfairly maligned, at worst it's a "meh" album with some good stuff sprinkled throughout.

Fourth Legacy, again, for me is on the level of Haven and Opera - a good album with some outstanding parts, but not consistently good as a whole.

Silverthorn is consistently in my Top 3 ever since I heard it, I love the album from start to finish and I'm disappointed they couldn't repeat it in the next three albums of Karelot.

I admit that I have a bizarre soft spot for Poetry, I suppose there and with the Awakening I'm the biggest outlier.

MrKnickerbocker said:
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I think you're being too dismissive towards the last two Khanelot albums - especially Opera (I know Poetry is just me), having it on the level of Shadow Theory which you call "abysmal" - and under Awakening - is kinda crazy, too. The first half of that album, especially the first three or four songs are stronger than almost anything that post-Silverthorn Karelot put out, but IRYO.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I gave The Awakening two listens and I dread giving it another one. I guess I will and I'll even honestly try to change my mind (I usually do so with stuff, I'd rather like things than not, especially by my favourite bands), but so far it's really been an abomination to me.
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I think you'll eventually come around. I don't love it, but it's a step up from the previous albums for sure, I think.
JudasMyGuide said:
Shadow Theory at least has Burns to Embrace and Mindfall Remedy (and Kevlar Skin is, like, halfway to a good chorus as well); overall to me ST is the same as Siege - a bit unfairly maligned, at worst it's a "meh" album with some good stuff sprinkled throughout.
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Burns To Embrace is great, those other two I find meh to the extreme. Amnesiac is a good tune, so is The Proud and The Broken. And I actually like In Twilight Hours as well, despite it being another in a string of similar ballads featuring guests. Every other song receives somewhere between a 4/5 and a 6/7 from me. I find the whole experience to be the most bland Kamelot album in history.
JudasMyGuide said:
I admit that I have a bizarre soft spot for Poetry, I suppose there and with the Awakening I'm the biggest outlier. I think you're being too dismissive towards the last two Khanelot albums - especially Opera (I know Poetry is just me), having it on the level of Shadow Theory which you call "abysmal" - and under Awakening - is kinda crazy, too. The first half of that album, especially the first three or four songs are stronger than almost anything that post-Silverthorn Karelot put out, but IRYO.
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I actually like Poetry more than I thought I did at first. Come to think of it, I'd probably switch Poetry to be much higher than Ghost Opera, which is the single greatest slab of diminishing returns in the discography to me. Every time I go back to Ghost Opera I like it less. They made a lot of sonic changes on The Black Halo and it worked because it was the meeting point between their old sound and new. Ghost Opera takes away everything I loved about classic Kamelot and leaves only the simplicity, chorus-driven, overtly gothic aspects of Black Halo. The title track and EdenEcho are the only songs I love. Everything else does not very little, if anything, for me.
 
My Kamelot tier list is relatively straightforward:

S Tier: Karma, Epica, Black Halo, 4th Legacy
D Tier: everything else

I’m a huge fan of Tommy’s voice, but the fact that he actually left the musically superior Seventh Wonder to focus on goth teen metal makes me dislike Kamelot even more. The band would be so much better if they’d let the guy sing in his own style as opposed to emulating Khan.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
I’m a huge fan of Tommy’s voice, but the fact that he actually left the musically superior Seventh Wonder to focus on goth teen metal makes me dislike Kamelot even more. The band would be so much better if they’d let the guy sing in his own style as opposed to emulating Khan.
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I don't really miss post-Escape Seventh Wonder, I feel like the band has had its time and exactly about the time Karelot happened, they were on a downwards slide. I spin Silverthorn on a regular basis, I haven't heard Tiara... for years?

And hey, Torn and Song for Jolee are pretty much Seventh Wonder songs anyway :innocent:
 
The Great Escape and Waiting in the Wings are my favorites, and I’ll agree that Tiara and The Testament, while solid, don’t live up to those two. Mercy Falls is the album I’ve never much cared for, possibly due to the hilarious voice acting and too much technical wankery.

JudasMyGuide said:
And hey, Torn and Song for Jolee are pretty much Seventh Wonder songs anyway :innocent:
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I haven’t heard either song in years, but I don’t recall them containing any swept bass solos. I’ll re-listen.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
I’m a huge fan of Tommy’s voice, but the fact that he actually left the musically superior Seventh Wonder to focus on goth teen metal makes me dislike Kamelot even more. The band would be so much better if they’d let the guy sing in his own style as opposed to emulating Khan.
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It doesn't make me dislike Kamelot, but makes me think less of Tommy.

I think the thing that a lot of people don't realize about Tommy is that he is simply a fantastic, fucking beast, amazing, A++++ studio singer. He's a serviceable live singer, and he knows it. He sounds good. Sometimes he sounds phenomenal. But he could never replicate what he did with Seventh Wonder night after night. Hell, he has even said in interviews that he started writing "songs that are easy to sing live" with Kamelot because of the stamina required for touring. I get it. He's an aging metal singer who never was a metal guy to begin with (dude fucking loves Michael Jackson more than every proggy breakdown in the world).

It is what it is, innit?

JudasMyGuide said:
I don't really miss post-Escape Seventh Wonder, I feel like the band has had its time and exactly about the time Karelot happened, they were on a downwards slide. I spin Silverthorn on a regular basis, I haven't heard Tiara... for years?
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SW started going downhill the second Tommy joined Kamelot. His heart wasn't in it anymore and it shows. And yet, Tiara and The Testament are still more consistently good than any Tommy Kamelot album. And that has nothing to do with Tommy, it's all down to the creative prowess of the SW guys vs. Thomas Youngblood riding into the sunset on easy street.

JudasMyGuide said:
And hey, Torn and Song for Jolee are pretty much Seventh Wonder songs anyway :innocent:
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TTMMQYEGOM
 
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