Haven – Kamelot Progressive Metal from the United States ****
The progressive rock album that has been playing on the iPhone over the last week or so is Haven from Kamelot. Kamelot is a progressive metal band from Tampa, Florida. If progressive metal is characterized by the following according to ProgArchives.
a blend of heavy, guitar-oriented metal music enriched with compositional innovation and complex arrangements, usually expressed through diverse instrumentation and often (but not always) with odd-time signatures. Common, but not essential to define the movement, are the frequent use of keyboards, high-pitched vocals, concept lyrical themes and tracks of longer duration. Similar to progressive rock, progressive metal draws influences from other genres, such as jazz/fusion, ethnic, classical and symphonic music
Then Haven is poster-child for quintessential progressive metal album, because all those elements and more are present in this fine album.Haven has a little something for every music fan. Great guitar work from founder Thomas Youngblood, Nice keyboards from Oliver Palotai and terrific vocals from Tommy Karvik and guest like Alissa White-Gluz and Charlotte Wessels. Once again, my favorite tracks are those that I check to see what’s playing and on Haven those tracks include: “Insomnia”, Veil of Elysium” and “My Therapy” and the opening track “Fallen Star” but the other tracks are just as good!
Now for those of you who may be like me and don’t know a lot about these guys here’s some background from Wikipedia:
Kamelot is an American power metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed by Thomas Youngblood and Richard Warner in 1991. The Norwegian vocalist Roy Khan joined for the album Siége Perilous, and shared songwriting credit with Youngblood until his departure in April 2011. On June 22, 2012, Youngblood announced on their website that their new vocalist is the Swedish singer Tommy Karevik, who was first featured on Kamelot’s album Silverthorn as main vocalist, co-songwriter and lyricist.
As of 2015, Kamelot had released eleven studio albums (excluding two reissues), two live albums, one live DVD, and eleven music videos. Their latest studio album is Haven, which was released May 2015 via Napalm Records.Read More
Current Members of Kamelot.are
Thomas Youngblood: guitars, (1991–present)
Sean Tibbetts: bass (1991–1992, 2009–present)
Casey Grillo: drums (1997–present)
Oliver Palotai: keyboards (2005–present)
Tommy Karevik: lead vocals (2012–present)
Bottom Line: Rating ****
Once again, Haven has everything that a progressive metal fan can want in an album, so check it out!!
Links for Further Explorations of the Music of Kamelot
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Wikipedia
ProgArchives
Here’s the official video for the track :”Insomnia” from Haven by Kamelot