The Shadow Theory

Kamelot

Released on 06/04/2018 by Napalm Records Handels GmbH
Main artists: Kamelot
Genre: Metal

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Time sure flies… When they started over twenty-seven years ago, the band from Tampa, Florida, was already making a kind of music that the most tolerant listeners described as slightly dated and the most rigid metal fans considered completely obsolete. In the end, they wore everyone down as they managed to gradually win the loyalty of an immense swarm of supporters, particularly in Europe. Now, as before, they advocate for a melodious style of metal music like Germany mass-produced in the 1980s, and have founded with a great specialist, Sascha Paeth, the spiky Doc Martens that has fitted their production needs since The Fourth Legacy in 1999. Paeth, an accomplished musician most notably known for having collaborated with Gamma Ray, was responsible for the best productions of Angra, Rhapsody, Edguy, Avantasia, Epica… And while the band has gone through several transformations in recent years, with for instance the integration of a new singer, Tommy Karevik (ex Seventh Wonder) in 2001, this twelfth album doesn’t remotely resemble an immense evolution, or even the beginning of a hint of a start of a change of course. Those, and there are many, who enjoyed Haven (2015) – that subtly introduced a few hints of industrial music with keyboards and sharper guitars – should not be thrown off with this Shadow Theory, its natural extension. Same recipe, with a few VIP guest performers. On their previous album, the band had collaborated with Troy Donockley (Nightwish) and, most importantly, singers Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and Charlotte Wessels (Delain). This time around, the cast features Jennifer Haben (Beyond The Black), who works wonders on the tender ballad In Twilight Hours, and Lauren Hart (Once Human) on Phantom Divine (I Am the Empire) and Mindfall Remedy. Kamelot packaged the whole thing around an ambitious concept, inspired by Carl Gustav Jung on “the complexity of the human mind and its place in an oppressive society”. A nice change from the genre’s usual stories about knights and dragons, even though it can’t quite compete with Ayreon, one of the discipline’s great specialists. Particularly as it’s not necessary, since their strength lies in their ability − with the help of Paeth – to polish strong and effective compositions able to stand on their own, like Burns To Embrace, the most notable track on this album. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret/Qobuz

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The Shadow Theory

Kamelot

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