Band's List Melodic Power Kamelot Ghost Opera

Kamelot has been a defining force in the power metal community since the mid 90s and is still proving themselves around the world, playing in huge metal festivals, like Wacken and even headlining their own tours around America and Europe. They have a very fantasy esque sound to their music and are creative in their use of sound effects. I first heard about them through someone elses taste, and never took the time to listen to them until now, and I am very impressed.

The album Ghost Opera has many different types of classical music from different parts of the world, which shows the creativity displayed on this album. The keyboardist is very talented, as with many power metal groups, displaying many different themes and alterations in his sound. Some of his keyboard parts really amaze me, especially in songs like Love You To Death, and Ghost Opera. You can tell, just by the way he plays, how musically inspired he is in his playing, and how he manages to be one of the features of this album that stands out and catches your attention.

I also am simply in love with the vocalists voice. His singing is so emotional and perfectly on tune, as well as dramatic and moody, another thing that manages to grab your attention for this record. His style of singing is pretty incredible, and brings out the velocity and sheer melodic strength of the music. The choir vocals heard every now and then are a nice touch too, especially when they are backing such disciplined lead singing and mixed with such spirit.

As far as the guitarist and bassist, they aren't extremely distinguishable from each other, but I certainly like the speedy solos of the guitar, which aren't half bad at all. The riffs are great most of the time, and use plenty of palm muted power chords which always sound pretty cool, besides the fact that they aren't hard to do. The distortion is really heavy sounding a lot of the time, and helps to emphasize the fact that you are still listening to heavy metal, and not (really awesome) new age or something like that.

In general, this album just all out kicks major ass, and is very creative, powerful, and emotional throughout. I would have to give this record a solid 18/20