Kamelot Black Halo CD

Most metal magazines have rated this album "Best Of The Month" and gleefully singing its praises, like Burrrn, Metal Heart, Monster and Metal Invader.

Kamelot/The Blood Brothers: Khan (vocals); Thomas Youngblood (guitar); Glenn Barry (bass instrument); Casey Grillo (drums).
Additional personnel: Jens Johansson, Shagrath.
Crimes is Blood Brothers' V2 debut, and their fourth album overall. The quintet is still led by blaring, interwoven vocals of Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie. One screams and yelps in a very high register, the other is not so high, but still great at screaming. The Brothers' basic sound is jagged and post-punk-derived, full of hyper percussion and jerking, screeching guitars. But while this might sound like chaos, it's not. Like Whirlwind Heat or the Icarus Line, the Blood Brothers always provide a counterweight to their noisier, freakier sides. Depending on the song, that weight can either be furious rock energy, laptop experimentation, or pianos and accordions used in illegal ways. Crimes keeps a tight lid on the nervous energy that's always defined the group, channeling it into aggressive songs that often suggest the damaged, exciting grooves of vintage Brainiac (particularly "Teen Heat" and "Trash Flavored Trash"), as well as subtler numbers with atmosphere to spare. Though it periodically explodes into a metal-ish racket, "Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck" pulsing rhythms and arching guitar lines mostly follow the contours of the dance-punk scene en vogue in the early 2000s. The title track skulks along with a plodding bassline and lyrics about robbing liquor stores and wandering through landfills; it eventually recedes into the rich tones of a Wurlitzer, and the vocalists' quiet sighs. "Celebrator" begins as an a cappella dirge, but detonates unexpectedly into raucous triple-time. Other highlights include the lurching, grinding opener, "Feed Me to the Forest," the frantic, piano-driven "Peacock Skeleton With Feathers," and "My First Kiss at the Public Execution," which finds an incredibly sharp chorus hook in between its bloodcurdling screams. ~ Johnny Loftus
Much to their credit, American progressive metal stalwarts Kamelot have consistently tread a very distinctive and personal path throughout their career, paying little mind to popular trends or passing fashions, and, as a result, gaining a fan following more dedicated than most. These fans won't be disappointed with the band's seventh studio album, 2005's typically accomplished and eclectic Black Halo, which immediately bucks ordinary metallic expectations when it chooses the majestic, slow-building "March of Mephisto" as an opener ahead of second track "When the Lights Go Down"'s opening of the power metal floodgates. Of course that's because, despite often running in similar performing and recording circles (this album, in fact, being cut in Germany) as Europe's power metal elite, Kamelot easily transcend most subgenre limitations by looking both backwards and forwards, to classic heavy metal and progressive metal horizons, respectively. Enter the band's on-going study of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poetic dramatization of Faust, a project carried over from their previous album, 2003's Epica, and interwoven into much of the band's own concepts here. Much like a three-act play, these 14 cuts appear to be clustered in accordance with a vague overall plot, and come partitioned by three interludes, the second of which is particularly interesting and original for featuring visitor Cinzia Rizzo singing in Italian. In fact, guest appearances abound throughout Black Halo, with, among others, Dimmu Borgir throat Shagrath and Epica siren Simone Simons both lending their voices and characters to a song or two, and Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson adding his remarkable talents to a couple of tunes as well. But, no matter how many luminaries drop in, it's ever the members of Kamelot themselves holding down the fort on masterful examples of