Kamelot

Live at The Regent Theatre

Los Angeles, CA

December 6th, 2015

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Kamelot are a symphonic power metal band out of Florida but have members from around the globe. They have been in existence since the late 1980's and have consistently put out a refined, romantic, almost dark Gothic, strain of metal that is quite unlike any other bands in similar genres.

This year marks the release of their latest effort, "Haven" as well as my third time getting to see them live. Each time I have seen them, they have featured a different lead singer and this time is no exception.

The band was founded and is still invigorated by the truly talented, Thomas Youngblood who keeps the solid roots of the metal genre deeply in place with his intricate and moody guitar work.

Joining him on stage are a group of profound creative output including long standing members; Casey Grillo on drums, Sean Tibbetts on bass, and Oliver Palotai on keyboards.

Their current lead singer, Tommy Karevik joined the band in 2012 and has been a part of the band for the last two releases. Also joining the band for this tour is Kobra Paige of Kobra and The Lotus singing backing vocals and adding an attractive feminine element to the male quintet.

Having listened to the new album quite a bit over the months since its release, I was excited to hear new material and also see how Tommy would handle some of my long-time favorites.

They started off the concert with a great new song off of "Haven" with "Veil of Elysium". There is something very gentrified and luring about Kamelot. Most of the band are a bit more dressed up than other bands in the genre and the elegant, Gothic dress of Kobra and Thomas give them a more sophisticated stage presence.

For the second song of the set they hit up one of my favorite songs of theirs, "When the Lights are Down", off of "The Black Halo" from a decade ago. Any concerns I had of Tommy taking over songs from Roy Khan, the previous singer, were immediately laid to rest as he sounded perfect.

The set continued with pretty much my all time favorite song of theirs, "The Great Pandemonium". So far the show was phenomenal and it was great to see them live and in such good form.

They moved further back in their catalog for "Center of the Universe" off of the "Epica" album which went over really well with the exuberant audience. Long-time fans were in for a double dose of old favorites as they followed up with "Karma" off the album of the same name.

Bringing the set list back up to contemporary releases, they played "Torn" off of their second to last release "Silverthorn", which was Tommy's debut with the band.

Tommy dedicated the next song to his grandfather as they performed "Here's to the Fall" off of their latest album before moving back to my other all time favorite song of theirs, "March of Mephisto" from "The Black Halo" release.

I was starting to get worried that they were going to skip over the "Ghost Opera" album all together but luckily they did one of the best songs off of it with "Rule the World".

One of the catchiest songs off the new release is "Insomnia" which really got the crowd singing along to the chorus. The band took a breather while Casey blasted out a lengthy drum solo.

The band returned to the stage for another new song, "Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)", followed by Oliver's turn to impress with a keyboard solo.

They finished off the set with "Forever" from their "Karma" release. The crowd began chanting immediately as the band left the stage. It was without much prompting that they returned for the encore.

For the final songs of the night they gave us "Revolution" from their latest release, "Haven" and then followed that up with "Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)" from the previous effort, "Silverthorn".

It was a great show and easily exceeded my expectations. I am glad that Kamelot are still going strong as it is no easy thing to weather line up changes of any sort but especially the frontman and voice of a band.

Tommy did an exceptional job and I am really glad he was able to join so well into the band, both in terms of sound but also in terms of lyrical subject matter as well. I highly recommend seeing these guys as well as checking out their releases.

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