DOMINION

Items ordered by ending time | Showing all 3 items

Visit eBay search:'prog rock' for items
Sell your KAMELOT items on eBay !

No release results - showing artist results instead

Sort: Recent best-seller | Results cached

Visit Amazon tag:'Progressive Rock' for more prog rock

Kamelot´s second CD showed only a glimpse of their future glories, but certainly was quite a leap forward since their debut. The music is competent - but not outstanding - power metal with some very interesting lyrics (based mostly on history) and fine musicanship by the band. They were starting to find their own sound and the guitar work of Youngblood shines through the whole CD. Also of notice are the good use of the keyboards to give the album a symphonic edge on some songs (another hint of their future bombastic orchestral arrangements).

The main problem here seems to be Mark Vanderbilt vocals. He has a decent voice, but he is also clearly a more hard rock vocalist, in the vein of Robert Plant (in latter days). And the songs ask for a more dramatic, operatic voice to fully exploit their potential. Fortunatly Kamelot would find a more fitting frontman soon after this album was out. But that´s another story...

Dominion shows a great improvement of the band, but they were still far from their peak, both as a group and as songwriters. It has some good moments, but if you´re new to the band start with Karma or Epica. 2,5 stars.

Melodic metal for the masses

A year on from the band's debut Eternity and the line up remains unchanged. This would however be lead vocalist Mark Vanderbilt's final album with Kamelot, his place being filled by Roy Khan for Siege perilous. Drummer Richard Warner would also make his final appearance here.

This can therefore be seen as the end of phase one of Kamelot; not just because of the line up changes which would follow, but because the band's style would noticeably change hereafter. For the present though, we have a natural follow up to Eternity, which remains very much in the same style.

Once again, we start with a symphonic overture which immediately reassures us that the band have ambitions beyond simply creating straightforward metal. The double paced drumming which segues from Ascension into Heaven however does remind us of the band's foundations. Heaven, which is a sort of Dream Theater meets Iron Maiden number, does have some progressive tendencies, the tempo being altered several times during its four minute duration.

Speaking of four minute duration, that appears to be the template the band worked to for the entire album, the tracks always remaining within a narrow band of 3½ to 5 minutes. The following Rise again is a surprisingly melodic mid-paced song, with symphonic keyboards and an emotional vocal performance. The symphonic keyboards help to distinguish the album from others of a similar style and sound, One day I'll win for example sounding Kashmir (Led Zeppelin) like at times. The instrumental Creation is one of Kamelot's most adventurous pieces to date, featuring various band members displaying their dexterity one after the other. The synth is particularly notable here.

Overall, a highly enjoyable second album by Kamelot. While there are prog nuances in evidence, that is by no means the dominant impression. Those who enjoy the more melodic side of metal will however find much to please them here.