ETERNITY

Eternity is Kamelot´s debut album. I have read much about Kamelot since the mid-nineties but only listened to a few songs here and there at friends houses and on online radiostations. With a name like Kamelot I always assumed they were a fully fledged euro power metal band of the german school ( Helloween, Gamma Ray etc.). I see now that I was wrong in my assumptions and it´s good that I have given Kamelot a chance to prove me wrong as this album is really good.

The music does have some euro power metal tendencies ( double bass drums) in the influence from classical music, but there are more traditional heavy metal tendencies and a few progressive metal tendencies here than power metal IMO. Bands like Iron Maiden and especially Queensrÿche ( just listen to Call of the Sea and you´ll know what I mean) have not lived in vain. The singer on Eternity Mark Vanderbilt has a very strong voice that sometimes sounds like Geoff Tate ( Queensrÿche) and sometimes remind me of Bruce Dickinson ( (Iron Maiden). Besides the really strong vocals you should also notice the really excellent, raw and melodic guitar playing from Thomas Youngblood.

The songs are of equal high quality throughout the album but the title track which opens the album is my favorite. It´s such a heavy song.

The musicianship is excellent. Everything works here.

The production is really good. The guitars have bite which is something that is sadly missing from many heavy metal productions.

The cover artwork is a bit boring and again I´m deceived into believing this is a euro power metal album.

Now with all the good things I have said about Eternity why do I only give it 3 stars ? Well first of all this is not very original music and I must say that I think the album does get a bit trivial towards the end. Song for song this is a great album, but the style just bore me a bit over the course of a whole album. With that said I did consider giving Eternity 4 stars for a long while but decided that it´s a big 3 star album for me in the end.