GHOST OPERA

I am among the one-fourth or so of Kamelot fans who found Kamelot's album from 2007 Ghost Opera a very disappointing follow up to The Black Halo, at best. I love this band, and tried to love this album, but failed. Yes it's hard to follow up such a work of art as The Black Halo was, but I expected something at least better than this when I first went to play what was then the new Kamelot album that I had just bought. At first I thought, oh, this'll just take some time to grow on me. I've listened to it seven or eight times since, and every single time I felt equally, if not even more, disappointed as I got to know the album. I even had some friends tell me it grew on them so they liked it a lot after a few listens, but for me this wasn't the case at all. It really pains me that I should give an album by one of my favorite metal bands an overall negative review, but it is what it is.

There are various shortcomings I think I can at least attempt to pinpoint on why this was such a disappointment. First off, the production sounds mucky to these ears. The added string parts just seem to clutter everything up instead of enhancing the emotional quality of the music as they had done in previous albums, as if they had written the song and threw in some strings just for good measure. I could be very wrong on this, but that's what I think I'm hearing. It also seems like the band felt like they needed to progress the music somewhere, but were very unsure as to what they would do to make it different, so they forced it to be by actually subtracting some of their progressive elements, such as the instrumental and solo sections, the diverse song format, ect. Even something about the vocal lines seem everything short of memorable, which was usually what saved a Kamelot song from being less than mediocre in their earlier material. The album as a whole just sounds very uninspired, like the band knew the fans demanded another album, so they forged one just to keep their momentum going. I would have rather they waited longer and released a quality album, as Symphony X had done upon the release of Paradise Lost, five years or so after The Odyssey. Sometimes I wonder if I disliked this album because I was so amazed by The Black Halo and set my expectations too high, but when I think of the album by itself, making no comparisons, it still falls in the below average category. The musicianship and potential is clearly there, but the composition and production, in this fan's opinion, isn't.

On the positive side, there are a few tracks that, while still mediocre, have some enjoyable quality. I'm referring mainly to the first three tracks, especially Ghost Opera. They are well written, even though they follow the simplistic layout of the rest of the album's tracks, and Khan's brilliant vocals sore as they always have. These are what save the album from being a one star, and just typing that sort of hurts inside since I adore the three albums before it.

So, as the rating indicates, I would in fact only recommend this to die hard Kamelot fans, for many of them find this release comparable to The Black Halo and a logical next step from that album. As for me, it sits on my shelf collecting dust, for any time I listen to it and try to figure out what's to like about it, I just come out sad that I couldn't.

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