THE FOURTH LEGACY

Symphonic Power Metal

So why do I remove the word "progressive" and replace it with "power"? Quite honest with you, I was not sure whether this can be categorized as prog album or not. If you happened to read (or at least skim) my review of the band's "Epica" album, I did mention that "Epica" is the only prog album from the band. But, if I look into detail - track by track observation - on the "progness" of this album, I certainly find those tracks with prog elements, but it's not that much. If I have to quantify in numbers, probably this album is approximately 40% prog. Definitely, when I browse through the entire album, all songs were composed with a power metal vein. [I use the term "power metal" interchangeably with "melodic metal" - it's basically the musical style that was pioneered by Germany's Helloween].

Put aside the categorization of music, this album is worth collecting and it may become an all-time favorite for you. The band has put a concerted effort to bring their best ideas and crafting them into materials that combine various elements, i.e. metal, orchestra, classical music, eastern music, ballad - and blend them together into an immaculate composition. As an album, "Fourth Legacy" is cohesive. Fans of EVERGREY, RHAPSODY, ICE AGE, HELLOWEEN, GAMMA RAY, BLIND GUARDIAN, DREAM THEATER, IN FLAME, SONATA ARCTICA, STRATOVARIUS, ROYAL HUNT or other bands in "metal" vein would enjoy this album. As usual, Kamelot music has always been melodic even with their fast tempo tracks.

The Tracks

As in a tradition of power metal music, the album always starts off with a short instrumental piece, usually in the form of symphonic orchestra. This album is by no exception, it opens with "New Allegiance" which was composed wonderfully. Quality- wise, it's at par excellent with the opening of the band's previous album "Karma" through "Regalis Apertura". "New Allegiance" has more energy and it fits really well to welcome the second track. "The Fourth Legacy" blasts off the power metal vein through fast tempo music with speedy double pedal bass drum, bass line and electric guitar. The powerful voice of Khan enters the music nicely and it flows with the fast tempo music. The melody of the voice line is really nice and catchy. It's really a killing track, melody-wise! The keyboard played at background is used to accentuate the "symphonic" nature of the music. There is a break into quieter music passage featuring the orchestration work and female choirs. It's a wonderful break. Overall .. this is a powerful and very uplifting melodic track!!!!

"Silent Goddess" has a slower tempo but it still maintain the high level energy. The composition is more straight forward power metal music compared to previous track. It's still a song with catchy and memorable melody. It's an enjoyable track and it's probably Accessible to vast majority of music buffs.

"Desert Reign" is a short track (1:39, used to create Islamic cultures and nuances through the use of eastern music instruments with light orchestra. This is set to create an appropriate atmosphere for the next song with eastern nuance: "Nights of Arabia". This fifth track may be considered as a prog track as it combines many elements of music and not really a straight forward structure in terms of composition. The orchestration work has helped a lot in creating dynamics of this song.

The sixth track "The Shadow of Uther" is a power metal song with excellent orchestration - especially during transition or at the background of voice singing. Until this track, I can still see that this track has a strong and nice melody. The track is closed by an orchestra with flute / oboe sounds.

"A Sailorman's Hymn" reminds me to "Don't You Cry" of "Karma" album - it's almost the same. It also uses acoustic guitar - augmented with piano - performed in ballad style. The light orchestra helps create a wonderful background music. Album wise, it's a break having listened to high level energy tracks previously.

"Alexandria" is a typical power metal tune with some flavors of Arabian music which the band has blended it into rhythm section. Female backing voice appears softly. The interlude part that features guitar solo is backed nicely with a light orchestra.

"The Inquisitor" is a nice track performed in medium tempo with strong melody and light orchestra work at background. Again, in some passages the orchestration is performed in Arabian style that sometimes appear in crescendo - followed with guitar solo. Orchestration plays key role in the image creation of eastern music textures.

"Glory" is another track in the vein of "A Sailorman's Hymn": acoustic guitar fills, voice line, beautiful orchestration and touchy (and killing!) melody. Even though these two tracks (and also "Don't You Cry" from "Karma" album) are performed in sad nuance, all the three tracks actually have had a potential to be a hit single - if the band put commercial efforts on them. Well, I remember Kansas' "Dust In The Wind" when became hit in the seventies.

"Until Kingdom Come" is an energetic track in the vein of "Fourth Legacy" (second track) - it has a powerful fast tempo, very uplifting - and strong melody especially through the voice of Khan. I also like speed drumming of Casey Grillo, combined with Glenn Barry's bass line that then followed with stunning guitar solo of Thomas Youngblood. Oh mann .. This track is so powerful!! I like to emulate the melody even after I listen to this track.

The album is closed by last track "Lunar Sanctum" in relatively medium tempo. Structure- wise, this track is different from other tracks as the opening part does not seem like a power metal tune - it's like a prog tune. [Even, in some passages - it reminds me to the music of PALLAS - the neo prog band!]. Indeed, this track has more prog elements as well. It has shifting time signatures. It's also more complex with an excellent interlude exploring many classical music influence: the use of string and flute. It's a wondefully crafted track - and it's enjoyable.

My Overall Recommendation

It's very difficult for me to differentiate these three albums of Kamelot: "Karma" (my first introduction to the band), "Epica" (the prog album), and "Fourth Legacy" - all of them are the albums with immaculate composition. Especially, if I observe on the basis of enjoyment with each track of those three albums - all of them have, in their own ways, ultimately satisfied my mind. Each album has approximately the same "spin share" (it's my term that corresponds to "market share" in modern business world) in my CD player. But I think, this album has a little bit lacking of variety in its entire album compared to the other two. So, I would give 4.5 stars rating - highly recommended! - HAIL ..

Progressively yours,

GW - Indonesia

This is Kamelot's 4th album and 2nd album with former Conception singer Roy Khan. His voice makes Kamelot what they are to me: A beautiful mix of Symphonic Rock and Power Metal. The catchiness of his vocal melodies and the soaring emotions that his voice gives us are very desired. This is the first of the four Kamelot albums that are very superb and show off a lot of potential.

The album starts off with an intro, then the track Fourth Legacy, a very catchy track and starts with the "usual" Kamelot phrase, the usual Power Metal chord and a speedy, but EXTREMELY melodic chorus as usual. The album of course goes on and goes on and for me, it is extremely hard to differentiate between tracks (The same problem that I face on the later Kamelot albums too). This is where we run into a big problem. Kamelot, no matter how majestic and beautiful they sound, always faces problem. The problem is that almost all their albums sound similar to each other, and from here 'til Epica, all the albums basically sound similar.

This album is where the band starts their path to maturity and that maturity could be quickly felt on the album: The Black Halo.

A good album with 3.5 stars, but The Black Halo is recommended over this one.

Very good album. This more power than progressive but is very OK. The styles combines in a wonderful music. A truly great voice from Roy Khan. A good one, and every track is damn good, The Inquisitor and Silent Goddess, maybe the best from this album, in my opinion.

This is really not as accesible as Karma and should be listened with caution. The band does not go for too many hooks here (don't expect something like "The Spell", for example). Instead, they focus on heavier tracks with occasional eastern themes used through the album. The mix of this eastern touch (which is not overused, as i said it appears occasionally) with power metal offers some good results and this is one of the band's best achievements, although not at the same level as Black Halo or Karma.

On Fourth Legacy Kamelot finally enters the major prog metal league with honors. Everything their earlier album, Siégue Periculous, hinted are here in full bloom. Thanks a lot to the right production by Sasha Paeth (Heaven´s Gate) and Miro. The duo really knows how to bring Kamelot´s sound to a new level. The band now has mature in terms of playing and writing. Although losing their keyboards player services - and since then officially remaining a quartet - the band included a myriad of guests to enhance their sound and explore new territories.

Fourth Legacy is progressive power metal at its best, adding many elements to he basic trio of guitar-bass-drums. Besides keyboards and orchestrations, there are some female vocals, eastern instruments and so on. the songs are varied and mature. Roy Kahn´s voice finally gets the fitting recording and soars through the whole album. He has one of the most beautiful voices in metal, prefering to sing at lower registers to bring more deph to the melodic tunes. It works wonders on the most up temp tunes like the title track as well as in the totally acoustic cut A Sailorman´s Hymn (Thomas Youngblood shows his skills with the acoustic classical guitar too). The lyrics are quite intelligent and also varied, escaping easily of most metal´s or prog´s trappings of commonplace.

Although the band would evolve to even more symphonic sounds in the future (Epica, The Black Halo) and would deliver a greater power metal album (Karma), Fourth Legacy is still a remarkable CD, the first to truly bring up the enourmous potential the band always had, specially since Roy Khan´s addition. Highly recommended.

May the fourth be with you

For many prog metal fans, this is where Kamelot began their journey. While the album still represents a stage in their transition, by this time the prog influences are becoming clearer, with the focus moving slowly but perceptibly from strong melodic hooks to something altogether more challenging. There is no major change of direction here though, this is still primarily a melodic album rooted in the metal genre.

The opening combination of the overture ("New Allegiance") and the title track immediately declare that the band has ambitions well beyond what has gone before. The title track is in fact a magnificent blend of power metal, symphonic rock and atmospheric chorale. The song has a majesty and appeal which sets it apart from anything by the band which has preceded it.

There remains material which would have been equally at home on previous albums in terms of composition ("Silent goddess", "Alexandria"), but even these are augmented by vastly improved arrangements. There is a nice touch too where "Nights of Arabia" is preceded by an eastern instrumental "Desert reign", the two tracks combining to form a 7 minute min-epic. "Nights. . ." actually includes some very commercially oriented harmonic singing, the rising orchestral keyboards and female vocals of Cinzia Rizzo adding some excellent dramatics.

Many albums of this nature will include an obligatory ballad, and in this case we have the atmospheric "A Sailorman's Hymn". Metal fans may cringe at its delicacy, but the truth is this is a wonderful song with emotional vocals and synth orchestration. It serves to add yet another magnificent dimension to the album. The song has a similarity to Pendragon's acoustic version of "The shadow", originally from their "Masquerade overture" album. A second such track is "Glory", further emphasising the band's willingness to make the album they want to make.

I find "The inquisitor" to be the only track which does not quite work for me. It is hard to pinpoint why, as it retains many of the characteristics of its peers. It is perhaps though that the overall sound is a little more muddled, the song being rather lacking in definition.

The final track " Lunar Sanctum" has a real Ayreon/Luccassen feel to it, especially with the space theme. It is quite different to the rest of the album, but retains the albums overall impressions of competence and invention.

Although once again rightly classified as a metal album, I would propose that this is lite metal. Those who tend to pass by music from the genre can safely enter here, and be assured that they are likely to find much to enjoy. The symphonic arrangements and attention to detail in evidence transform what might otherwise have been pretty standard fare into something far more considered. One could debate at lengths just how prog or otherwise "The fourth legacy" actually is, but the bottom line is this is a quite remarkable album.

New allegiance

Power Metal is certainly not my preferred type of music but Kamelot is not your regular Power Metal band, at least not on The Fourth Legacy. This wonderful album presents an interesting form of symphonic Power Metal infused with Folk, World-Music and Prog- influences without coming across as overblow or bombastic. The music of Kamelot has indeed little to do with that of the often cheesy European Power Metal bands. The Fourth Legacy is a dark, serious and quite eclectic affair which shows a band not afraid to branch out into unknown territory but at the same time confident in their chosen direction. The powerful yet passionate vocals of Roy Khan help give Kamelot their own musical identity.

The album opens with a short, expressive instrumental called New Allegiance that leads into The Fourth Legacy in which the line "new allegiance" features in the chorus. The title track is a rather conventional melodic Metal number. Silent Goddess is a bit heavier and also introduces some new sounds into the picture like piano and female(-ish?) backing vocals. Dessert Reign is another short instrumental that introduces the superb Nights Of Arabia. Here the World-Music influence is at its strongest with the predominant far-eastern sounds giving this section of the album a highly appealing oriental sound and feel. The wall of sound is impressive with a high attention to detail without ever coming across as cluttered.

The Shadow Of Uther is another excellent song. The Uther in question is, of course, Uther Pendragon, famous from the legend of King Arthur that has inspired countless of bands and artists on this site including Rick Wakeman, Kayak, Fairport Convention and - at least as far as their band name goes - Pendragon. To go along with the theme of the song there is more of a Celtic/Folk feel to this one with fiddle playing a part - very effective! After this Metal onslaught the time is perfect for a folky, acoustic ballad and this is exactly what we get next with A Sailorman's Hymn. Not many Metal bands can create such delicate ballads and the presence of this lovely piece contributes greatly to making The Fourth Legacy a varied and diverse album. Glory is another exquisite acoustic ballad with a medieval feel that could have been a Blackmore's Night song with the acoustic guitars reminding me of Ritchie Blackmore's playing. Slight Celtic touches return again on other songs, particularly on Until Kingdom Come which features some nice instrumental breaks. The album closes with Lunar Sanctum which is one of the more progressive and less Metal tracks on the album. It constitutes a fine ending to a great and interesting album.

I originally gave four stars to this album, but after having heard all of the other albums by Kamelot, The Fourth Legacy remains my favourite by the band and deserving of that final star.

It is not surprising, given the title, that this is the fourth album by Kamelot. They have used a guest keyboard player, along with choirs and string sections, and these have all added depth to what is a stunning melodic metal album. There are parts of it, such as the introduction to "Desert Reign", which give no hint of the power and force of the music as it is not what one would expect to find on a rock album.

But, songs such as the title track show Kamelot in their true colours, flying high on a wind of anthemic intricate melodic metal with Casey Grillo pounding those double bass drum pedals for all he is worth. The fact that they have attempted to make their music much more than just another metal album is definitely in their favour, and Noise have also done their part with some evocative artwork for the booklet. If you are intrigued by bands such as Stratovarius then this is an album you must discover (distributed in the UK by Koch International).

Originally appeared in Feedback #57

This early release by Kamelot creates the rubber stamp that the symphonic-power-prog-metal band has used on each of its follow up albums to date. Normally this comment might be criticism, but Kamelot is very very good at crafting artful examples of this genre, and Fourth Legacy sets the stage. Their brand of soaring/dramatic/orchestral/romantic/angsty metal may cause some to turn up their noses, but even if you think Kamelot is derivative, light-weight, or cheesy, its hard to argue that the band is just plain a blast to listen to - Fourth Legacy is no exception.

The album starts with a symphonic intro, then drops us into the rip-roaring title track which opens the album with a grandiose momentum and melody. The interplay of instrumental virtuosity, appealing riffs and melodies, and Khan's incredibly easy-on-the-ear vocals start things off right. Outstanding guitar work by the incredibly consistent Youngblood will get your energy level up and the double-bass onslaught of Grillo's drumming will get your foot tapping. Great stuff that continues through the first half of the album, culminating in the heavily nuanced and orchestrated "Nights of Arabia." The band slows things down here and there, but for the most part each song is a bite-sized, fist-pumping, uplifting sing-along example power metal excellence. The song writing accomplishes quite a bit, considering that songs run about 4-5 minutes in length, but is not as ambitious as we'll see them attempt later. Barry gives some some fat bass riffing, easily identifiable thanks to the album's squeaky clean production, Miro's keyboard contributions add that layer of class (and camp) that elevates the band's sound to be more than simple metal shredding. The album closes as powerfully as it began with the outstanding "Lunar Sanctum," which features a slow build to the wonderfully epic conclusion.

While still an early album for Kamelot, Fourth Legacy is of consistently high quality and a worthy purchase for those interested in the band. If you like metal music with clean vocals and production, minimal instrumental excess but great playing, and a bit of heavy-handedness in the lyrics, it doesn't get much better than Kamelot, and the Fourth Legacy. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because it's so much fun.

Songwriting: 3 - Instrumental Performances: 4 - Lyrics/Vocals: 3 - Style/Emotion/Replay: 4