Kamelot - Birmingham Review

After ignoring the UK for pretty much the entire Haven touring cycle, the American prog/power metal forerunners Kamelot seem to be making up for lost ground recently. A prominent slot at last year's Bloodstock Open Air was quickly followed up by a headline appearance in London, and both of these shows were excellent. The band spent nearly the whole of last year on the road supporting their most recent album The Shadow Theory, so I had not expected to be seeing the band again for a little while. Towards the end of last year however, the band announced another short run of European headline shows, which ended with three UK dates. One was a small Welsh metal festival, but the other two were stand-alone headline shows in Manchester and Birmingham. With the exception of occasional festival appearances, Kamelot have not played a headline show outside of London for probably around ten years so it was great to see them finally venturing out of the capital again. They are certainly one of the more popular melodic metal acts currently touring, so their decision to constantly under-represent themselves in the UK was a strange one. Manchester and Birmingham are not exactly wild-card choices either, but their inclusion on the tour was certainly a welcome one. While not a problem for me, there are lots of people who do not enjoy travelling to, and staying in, London so I would not be surprised if a few fans who had not managed to catch the band live for a while bought tickets to these two shows. Being a Friday, I opted for the Birmingham show. While I do not seem to visit Birmingham as often as I used to, I always enjoy visiting the country's second-biggest city. When I was at University in Leicester I would often visit Birmingham, so it is always nice to return. The venue chosen was the O2 Academy 2, a venue which I had only been to twice in the past - and both of those times were to see Iced Earth. The venue does not hold many good memories for me, and in fact the second occasion in 2014 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Despite both of their support bands sounding fine, Iced Earth had possibly the worst live sound mix for a big 'name' band that I have ever heard. As a result, lots of the fans were unsurprisingly unhappy and the band knew it - which just led to a rather lacklustre evening all round. I was not really looking forward to returning to the venue fearing something similar would happen this time too, but thankfully that was not to be the case as all three bands sounded pretty good and the sound was nice and clear all night.

With the doors opening at 6pm, and the first support band taking to the stage only around half an hour later, the venue seemed a little sparsely-packed at first - but those who had turned up early were treated to an excellent seven-song set from Austria's Visions of Atlantis who opened the evening. Despite having been around for the best part of two decades, I only really started to listen to Visions of Atlantis recently. They are a band who have always seemed to have trouble keeping their line-up together and momentum going, and have suffered more than their share of false starts in their career. Thomas Caser (drums) is the band's only constant member, and the current line-up is mostly made up of new faces. Of note however is co-frontwoman Clémentine Delauney, who is quite well known in the power and symphonic metal scenes, who has fronted Visions of Atlantis for around five years and was the star of last year's album The Deep & the Dark. Of the band's seven-song set, five tracks came from this latest album, with the other two coming from 2011's Delta. The Deep & the Dark is the only album of theirs that I really know, so it was great to hear so many of those songs live. The title track got things off to a great start, and the heavier Words of War hit the spot later with co-frontman Michele Guaitoli taking a larger share of the vocals. There was no debate that Delauney was the real star of the show however, and she showcased her excellent voice on the slower The Last Home to great effect. It was a bit of a shame however that so much of this song relied on backing tracks. Visions of Atlantis do not have a live keyboard player anymore, so piano ballads mostly rely on pre-recorded keyboards. Despite the strong vocals, this was certainly the set's low point, but things picked up with the epic older Memento which showcased some more operatic vocal styles and a more progressive approach. Christian Douscha (guitar) had a bit of a chance to show off here, before the set's last number Return to Lemuria picked up the pace once more for a true piece of power metal bombast. The crowd had grown throughout the band's set, and it seems that most had enjoyed what Visions of Atlantis had to offer as they received a big cheer as they left the stage. The setlist was:

The Deep & the Dark
New Dawn
Words of War
Book of Nature
The Last Home
Memento
Return to Lemuria

Sweden's Evergrey were up next, a band with considerable pedigree in their own right. The progressive metal five-piece had longer on stage than Visions of Atlantis, and made the time count with an eight-song set that focused on their recent material. I had seen the band a couple of times before, but this was the best showing yet with a really strong setlist and a clear live sound that brought out the best of the band's dense, atmospheric sound. They opened with two songs from The Atlantic, the album they released earlier this year, which really helped to set the tone for the next fifty minutes or so. Rikard Zander (keyboards/vocals) was high in the mix, which helped to keep the band's sound nice and atmospheric, and Tom Englund (vocals/guitar) really was in fine voice. It is his vocal delivery that helps set Evergrey apart from other progressive metal acts, with his emotional delivery really bleeding through live. The band have upped the heaviness somewhat recently, with allowed Englund and Henrik Danhage (guitar/vocals) to really crank out some doomy riffs. The latter in particular really impressed, and peeled off shredded solo after shredded solo throughout the night - easily taking the crown of guitarist of the evening. I was down near the front for the entire evening, and there were clearly quite a lot of Evergrey fans around me. There was plenty of us belting out the slow chorus to Distance, and the new single Weightless was a real early highlight. It is one of the band's more overtly-catchy pieces, and it worked really well in a live setting. Another highlight was the crushing semi-ballad All I Have, with the Gojira-esque riff really getting some heads moving down near the front, before everything fades away for the mournful, light chorus. It is a great representation of the modern Evergrey sound, before A Touch of Blessing gave us a reminder of their older sound with twin guitar leads and a less suffocating sound. It was the only older number featured in the set, which shows that Evergrey really want to present where they are now rather than where they were. Since this particular line-up of the band got together in 2014, they have been on a real run and it shows. It is a shame that they still need to mostly play second fiddle over here in the UK, as I would love to see one of their own headline shows. A Touch of Blessing would have been a great ending, but the closing number was King of Errors, one of my very favourite Evergrey pieces. It has a fantastic chorus which was sung by a lot of us down at the front, and it allowed Danhage one last chance to solo. By this point the venue was full, and nearly everyone was on board with what Evergrey were doing. They received a great reception from the crowd, and I hope this reaction will encourage the band to book some UK headline shows soon! The setlist was:

A Silent Arc
Weightless
Distance
Passing Through
My Allied Ocean
All I Have
A Touch of Blessing
King of Errors

Seeing Kamelot for the third time in less than twelve months was a real treat. It is only usually bands like Mostly Autumn and The Quireboys that I get to see with that kind of regularity, so it was nice to get another chance to see Kamelot so quickly after their London show back in October. As with the two shows last year, the night opened with Phantom Divine (Shadow Empire), the lead single from their latest album. While The Shadow Theory is certainly not one of the band's best albums, it has a few standout tracks and Phantom Divine (Shadow Empire) is one of them, It is a great set opener too, and gives the whole band a chance to rock from the off. Frontman Tommy Karevik took to the stage in a hood to perform the moody verses, before exploding into the big chorus with ease. Touring vocalist Lauren Hart also took to stage during the song and performed some great growls during the song, and helped Karevik to fire up the crowd early on. As with the show in October, the setlist was largely focused around the band's more recent albums, although a few songs - such as following number Rule the World - that were from the pre-Karevik era of the band. The only disappointing thing about this show was that the band had not really changed the setlist much between the two European tours. A couple of songs were played in Birmingham that were not played last year, but on the whole it was the same. In my opinion, songs like Rule the World, The Great Pandemonium, and March of Mephisto - while all great songs - have been played to death now. For a band with such a rich back catalogue, it is a shame that they seem to rely so heavily on a handful of standards. That is why the newer material stood out the most for me, with tracks like Veil of Elysium and the excellent new Vespertine (My Crimson Bride) - one of the songs not played last year - standing out the most. I also liked the slightly re-arranged version of End of Innocence that was played. It started off with Karevik accompanied only by Oliver Palotai's piano for the first verse and chorus, before the rest of the band came in from then on. It worked well, and was a nice twist on a song which has never been a particular favourite. Another highlight was the older Center of the Universe which has always been a favourite. The band do not really go in for that straight ahead power metal sound so much these days, so it felt like a real throwback. Karevik took the chance to hit some higher notes, and bandleader Thomas Youngblood (guitar/vocals) impressed with a shredded solo. Palotai and new drummer Alex Landenburg then got a chance to show off with short keyboard/drum play-off, before the band exploded back in with Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife) - another favourite. Hart and Clémentine Delauney added the female vocals, although the latter's microphone did not seem to be really working so sadly she was only really heard towards the end. Amnesiac and a rousing version of Forever, which featured lots of crowd interaction, then brought the main set to a close. The band were running out of time by this point, so instead of leaving the stage for an encore just launched straight into Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy). The heavy song has become a real fan favourite in recent years and gave everyone a chance to rock out one last time. It brought a great, high-energy show to a close and the capacity crowd certainly went away happy. The setlist was:

Phantom Divine (Shadow Empire)
Rule the World
Insomnia
The Great Pandemonium
When the Lights are Down
Veil of Elysium
End of Innocence
Vespertine (My Crimson Bride)
March of Mephisto
Center of the Universe
Keyboard and Drum solos
Manus Dei
Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife) [w/ Clémentine Delauney]
Amnesiac
Forever
Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)
Ministrium (Shadow Key)

Despite my qualms with the setlist, it was great to see Kamelot again so soon and, performance-wise, this was probably the best of the recent shows of theirs that I have seen. The live sound mix was great, and the whole band seemed really up for the show. Pulling a good-sized UK crowd outside of London certainly seemed to please the band too, and I hope that they consider other UK cities in future when planning European tours. After the show, both Evergrey and Visions of Atlantis were hanging around near the merch desk so I managed to get my copies of The Atlantic and The Deep & the Dark signed - which was an added bonus!