Kamelot - Wolverhampton Review

As is often the case around this time of year, I am currently in the midst of an extremely busy period of gig-going. Late autumn/early winter is generally jam-packed with tours and 2024 is no different - with October having been very busy and November is also rammed. It is going to be a very tiring few weeks for me, but travelling around the country and going to concerts is always worth it. This is especially the case when a real favourite band makes a relatively rare UK appearance - something which generally requires dropping all other plans and focusing on the latest tour announcement. The relevant band in this case is the American-based power metal act Kamelot - a band I still consider to be a true favourite. I might not listen to them as much as I once did, but they remain an important band overall for me - and they always deliver live. Sadly, though, a UK show is not always guaranteed when they tour in Europe. They have plenty of fans in Europe, but they do not always include a UK show whenever they tour. I can only imagine that fewer promoters are willing to take the risk than I would have thought or that the right venues are not always available - but it cannot be down to fan demand. Prior to last night's show, I had seen Kamelot live five times - and each show was packed out. They even played to a big crowd as the Friday night special guests at the 2018 iteration of Bloodstock Open Air - so there remains a lot of love for Kamelot here in the UK. Since I have followed the band, though, the UK has been missed off a few of their tours. The Haven (which I reviewed here) touring cycle never came to the UK, sadly, and the original European run for last year's The Awakening (which I reviewed here) also missed the UK. In contrast, though, the touring cycle for The Shadow Theory (which I reviewed here) visited the UK on three separate occasions, including the aforementioned Bloodstock appearance, which meant that I managed to see the band three times between August 2018 and March 2019. Prior to last night, though, that March 2019 show in Birmingham was the last time I saw Kamelot live - as it was the last time that they came to the UK. Clearly the pandemic put a hold on touring activities for a while - and afterwards the band were focusing instead on their latest album. I was disappointed when last year's European tour did not include any UK shows, but I have learnt to be patient as they tend to do multiple legs for each album tour - so I was rewarded earlier in the year when they announced their latest European tour which included three UK shows. Whilst the band did play outside of London and festivals back in the day, in recent years they have tended to focus on London. This changed in 2019 with shows in Birmingham and Manchester - and they continued to experiment this year, too, with Wolverhampton and Manchester shows booked alongside London. The Wolverhampton show made the most sense when considering other plans - and I always enjoy a trip to the West Midlands and KK's Steel Mill. It was a long journey up from Devon, though, due to needing to catch an early train due to cancellations and then having to stand the whole way between Exeter and Wolverhampton. A lie down in the hotel was welcome, then, before I headed across town for the night.

It was a long night, too, as there were three support bands on the bill. The doors opened at 6pm, though, and the first band hit the stage at 6:30pm - with the changeovers between each act generally being quick. As such, there was not too much hanging around - and the three support bands were different enough to keep things interesting. Opening the night and on stage for around 30 minutes were the Italian power metal six-piece Frozen Crown - who were playing their first ever show in the UK. I had listened to a couple of their albums prior to the show, but I would certainly not consider myself as being familiar with their work. Despite this, though, their time on stage flew by - with the band putting on a great performance. Their take on power metal is of the very high-octane kind - so is defined by fast tempos, soaring vocals, and plentiful shredded guitar solos. I might not listen to this kind of power metal as much as I used to, but for 30 minutes it was great to be caught up in that sound. Frontwoman Giada Etro has a great voice, and she was generally well-heard above the rest of the band, whilst the three-guitar attack of bandleader Federico Mondelli, Fabiola Bellomo, and Alessia Lanzone proved to be a powerful force. Mondelli was generally leading the charge riff-wise, and did solo on occasion, but most of the solos were handled by Bellomo who incorporated a lot of tapping into her playing. The soloing throughout the band's set was intense, then, with Lanzone stepping away from her typical rhythm duties to double up some of the solos and leads at times. As such, there were notes flying left, right, and centre - all whilst the rhythm section galloped along and Etro delivered plenty of soaring vocal hooks. As is often the case with this type of power metal, though, after a while the songs did all roll into one - although the closing number did feel a bit crunchier with more of a mid-paced feel and some harsh vocals from Mondelli. I still think that I should check out some more of the band's work, though, and I would see them again if they came around. It seems that they are planning their own tour for next year, too, so I will have to keep an eye out for any UK dates.

Up next, and afforded slightly longer, were the Swiss four-piece Ad Infinitum. I was slightly more familiar with them, as I did spend some time with Chapter III - Downfall (which I reviewed here) last year - but most of the band's set came from their newly-released album Abyss, which I am yet to hear, so I was not familiar with essentially the whole set. This did not matter, though, as the band put on an excellent performance - and were easily the best of the three support acts. Fronted by Melissa Bonny, who later pulled double duty with Kamelot, the band's mix of subtle symphonic metal with pop hooks and tech metal riffing helped to set them apart from the very traditional sounds of the other bands on the bill - and Ad Infinitum felt like a band trying to do something different. Bonny is a great singer, who can easily switch back and forth between clean and harsh vocals without breaking a sweat - and she was very much the band's focal point. She commanded the stage and sang really well - soaring above the band despite the overall heaviness of the songs. There were some very poppy moments in the set, with big synth arrangements, but these were relatively few - with much of the set driven by the dry riffing of guitarist Adrian Thessenvitz. His riffing style is very modern and his tech metal, angular patterns are very different from those generally heard in the symphonic and power metal genres. Despite this, though, all of the disparate sounds came together easily - and there were a number of strong choruses to latch onto, as well as a handful of big guitar solos. Ad Infinitum are not really a flashy band in that sense, so the occasional solo was welcome and impactful - with the grooves and the vocal hooks generally being what drove the songs. Bonny did not rely too much on her harsh vocals to create unnecessary heaviness, either. Like with the guitar solos, their sparse inclusion made them all the more powerful - and her clean vocals are so easy on the ear it would be unwise to limit them just to include more screams. There was enough heaviness created by the riffing in any case - and the contrast between the pop hooks and the grinding riffs were generally what made the band interesting. Given how much I enjoyed the band's set, I will need to pick up Abyss soon - and Ad Infinitum are certainly another band I would check out if they came around on their own in the near future.

Sadly, the evening's third and final support act never really got out of the starting gate. Before the Dutch gothic metal six-piece Blackbriar took to the stage, drummer René Boxem came out and announced to the crowd that the whole band were ill - and that frontwoman Zora Cock was suffering particularly badly. Boxem said that they wanted to try and play their set, but they would be dictated by what Cock could actually handle - so they may not get through the whole thing. As it turned out, they made it through three songs before calling it a day. Cock actually sounded pretty good despite the illness, but her body language conveyed that she was really struggling - and she pulled out of a few notes as she clearly felt that she was not going to hit them. It was a hard watch, but clearly she and the band wanted to try and perform - particularly as, like Frozen Crown, it was their first show in the UK. There were quite a few Blackbriar shirts in the crowd, too, so clearly they already have their fans here - but I was not familiar with them prior to the show. From the three songs I heard, though, they seem like a band worth exploring. Their sound is very rooted in that late 1990s/early 2000s Dutch gothic/symphonic rock scene - albeit without the harsh vocals which tended to be prevalent at the time. The songs were mid-paced and doomy with a lot of keyboards and mournful guitar leads - with Cock's voice being of that siren-like quality which was big at the time. The first Within Temptation and After Forever albums are certainly easy comparisons to make - but I likely did not hear enough of their stuff to fully judge. I will need to give their albums a listen at some point, even if out of solidarity, as it is never nice to see a band struggle and have to admit defeat. It was clear after the third song, though, that Cock could not go on - so the band bowed out gracefully to a warm reception.

As Blackbriar had finished earlier than planned, there was a bit of a wait before Kamelot took to the stage. They did end up coming on about 15 minutes earlier than they were originally going to - but there was still around 45 minutes to wait which was a bit tedious. By the time the lights went down, then, the good-sized crowd was more than up for the show - and the atmosphere was pretty electric from the off. Kicking off with the up-tempo Veil of Elysium worked well in this regard, too. The melodic power metal track certainly got the crowd on-side right away - and the big chorus was the first of many sung back at frontman Tommy Karevik throughout the night. Four songs from the latest album were included in the set - with nine of the songs overall coming from the Karevik era and six coming from the Roy Khan era. My only criticism of Kamelot live in recent years has been their reliance on the same handful of tracks from the Khan era - and, true to form, Rule the World came next. I like the song, but I feel it is due a rest. I understand why Forever and March of Mephisto continue to be played at every show - but the other old regulars could all be rested in my opinion in place of deeper cuts from that era, or even more newer tunes. There are so many older tracks I would love to hear Karevik tackle but instead the band continue to roll When the Lights Are Down out night after night. This is not a huge issue, but it is something I have highlighted before so it only seemed fair to highlight it again - but when the epic Opus of the Night (Ghost Requiem) rolled around I was happy. The track is one of my favourite cuts from the latest album and it came alive on stage - with Bonny coming out to deliver some of the operatic backing vocals. She joined the band on a number of songs to fill the shoes of various guest singers over the years - and she worked well with Karevik whenever they were singing together. Early on in the set there was a fast-paced feel, with anthems coming thick and fast. Insomnia is a real Kamelot classic now and it always goes down well live, but a real treat was a rendition of the waltzing Vespertine (My Crimson Bride) - which I had only seen the band do live once previously. Karevik was in great voice, on his birthday no less, and the rest of the band sounded great, too. Thomas Youngblood (guitar/vocals) delivered a number of shredded solos throughout the night - and his riffing in the anthemic new cut New Babylon and the old favourite Karma showed what sets Kamelot apart from the rest of the power metal pack. Another overall highlight for me was a barnstorming rendition of Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife) - with Bonny delivering the harsh vocal-led mid-section with ease. The latest album was revisited again for the gorgeous ballad Willow, a song which has slowly climbed up in my estimations in recent times, before there was a treat for old-school fans in The Human Stain which I had not seen the band do for about ten years. The set was really racing by at this point, too, and there was not much of it left. A drum solo from Alex Landenburg led into a barnstorming March of Mephisto - after which Oliver Palotai (keyboards) stole the spotlight for a classical piano solo which led into a set-closing rendition of Forever, which was dragged out with lots of crowd interaction and a birthday cake being brought out for Karevik. It brought the main set to a bombastic close - but after some cheering the band came back out for more. One last new track in One More Flag in the Ground acted as a big sing-a-long, before the heavier Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy) brought just over 90 minutes of music to a powerful close - with Bonny once again singing alongside Karevik. The setlist was:

Veil of Elysium

Rule the World

Opus of the Night (Ghost Requiem)

Insomnia

When the Lights Are Down

Vespertine (My Crimson Bride)

New Babylon

Karma

Manus Dei

Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)

Willow

The Human Stain

Drum solo

March of Mephisto

Keyboard solo

Forever/We Will Rock You [Queen cover]

-

One More Flag in the Ground

Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)

Continuum

Overall, and despite my qualms with the setlist (I also have a similar issue with Arch Enemy - so this is not a Kamelot-exclusive issue), I had an excellent time with Kamelot in Wolverhampton last night. They always deliver a high-energy set and it is also great that they tend to be forward-looking and focus on playing songs released more recently. All three of the support bands were enjoyable, too, and it was great to see the show pull a pretty healthy crowd outside of London. KK's Steel Mill can hold more, but it can curtain bits of the space off when it needs to - and there were a good few hundred in attendance who made plenty of noise throughout. I will always go and see Kamelot so long as they keep coming back - and they remain a real favourite and an important band in my musical history.