Ex-KAMELOT Vocalist ROY KHAN Admits He No Longer Sings 'A Lot Of The Songs' Live In The Same Key As He Did 'Back In The Day'

In a new interview with El Cuartel Del Metal, former KAMELOT and current CONCEPTION singer Roy Khan spoke about his ongoing "The Black Halo And Beyond" Latin American tour during which he is performing tracks from KAMELOT's classic 2005 album "The Black Halo", as well as other songs from his career. Asked how he is "coping" with the fact that he has "lost a few notes at the top" of his singing range since "The Black Halo" was recorded more than two decades ago, Roy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You can't really hear it. What we do with the songs is we take some of them down one or two half steps, depending on how tricky they are for me to sing these days. And then it's like being back when my voice, my register was a little bit higher. So, that's how we deal with it. You have drop-tune pedals now that you can use on bass and guitars, and that's how it works. So a lot of the songs are not in the same key as back in the day, which before was a problem because you couldn't really tune guitars and bass, let's say 20 years ago, in a way that wouldn't mud up the sound and make things sound ugly. But nowadays, the technology is so good that you can do that, which is a big help. Otherwise, I would have had to structure the lines a little bit differently from what I used to do it."

As for how the change in his singing range has affected the way he goes about writing new music, Roy said: "I always like to push myself to the edge of what I can do on records. On albums I kind of like being on the edge of what I can do. And I haven't really gone for the really, really high stuff since way back with CONCEPTION. On 'Flow' [1997], for example, the last album we did in the '90s, there were no like really super-high vocals. So that ended with 'In Your Multitude' [1995] way back. So, I don't really feel that I think any differently from what I did back then. I just naturally came to the conclusion that my voice sounded better in a slightly lower range. Of course, there's a lot of people that will wanna hear me do the really high stuff still, which I can do, but I don't have that... It's more airey, it's more falsetto like than what it was on the very first CONCEPTION records."

Khan is currently working on his first solo album, which is tentatively due in 2027. Khan's solo LP is being produced by Sascha Paeth, a producer, composer and musician with a long-standing career in European metal. Paeth is widely recognized for his fundamental role in shaping the sound of classic KAMELOT albums such as "The Fourth Legacy", "Karma", "Epica" and "The Black Halo", as well as for his work with acts like AVANTASIA, EPICA and ANGRA. His signature blend of heaviness, refinement and cinematic atmosphere aligns closely with the artistic identity Khan has developed throughout his career.

Alongside Paeth, the album is being co-produced by Caio Kehyayan (FIREWING) and Adrienne Cowan (SEVEN SPIRES),both of whom have been deeply involved in the songwriting process. Additional songwriting contributions come from Bill Hudson, best known for his work with TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, I AM MORBID and CIRCLE II CIRCLE.

Originally released in 2005, "The Black Halo" remains a landmark in metal history, featuring iconic tracks like "March Of Mephisto", "The Haunting (Somewhere In Time)" and "When The Lights Are Down".

In the summer of 2023, Roy — whose full name is Roy Sætre Khantatat — said that a number of things contributed to his decision to leave KAMELOT a decade and a half ago.

The now-56-year-old Norwegian singer announced his exit from KAMELOT in April 2011 after taking several months off to recover from a "burnout."

After his departure from KAMELOT, Khan, who is a devout Christian, joined a church in the coastal town of Moss, Norway.

Khan reformed his pre-KAMELOT band CONCEPTION eight years ago and released an EP, 2018's "My Dark Symphony", and a full-length album, 2020's "State Of Deception".

KAMELOT officially announced Tommy Karevik as its new lead singer in June 2012. The Florida-based band has recorded five albums so far with the Swedish vocalist: 2012's "Silverthorn", 2015's "Haven", 2018's "The Shadow Theory", 2023's "The Awakening" and 2026's "Dark Asylum".