KAMELOT Didn't Want To Make A Full Concept Record With 'The Shadow Theory'

Holland's FaceCulture recently conducted an interview with KAMELOT guitarist Thomas Youngblood and vocalist Tommy Karevik. You can now watch the chat in two parts below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether KAMELOT's new album, "The Shadow Theory", contains any leftover ideas from 2015's "Haven":

Karevik: "No. We started completely fresh on this one. I think you can also hear it when you listen — everything is kind of connected, both musically and lyrically, in a good way. Even though we started making this album a year ago, most of it came together, really, in the end. You can really hear that, because it sounds really cohesive, and there's a vibe there throughout the album."

On how the songwriting process for "The Shadow Theory" began:

Youngblood: "Well, for me, the idea of the 'shadow' thing came from [Swiss psychiatrist] Carl Jung and this idea of the 'shadow' being the subconscious of the mind. That was kind of the genesis for me, with this idea of shadows and the psychological kind of twists that we wanted to put into the record. And then we still wanted to keep a little bit of this resistance-revolution thing that we had with 'Haven'. And then Tommy kind of took it from there and started working on the different songs. We had different ideas for each song that we would discuss and lyrically would be able to put the final touches to the idea. "

Karevik: "We wanted to keep it like a conceptual theme, but not maybe down to the detail where you can follow a storyline in a chronological order. But to have it be embraced by the fact that it somewhat fits together, we came up with these three key elements — Shadow Empire, Shadow Key and Shadow Wall — to kind of build the whole story around. But I felt it was important to keep it on a song level, because [listeners] will take a song out and enjoy it for what it is."

Youngblood: "In today's Spotify, download environment, to do a full concept record, where every song is tied to each other, might not make a whole lot of sense. So from that aspect, every song has its own kind of story. But there's a fine line that goes through all of them, which is important."

"The Shadow Theory" was released on April 6 via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2015's "Haven" was helmed by acclaimed music producer Sascha Paeth and mastered by Jacob Hansen. Guests on the album include Lauren Hart (ONCE HUMAN),Jennifer Haben (BEYOND THE BLACK) and Sascha Paeth. The cover and artwork was created by Stefan Heilemann.

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe