KAMELOT's Upcoming Album Will Be A Mixture Of 'New Elements' And What 'Fans Expect'

In a recent interview with The Metal Mixtape, KAMELOT's Thomas Youngblood spoke about the band's songwriting approach for the follow-up to 2018's "The Shadow Theory" album. Expressing the need to create something engagingly familiar yet altogether unique, the guitarist said (hear audio below): "Obviously, there's a balance between making an album that fans expect but then doing things slightly different so you're not repeating yourself. And we're pretty good at that, I think. The team that I have with me are really good at going, 'Hey, we've kind of done this. Let's do something different.'

"When it comes to music, especially metal, people expect a certain thing," he continued. "So we always try to have this sort of DNA with each record, but also kind of make them different. This new album is gonna have that same kind of approach — we have a lot of different, new kind of elements or influences, but then there's gonna be stuff that people really expect and that they're, like, 'Okay, this is KAMELOT.' So it's a little bit of a balance. You don't wanna be redundant. That's definitely not our goal. We wanna have every record be different."

This past October, Youngblood told the "Rockum" radio show that he and his bandmates had "pretty much narrowed it down to 12 songs" that will be recorded for KAMELOT's new album. "We're gonna be working with Sascha Paeth again on production," he said. "And we're very excited. It's probably gonna come out the middle of next year."

In August, Youngblood told A&P Reacts that KAMELOT had 25 songs to pick from for the new LP. He said: "Having Tommy [Karevik, vocals] now as one of the songwriters has been killer; he's coming out with really cool stuff. And then, of course, Oliver [Palotai, keyboards] and myself, and having Alex [Landenburg] now as our drummer; he's got a lot of cool ideas. What a cool guy Alex is. So, yeah, it's gonna be exciting."

KAMELOT's new DVD and Blu-ray, "I Am The Empire - Live From The 013", was released in August via Napalm Records. The 21-song set was recorded at 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands and includes more than 100 minutes of live music and multiple exclusive extras, including backstage interviews of all guests, bandmembers and fans. Featured guest musicians include Alissa White-Gluz (ARCH ENEMY),Elize Ryd (AMARANTHE),Charlotte Wessels (DELAIN) and Lauren Hart (ONCE HUMAN).

"The Shadow Theory" was released in April 2018 via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2015's "Haven" was helmed by Paeth and mastered by Jacob Hansen. Guests on the album include Hart, Jennifer Haben (BEYOND THE BLACK) and Paeth. The cover artwork was created by Stefan Heilemann.