KAMELOT

There is little to dispute that KAMELOT's perilous early 2010s singer switcheroo from Roy Khan to Tommy Karevik has been a success: the size of the venues in which the band continues to headline at home and abroad backs up that sentiment. Plus, KAMELOT has the benefit of working a strong back catalog (see: 1999's "The Fourth Legacy" and 2005's "The Black Halo") alongside newer, Karevik-fronted forays that have held their ground. It's not a bad place to be, which may explain why KAMELOT has stayed the course on "Dark Asylum".

The band's breathy, dramatic brand of melodic-on-power-on-symphonic metal has often been built upon soft, drumless verses featuring a gentle keyboard/guitar accompaniment that builds to a crescendo with a dramatic chorus. It's a formula that band leader, guitarist and founding member Thomas Youngblood and keyboardist Oliver Palotai have managed to tweak just enough over the years to keep KAMELOT from sounding stale. So, as expected, there are the sky-high, set-the-pyro moments on "Ashen World" and the title track. "Godlike Alchemy" even finds Mr. Karevik climbing the ladder for some serious highs, while AVANTASIA / EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet gets in on the act for "One Last Masquerade".

Speaking of guests, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS frontwoman Clémentine Delauney makes her presence known on "Sanctuary" (she's great),while the 2025 Miss World Chile, Ignacia Fernández, lends her soon-to-be-global death metal grunts on the aforementioned "Ashen World" and "Sanctuary". Fernández has a formidable set of lungs, but it's long been a mystery why KAMELOT likes to bring guttural female vocals into the mix when Karevik so capably soars above.

Outside of the dull ballad "Ivy, My Dear", Karevik routinely proves why he was the right choice to replace Khan. The prevailing sentiment with Khan was that he always sounded relaxed and in control; the same now applies to Karevik, who can get moving when KAMELOT barrels into symphonic metal territory on "The Sleeping Mind (Orphic Paradigm)" and "The Puppet King".

More and more, KAMELOT has become the one-size-fits-all melodic metal band, capable of delivering the right mix of big, epic sprawls and a softer touch that has helped their fanbase expand beyond the usual clientele. While KAMELOT is a much different band than they were in the late 1990s, "Dark Asylum" shows you don't mess with a winning formula.