Kamelot at KoKo
Kamelot – KoKo – 28 March 2010
Support: Leaves Eyes, Adagio
Words by Andy Whittle / Photo’s by Daniel Gray
As another London evening is upon us, this Sunday saw the masses of metalheads gathering at Koko for one of the most anticipated melodic metal bills so far this year: Kamelot with support from Leaves’ Eyes and Adagio. There’s just 15 minutes between the opening of doors and the first band, it’s a tight one to get everyone in the venue in time.
First to hit the stage are French neoclassical/progressive quintet Adagio. Adagio recently parted ways with vocalist Christian Palin and have subsequently recruited ex-Therion and Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Mats Levén for the current tour. In no way do the band suffer from this, if anything, their show is improved tenfold. There’s a reason Mats has been a part of such prestigious Swedish bands in the past and it’s because the man can really sing. Unfortunately, the sound engineer wasn’t so kind as to let Adagio be host to the excellent sound they deserved, instead the audience were gifted a poor mix with a distinct lack of anything being properly equalised or balanced. Brilliant job, Mr. Soundman. Nevertheless, the band gave it 110% with mind-blowing musicianship on display for all to behold. The highlights of their set are surely “Second Sight” and “Fire Forever” – demonstrating a melodic chorus at its finest. After what felt like a far too short set, the band take their final bows and leave the stage to a well warmed-up crowd. From this point, it’s hard to see if the band can be topped tonight.
Next up were the German 6 piece: Leaves’ Eyes, fronted by the Liv Kristine, followed by the tail of her seemingly over the top dress. The band open with “Njord”, perhaps not the strongest opening track for energy. They could maybe have benefitted from something a little faster to get the crowd going and the band certainly have a larger and more epic sound on CD. Backing vocalist Alexander Krull pumps the crowd where possible and demonstrates some of the most fantastic windmilling I have ever bared witness to; with hair flowing for what must be at least a metre long. Though the man is clearly a talented frontman, myself and many others failed to see his purpose within a touring act. The growling backing vocals could easily have been taken on by one of the guitar players (as is often the case in female-fronted metal) and meant one less person to fill the stage with not an awful lot to do throughout the set.
The sound is still far from kind to Leaves’ Eyes (I’m left wondering when the soundman’s going to be throttled and severely hoping it was a clueless in-house tech and not someone they paid to take on tour). Things get a lot heavier once the main riff of “My Destiny” kicks in and the crowd start to go for it a bit more. Next up is “Emerald Island” and whilst these tracks sound atmospheric and packed with synths on CD, they sound empty in a live environment. Maybe it’s the soundman (is he dead yet?), or maybe the tracks just don’t seem to work in the live environment. Or maybe I’m completely wrong. Whatever it is, something is missing for me which bands like Epica and Nightwish provide in a live environment, the lack of a keyboard player can’t help. The highlight of their set is the melodic and far more energetic “Take the Devil in Me”, which is a reminder that not all female-fronted metal tracks have been reduced to generic pop music with heavy guitars just yet. This song should have been the closer for sure, but the band carry on through “Ragnarok”, “Elegy” and “Froya’s Theme” to end their set.
At around 9pm, the lights go dark and the moment we’ve all been waiting for arrives. The time for the Norwegian/American kings of epic metal Kamelot to take the stage, or maybe I spoke too soon. A lacklustre rendition of Ghost Opera is how we are greeted. Again, we are dogged by poor sound and can pretty much only hear the absolutely perfectly equalised drums (the hardest bit to do, as any live sound engineer will tell you) and a ridiculously loud keyboard. Next up is “Edenecho”, one of the somewhat better (but far from greatest) tracks off of 2007’s Ghost Opera album. Nevertheless, the crowd are lapping it up and singing every word, much to the joy of vocalist Roy Khan. Next up was a prematurely placed brand new track “The Great Pandemonium”. Khan introduces us to this fact, along with the information that the album was meant to be out by now, but isn’t due now until mid-summer (maybe the right time to promote this material). The song being brand new and cursed by poor sound makes it a difficult one to get into, though I’m sure once the audience establishes some familiarity with it, it will be better received. FINALLY Kamelot play an older song. “Center of the Universe” is greeted by a screaming audience and a windmilling Andy (that’s me).
After that came “Wander” – a rare Kamelot ballad. Again, it seems far too early in the set for this kind of material, but is met with swaying hands nonetheless. After much instrumental doodling, a couple more songs and a keyboard solo, it was time for a fan-favourite in the form of “The Haunting (Somewhere in Time). A great performance, though nothing will ever compare to hearing Simone Simons (Epica) sing it like the original at Wacken in 2008, any other singer performing this one is a cheap imitation.
After this we get another sneak peak at the new album with “Hunter’s Season” – dedicated to guitarist Thomas Youngblood’s mother who passed away. Again, some familiarity would be nice to fully enjoy this one. finally it was time for my personal favourite off of Ghost Opera: Rule the World, a fantastic rendition leaves my faith restored in one of the most well-respected power metal bands going. Naturally, it is time for another member of the band to play yet another solo just to remind us that they actually DO Rule the World in their minds. Much as I want to hate the apparent arrogance on display, I just physically can’t because the band are simply fantastic at what they do. Subsequently was another favourite of mine and seemingly many others: Forever. The track is introduced by Youngblood playing the opening melody in one of the booths at the side of this old theatre, which added a nice touch. The end of the song is milked for all it can be by the stars of the show before they leave the stage.
Encores were “The Black Halo”, “Season’s End” and my personal favourite Kamelot track “Karma”. But of course, one encore is not enough for Kamelot and we’re still yet to hear the band’s most well known song. So the band take the stage for the final stage and play a stunning rendition of “March of Mephisto”, which is welcomed with an energetic response. Kamelot remind us why they are where they are: great songs and a great live show.
Setlists:
Leaves’ Eyes:
Intro + Njord, My Destiny, Emerald Island, Take the Devil in me, Ragnarok, Elegy, Froya’s Theme, Mot Fjerne Land (outro)
Kamelot:
Ghost Opera, EdenEcho, The Great Pandemonium, The Human Stain, Center of the Universe, Wander, Instrumental jam session, The Pendulous Fall, When the Lights are Down, Keyboard Solo,
The Haunting (Somewhere in Time), Hunter’s Season, Rule the World, Drum Solo, Forever, Interlude II: Un Assassinio Molto Silenzioso, The Black Halo, Season’s End, Karma, March of Mephisto
April 12th, 2010
[...] Photographed for Clink Music Magazine. Read their review here. [...]