KAMELOT — Haven (review)

Album · 2015 · Symphonic Metal

3.5/5 · 2015-05-03
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Haven (2015) is the eleventh full-length album by US power metal act Kamelot. The album is the second to feature lead vocalist Tommy Karevik who replaced their long-running and much respected vocalist Roy Khan for Silverthorn (2012). Silverthorn represented a return to form for Kamelot after a couple of albums experimenting away from their usual power metal sound and for me at least it ended up being their best album in quite a while, something they achieved when the odds looked stacked against them.

Having heard the song Veil of Elysium first I had expected that Haven would bring more of the same symphonic power metal sound as Silverthorn from Kamelot. After getting to hear the album in full though it's clear that this is not actually the case. Haven is certainly symphonic but the band have withdrawn their speedy power metal elements on all but a few of the songs. Apart from on Ghost Opera (2007) and Poetry For The Poisoned (2010) Kamelot have always been primarily a power metal band and as a power metal band they produced an impressive run of albums, especially from The Fourth Legacy (1999), which is my personal favourite, through to The Black Halo (2005), the fan favourite. Yet as soon as they tried something different on Ghost Opera and Poetry For The Poisoned they produced good but not great albums at best. They went back to power metal with Silverthorn and produced a belter again. Now on Haven they're done what is essentially a symphonic metal album and once again, made something that is solid at best.

I prefer Haven to both Ghost Opera and Poetry For The Poisoned, but as a follow-up to Silverthorn I find myself distinctly disappointed with this latest turn Kamelot have taken. They're a band who've established themselves as having a classic sound and being very good at what they do, which may be why they're been trying different things in an attempt to keep their music fresh, but the results aren't going to rival their best work. There are still more positive things to say of the album than negative of course; no one expects Kamelot to make anything utterly dismal at this point. Tommy Karevik impresses again as a singer and again proves himself the right man to have filled Khan's shoes and the symphonic elements themselves are usually pretty grand and epic, especially in the first two tracks Fallen Star and Insomnia. Probably the best symphonic metal stuff Kamelot's done actually.

Unfortunately there are also some negative aspects that hold the album back even when listening to it based upon its own merits, rather than specifically as a Kamelot album. Some of the songs just aren't that interesting, such as Citizen Zero and My Therapy while others add some guest growls by Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz which to my surprise do not sound good at all. I really liked Alissa on the last Arch Enemy album War Eternal (2014) and also enjoyed her in her previous band The Agonist as well, not to mention she also appeared on Silverthorn and never bothered me there, so I don't know what happened here. She's especially bad on Revolution, which is made even more annoying by the fact that the song has some of the more dominant power metal elements of the album and had potential to be a highlight rather than a low point. A guest appearance by Delain's Charlotte Wessels during Under Grey Skies is much better received. Her voice goes well with Tommy's.

Every year has albums you don't expect much from and they end up blowing you away. There are also ones that meet your expectations, be those expectations high or low. But for all of those you also unfortunately get releases like Haven, that you expect to be countable among the albums of the year and end up being disappointing. While not a bad album overall by any means this is certainly more than a couple of steps backwards from Silverthorn. I'm going to settle on 3.5 stars.