KAMELOT are one of those bands I still can’t deicide if I like them or not but they always seem to bring in fair crowd when they do play so you can’t dismiss them completely and tonight’s turn out at the Wolverhampton Wulfrun was no different with a respectable 300-400 through the doors. First on stage was TOXIC FEDERATION a young band with an 80′s sound, thankfully it is only an 80′s influence they are certainly not a SKID ROW tribute! They have the energy in their songs but they don’t have the grunge tone to the guitar and vocal sound you’d associate with the aforementioned band.

The next band up reconfirmed my belief in seeing the support bands. It is tempting to find your favourite watering hole and get pleasantly plastered only to bowl (or roll) into the venue for 21:30 but then you’d have missed out on a quality band such as SERENITY who were next on the bill. The first thing that struck me about the band was lead vocalist Georg Neuhauser’s vocal sound was similar to Klaus Meine of the SCORPIONS although that might have something to do with the fact that I can’t tell the difference between an Austrian and a German accent but I still had to resist the urge to shout ‘Blackout’ or ‘Big City Nights’.

With the urge to make a tit out of myself well under control (sometimes it’s good not to drink), it’s been a while since I’ve been so impressed with a band straight off the bat. They have a distinctly power metal sound with symphonic influences ‘Rust of Coming Ages’ is a perfect example of this symphonic keyboard laden sound, driven by the fast tempo guitar melodies of Thomas Buchberger. Another stand out song was ‘Velatum’ off their latest album Fallen Sanctuary, Neuhauser’s range and power as a vocalist really came through. With such a positive response from the crowd, to the obvious delight of the band, they would have stayed on stage all night if it had been possible.

To my mind SERENITY had raised the bar for the KAMELOT set. After some very loud applause they broke straight into ‘Rule the World’ off their latest album Ghost Opera. A solid song with a dark and more sinister sound than a lot of KAMELOT’s back catalogue. Then back to the unmistakable ‘When the Lights Are Down’ with soaring guitar work of Thomas Youngblood complimenting Roy Khan’s emotive singing. The only thing I can’t seem to get my head around with their sound is the occasional and in my opinion fairly wet vocal appearance’s by female vocalist Anne-Catrin Marzke, too infrequent and so quiet that it seems fairly pointless as it wouldn’t change the song to leave it out completely, especially after having your ear drums blasted out by the power of Khan’s vocal’s. I imagine their is supposed to be some kind of contrast between the two but it ends up being more of a let down. Other than that minor irritation the rest of the set would get the thumbs up from the KAMELOT faithful with old classic’s ‘Karma’ and ‘Forever’ both with superb solos from Youngblood. The set ends with ‘March of Mephisto’ with its epic atmospheric sound bringing the show to a satisfying close.

Rating:

Review and Photography by Alexander Shaw(Photo Gallery)