Kamelot - Pandemonium over Europe - concert review
Kamelot live in Dortmund, April 7th
The 2010 "Pandemonium over Europe" Tour lead the band to Germany. I witnessed a great show in Dortmund with approx. 3 hours of great music. Kamelot were accompanied by two other bands, Adagio and Leaves' Eyes. So I'll start the review with their appearances. The place wasn't too crowded at first so I could take my place in the thrid row with a great view.
Adagio
This band was formed by the amazing french guitarist Stephan Forté, who writes all the music and lyrics for the band. He is a great shredder! The sound was very good, very balanced so every instrument could be heard. Adagio plays progressive metal, some songs sounded a bit like power metal, with clean high vocals and some cool guitar riffs and impressive solos. They played five songs, I can only remember the title of the last track which was "Fire Forever", a really catchy power metal song. They played for about 30 minutes and absolutely pleased the audience.
Leaves' Eyes
A somewhat german symphonic metal band. I say somewhat because the musicians come from all over Europe. The female singer is Liv Kristine from Norway, the male singer is her german husband Alexander Krull. Alexander kept talking to the audience and really created a great atmosphere. They played seven songs, including the fan favourites My Destiny, Eligy and Take The Devil In Me. The cheers from the audience were louder than for Adagio, but of course Leaves' Eyes were considered local heroes in a way. The sound was well balanced so after their 30 minute appearance, I couldn't wait for Kamelot to enter the stage.
Kamelot
At 21.30h the intro for Kamelot began. Their first song was Ghost Opera. Roy Khan climbed on a little podium in front of the stage where he spent most of the show in his black coat. He was literally 5 meters away from me so I could watch his facial expressions very well. He puts up quite a show and can look very scary, I can tell you! After three minutes the sound technician finally turned up Khan's mic, as his singing sounded kind of lost in the powerful sound of the others, mainly Thomas Youngblodd's guitar ;-). The next songs were EdenEcho, then a new song from the upcoming album (should be out in June) called The Great Pandemonium, followed by The Human Stain and (finally) my all-time favourite Center Of The Universe. After that, Roy talked to the audience, saying that the Keyboarder of the band (Oli) is from "Schwaben" (a region in the south of Germany). He then asked "I know this is not Schwaben. So what is this here?" And the crowd began cheering "Ruhrgebiet! Ruhrgebiet!" and didn't stop for a minute. Roy then turned to Oli and said "We gotta be careful tonight...". Then they played Wander and a long instrumental session. When Roy Khan re-entered the stage they played The Pendulous Fall and one of the fan favourites When The Lights are Down, followed by Hunter's Season. The band left the stage but a kind of intro music in an arabian style kept playing. Background singer Elize Ryd (from the band Amaranthe), who did a great vocal performance in some of the previous songs, entered the stage in quite a revealing belly dancer outfit and did a belly dance for about two minutes. The band then began to play Rule The World. But Roy Khan didn't come on stage! The band played the intro riff again and I thought "The verse should begin now...". The band seemed to think the same but they are professionals so they just played the intro riff again. When they got to the verse part again, Khan entered the stage from the side, starting just a second to late with his singing, but catching up with the band quickly. After the song he said to the fans "I think you guys are wondering why I came in so late? I had to pee!" And turning to guitar player Thomas Youngblood "That never happened before!". The laughs surely were on his side! Then came a long drum solo, which was good, but I just don't know why these solos are necessary...followed by Forever. The band left the stage again but were called back by the fans for an encore. The encore started with Un Assasinio Molto Silenzio" which was the intro to The Black Halo. After that Roy said on his podium and said in perfect german "Manchmal muss man einfach pinkeln" ("sometimes you just have to pee"). I'm pretty sure Oli taught him that during the short break, and the audience just loved it. Next came the great song Seson's End and one of my personal favs Karma. The band left again, only to be called back for one last song, the epic March Of Mephisto. What a great last song! The fans didn't stop cheering and the bandmembers were shaking the hands of the fans in the first row and giving away drumsticks and picks. Thomas Youngblood tossed a pick in my direction, but I missed it by 1 meter...
So, what else can I say? It was a great performance with a great sound, well balanced, Khan's voval performance was incredible, as well as the female vocals by Elize Ryd. They connected very well with the fans and everyone left the concert happy, because they put up a fantastic show.
If you have the chance to see them be sure to do it!
