Kamelot - Ghost Opera

[IntoPhagist]

its aight, biggest dissapointment this year though

 

[goth_fiend]

its aight, biggest dissapointment this year though

we are by all means entitled to our opinions, however I strongly disagree

 

[proulxski]

same, I found it to be a kamelot milestone, I mean its not my prefered kamelot album, but its def' driven with atmosphere! I really have nothin bad to say about it, nothing good either but hey lol!

 

[Horus]

The only reason that the album is a disappointment for me is because, as I've said a billion times on the Kamelot forum, (and Goth_Fiend can vouch for that), while the songs definitely have alot of atmosphere and drama, they're just not as well written as The Black Halo or Karma, and that was a HUGE disappointment for me. Too many of the songs were nothing but generic Soprano-fronted Goth Metal. And yes, I'm saying that while I'm pretty sure that Khan has a penis.
Songs like Love You To Death and Mourning Star are just REALLY boring, and they're boring to the point where I can't even force myself to love them to death. (Not to mention that Kamelot completely copped the name of one of my favorite Megadeth songs. )
The only masterpieces on the album really are Rule the World and Ghost Opera. And apparently, the band seems to hate me enough to just not want to play Rule the World on tour.

 

[Kenneth R.]

/agreed

 

[eternal sanctum]

Easily the best work from kamelot yet. My second favorite release this year right after Allen/Lande.
As far as it being a concept dis. no it is not.
Here are what some of the songs are about:

USA: The title track on GO, as you’ve mentioned
before, is about a hopeful singer who misses her
theater debut as she’s attacked and raped on her way
to the theater. Where’d the inspiration for that idea
come from?

TY: Really, the idea just popped into my mind from the
title. We had the title and myself and Roy [Khan],
just started collaborating on it. We knew we wanted
her to have gone insane from some sort of traumatic
event. So we were thinking what could that have been.
Was she on stage and something happened like in the
movie Carrie? It ended up being that tragic event that
happened on her way to her debut. And every night this
woman who never got to have “her night” just
fantasized about what could have happened. Then we had
the story and then we did the video to go along with
that. And I think it really came out great with the
video and the visuals. There’s already been some kind
of controversy about the attack on the girl. But for
the most part I think most people realize that this is
a statement against this sort of violence really.

USA: Another song that I really loved from the album
was Up through the Ashes. From what I’ve been able to
interpret through the lyrics is that it’s about the
trial of Christ through Pontius Pilate’s eyes. How’d
you get the inspiration for that?

TY: That was an instance where me and Roy sat down and
talked about what we wanted the songs to be about.
That’s a particular song where we had the chorus and
we were thinking about what that could be about. And
then Roy showed me song lyrics and the idea came from
him on that one. But this record has a lot of
different kinds of subjects. Be it fictitious like GO
or Ashes where that’s a story from the Bible. There’s
another song called Blucher which is about a German
warship, so there are a lot of different subjects. And
it’s nice too because for four years we were doing
this concept piece so we were stuck to one subject in
terms of what we could write about. So it was nice to
write about a whole bunch of different subjects.

USA: And correct me if I’m wrong here, but is The
Human Stain about global warming or the environment?

TY: It’s about everything. Everything that we do to
this planet, to each other; about dying. It’s about
the human condition and how we affect the planet. I
think with the darker mood, we wrote about a lot of
things that are going on in today’s world. There’s a
song, Mourning Star, that’s about a soldier who’s in a
war that he doesn’t believe in, but he’s kinda stuck
and it’s about his life at that point. There’s a lot
of things that touch on current events in a metaphoric
kind of way. It gives it a more melancholy feel to it,
you know?

What does Blücher mean?

I get asked a lot for that! haha Blücher was the name
of a German ship that was involved in the invasion of
Norway at the beginning of the Second World War. The
ship’s purpose was to invade the Norwegian city Oslo.
At the starting of the war it was the newest ship of
the German navy but the ship got destroyed on its
first journey. It was shot down in 1939 by two
torpedoes and sadly most of the crew died.

Love You To Death is a very captivating song with
interesting lyrics. What is it about?

It is based on a Japanese legend about the sad tragedy
involving a young couple in love. The girl dies at the
age of 15 due to an unfortunate disease. But she comes
back to life in some strange way to guide her love
through his suffering.

Very sad topics and a total feel of melancholy throughout.

 

[arglebargle]

well I for one think it's a great album and am glad they decided to try a different sound than rehashing The Black Halo. with an album as perfect as TBH it was inevitable that a lot of "fans" would bitch about *whatever* they put out next. which is pretty sad and doesn't do such a talented band credit. i got nothing but confidence for Kamelot's future, they constantly reshape their sound and every album is killer.

 

[Kenneth R.]

They should stick to concept albums.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

The only reason that the album is a disappointment for me is because while the songs definitely have alot of atmosphere and drama, they're just not as well written as The Black Halo or Karma, and that was a HUGE disappointment for me.

I agree with this statement. There's some good tunes on this new album, but nothing really stands out the way some songs on Karma and Black Halo (their two strongest albums, in my opinion) did.

However, I do like the idea of them NOT doing a concept album (for once). It shows that the band can branch out. Some of the songs have interesting ideas behind them (like the one about the German warship, which isn't something you would expect Kamelot to write about). I just wish the songs were a bit more progressive (longer, less commerical-sounding).

 

[Kenneth R.]

I just wish the songs were a bit more progressive (longer, less commerical-sounding).

:zombie:

Anyway, the failure of Ghost Opera is in its lack of memorable melody and/or weak lyrics. There are some (very few) moments, but as a whole it's an album-worth of filler tracks. Very monotonic, very "safe" and generic. A labor to sit through.

 

[manticore999]

Although I mentioned above that it got boring after a while I wouldn't call it my biggest disappointment of the year. That would have to be Systematic Chaos. For me it's one of the worst albums they've put out in a long time. I didn't like the previous 2 either, but at least I could find one or 2 songs on each that liked. I can't get through a whole song without being bored.

Hate to say it here, but PL was my 2nd biggest disappointment. Too much screaming, not enough singing, - and foget about the melodic stuff I came to love about SX. But ... I LOVE the title track. For me, it's worth the price of the entire CD by itself.

 

[Kenneth R.]

@ 'too much screaming'

You're right about Kamelot though.

 

[Time-Machinist]

as a whole it's an album-worth of filler tracks. Very monotonic, very "safe" and generic. A labor to sit through.

Strongly disagreed. It would be far more "safe" if they had made a technically more versatile album,which was expected by the Black Halo fans. No need to say, they most probably are the majority. To see Ghost Opera as a"failure" is sth I can not understand. This is an obvious choice that they made, though i can not say anything about the matter of taste thing. For me Ghost Opera is really haunting.

Great songwriting, very clever sound arrangements, naive but extremely touchy atmosphere and a fantastic vocal performance is all i can say about this album.

 

[Kenneth R.]

I completely beg to differ about "great songwriting", "clever sound arrangements", and "fantastic vocal performance".

It's by far their weakest album and weak by any standard.

 

[mawdyson]

Going by the albums I have so far. I'd say Epica is the weakest sounding album. I'd personally place Ghost Opera 3rd behind Karma and The Fourth Legacy.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Epica has great songs on it. Ghost Opera lacks even one.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

In my opinion, thus far...

Black Halo > Karma > Ghost Opera > all the rest

 

[Dr Zephyr]

IMO:

Black Halo>Epica>Karma>4th Legacy>Ghost Opera>Everything else.

It has it's moments.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

I could never get into Epica. I think it does have a few strong songs, and those songs in particular are stronger than the best ones from Ghost Opera, but I feel the latter is a more consistent album.

 

[Time-Machinist]

I completely beg to differ about "great songwriting", "clever sound arrangements", and "fantastic vocal performance".

It's by far their weakest album and weak by any standard.

No it is not Maybe "by your standarts"

Khan's voice got into a mutation with TBH. To a darker tone and more bariton character. I liked it but it was not very precise in TBH. In Ghost Opera his new voice sounds far better.

BTW, totally agreed with Detective Clarence Beauregard.