Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Kamelot had easily risen to be one of my favorite bands after seeing them three years ago, and after they had to cancel their last tour due to illness, I was extremely excited to see them again.

In the last three years, a number of things have happened in the band's sphere including the release of their latest album, "Poetry for the Poisoned". Their tenth release is an epic album that continues their legacy of excellent song writing and it expands the horizons of what modern metal music encompasses.

The other major event is the retirement and exodus from the band of their lead singer, Roy Khan who had been with them since 1998.

Obviously with a band that has such a unique vocal quality, these are not easy shoes to fill. I had a bit of apprehension as to how the live show would be but hoped for the best.

These fears were quickly extinguished as the new singer, Fabio Lione of Rhapsody of Fire fame, took the stage. They started the set with a favorite of mine with, "When the Lights are Down" . Fabio nailed every note, every intonation to the point where I had to do a double take to make sure Roy had not grown huge curly locks of hair all of a sudden.

The rest of the band remained as I had seen them three years ago and they were deftly composed tonight. Every song had superb sound and incredible energy. The rest of the audience accepted Fabio immediately, as his vocal talents were really remarkable. Thomas Youngblood took the center riser after this song and asked Los Angeles to welcome Fabio to the Kamelot fold, which they did unanimously.

They had a new back up singer for this tour, a woman named Elize who sings for a European progressive metal band called Amaranthe, and she proved to be a good addition to the stage presence of Kamelot as well.

Their second song of the night was "The Great Pandemonium", easily the best song off their new album and it was awesome live. They followed that up with "EdenEcho" which was their album closer for their previous album, and a flawless rendition that made me love the song all over again.

The set list would turn out to be a great selection of fan favorites that spanned as far back as their "Epica" release, however the majority of the set bounced between songs from "Ghost Opera" and "Black Halo", which was fantastic from my standpoint, as I love both of those albums. Some of the songs chosen included; "The Human Stain", the dark ballad "Abandoned", the powerful "Rule the World", and the title song "Ghost Opera" itself.

As with previous shows, each talented artist has a solo to prove their metal so to speak, and all were equally talented and adept.

The only other song off of the new album they did was "Necropolis", which happens to be my other favorite off "Poisoned", so it was a great choice. Had they been able to play a double set or at least a few more songs, I would have loved one or two more new ones but I cannot complain with what they did perform at all.

Definitely one of my favorite parts of the concert was when the gorgeous Simone Simons from the Dutch metal band Epica came out to perform her duet with Fabio for "The Haunting (Somewhere in Time)". I love this song and it was impecable three years ago with the female vocalist on that tour performing Simone's parts, but this time we get Simone herself! I am a huge fan of Epica as well as this song's dark romantic mood and the talent of the musicians involved for this performance was beyond compare. I keep listening to this song over and over since the concert.

The set was rounded out with "Center of the Universe" from Kamelot's album entitled "Epica" as well as "Forever" off of the "Karma" album which movingly closed out the main set.

After a hefty chanting session from the audience, the bassist emerged for his solo which lead into "Karma" off the album of the same name.

I had a good idea of what song was coming next and when Simone emerged blindfolded with a single snare drum and beat out the opening rhythm to "March of Mephisto", my hand was in the air with horns extended. I was not the only one.

Simone left the stage as Alissa from The Agonist came out and her involvement on this song was intense. Not only did she sing the melodic female parts in the song, but she also handled all the heavy parts of Mephisto's character in it as well. This song was the perfect ending to an inspiring show and they did an amazing job with it.

Unfortunately the time for the end was at hand and the collective members of the band came front and center, joined arms, and gave a group bow to the cheers of their adoring fans. To say the least, I was really impressed with the show and thought they did a stellar job.