Rock Blog #58: Kamelot, Amberian Dawn, Sha-Boom, Turn

KAMELOT may have released one of their best albums. "Dark Asylum" (RRRRr) sees them going for a more melodic, hook-driven approach and vocalist Tommy Karevik positively shines on each of the songs. There was a time when Kamelot were a bit too progressive and didn't really do that much for me, but I kept on believing... and that faith has been rewarded with an album full of catchy, melodic metal songs. It's not like they've started to write simple pop songs, these songs are theatrical, intricate and multi-layered, but contain some of the finest melodies I've heard from them. "Ashen World", "Dark Asylum", "One Last Masquerade" and "Godlike Alchemy" are already Kamelot Klassics in my books, and "Ivy, My Dear" is one of their finest ballads. The other balladic track "Beneath The Moon (Tunglið) is a strange one: it is short, lullaby-like song in Icelandic with lead vocals by Rannveig Sif Sigurðardóttir and Sólveig Sara Leupold.  

Apart from the two ladies mentioned, the album features several guest vocalists sharing singing duties with Karevik: Tobias Sammet ("One Last Masquerade"), Ignacia Fernández ("Ashen World" and "Sanctuary") and Clémentine Delauney ("Sanctuary"). Lea-Sophie Fischer plays the violin on "Beneath The Moon".

This is a concept album, set in RavenHill Asylum, but the songs work as individual pieces as well. To be honest, I haven't really tried to get into the story, I have just enjoyed the athmosphere and the songs.

AMBERIAN DAWN have returned with a new singer Nicole Willerton and their first new original songs since "Looking For You" in 2020. Yes, they released an album in 2022 but it was an Abba tribute.  It seems that a whole album of Abba ended a chapter in their story, as that particular influence has been pushed aside and "Temptation's Gates" (RRRr) is heavier and more aggressive than their last few albums. Double bass drums galore and there's even some growling...

Since I jumped on the AD ship in 2017 when they released "Darkness Of Eternity", their first album with a strong "Abba Metal" vibe, I have had trouble getting into their updated sound. It's not because of the new singer - Nicole sounds very different to Capri but I like her voice too. It's the songs - at first I thought they've gone too metal, but little by little I started to find those "missing" melodies. There are still bits and pieces of Björn & Benny's legacy in there after all, and Tuomas Seppälä's melodic sensibility is intact. A quick look at the credits shows that Nicole has taken a strong role in the band, she has co-written all the songs and taken care of the lyrics.

The standout tracks for me are the first two ("Temptation's Gates" and "The Vision Of Dreaming") and the bombastic closing track "Phantasmagoria". And I just realized that Nicole sounds a bit like Kim Wilde fronting a metal band! 

SHA-BOOM released a couple of fun, poppy hard rock albums back in the day, and were really popular in their home country Sweden and Norway. In 2012 vocalist Dag Finn resurrected the band and released a rather good "The Race Is On" album, but that resurrected proved to be short-lived. Now he's back for another try, with an old fan helping him out. That fan is called Erik Mårtensson of Eclipse. 

Despite the 30something years in between, "Another Nail In The Coffin" (RRRR) sounds like a natural successor to the early Sha-Boom albums. Finn and Mårtensson have really managed to re-create the care-free, lighthearted vibe of "R.O.C.K.", with original member Peo Thyrén co-writing four of the tracks. Virtually all of the songs have big sing-along choruses, the kind that should work very well live. There are some moments where you can tell that Mårtensson has been involved, but these songs do not sound like Eclipse, they sound like Sha-Boom.

TURN from Germany sent us an old-school package - a CD and an accompanying letter which was actually in Finnish! Full points for the effort and investment, knowing how expensive it's to send anything via mail these days... things were very different back in 2001, when we reviewed the band's previous album "Turn Back Time". I had to go and search the archives for that review, but I did find it - I believe it was Bandi who was very impressed by the band, the name of the writer has been eaten by the cybermoths or something. Anyway, now, just 25 years later, bassist Pete Bonfert has put together a new line-up and they're giving it another go with a new album "Come Alive" (RRRr). The one name in the line-up that I recognized is Swedish guitarist Oscar Bromwall, who you might know from Fans Of The Dark, Code Red and Palace. On vocals there's Mario Mosca from Italy and on keys Fab Jablonski from Portugal, so this new version of Turn is an international band.

Having not heard the band's older material (as far as I remember), I'll take these songs as they are... I can't really hear Bandi's comparisons to Foreigner and Journey anymore, Pete and his new guys have gone for a more hard rocking sound, although still decidedly melodic. Maybe the band's German origins are influencing me, but I'm hearing Craaft, Bonfire, Kissin' Dynamite in these songs - not too shabby, right? You can add some Van Hagar type of summertime hard rock sound to the mix as well. The thing that holds me back from liking this more is the vocalist - Mario Mosca certainly has enough range but I feel he's somehow over-the-top and wailing a bit too much for my taste. When he doesn't overdo it, he actually sounds very good, check out "Save Your Heart" for example.

I noticed that couple of songs sounded very familiar, and indeed they were: "Matter Of The Heart" was previously recorded by Bonnie Tyler for The Wraith soundtrack and the U.S. band Wild Horses. A good cover choice, not something that has been done by a million other bands. The other one was "About Love", a song by Mitch Malloy.