Hey there readers, and a Merry Post-Christmas to you all (if you indeed celebrated the holiday like we do at the PiercingMetal Command HQ); It’s also Boxing Day for some and we wish well to those readers indulging in that holiday. So why are we here you ask….. Well, as 2012 draws to it’s inevitable end, I once again found myself wondering what the people who bring us that sweet, sweet music during the year had on their minds for the coming year of 2013. As I mentioned in a reflection blog posting only a couple of days ago, I had greatly enjoyed obtaining this information for you with last year’s series of “New Year’s Metal Resolutions for 2012″ so it was high time to do it again. In case you were curious, I slightly changed the premise this year to allow for a broader reach and at the end of the day I think you will be satisfied with the results. So now without any further adieu, the answers to “What Is Your New Year’s Music Resolution for 2013″ from some truly talented musicians. I reached out to some of the same contributors as last year and also to a wonderful new batch of people to make it all the more interesting.

1. Oderus Urungus (GWAR): To write and record the most awesome GWAR album yet, with our new guitar player, Pustulus Maximus!

2. Lance King: To make more music, it’s time to create another badass metallic opus for those paying attention!

3. Acey Slade (The Dark Party): If all goes as I hope I will be a part of 3 albums that come out in 2013. Which would be great because it’s been about 3 years since I put out anything new. The weird climate the music ‘business’ has been in, along with a shit economy has made musicians like me treat releasing new music with some trepidation. But on the creative end, there are over 20 Dark Party songs written, a dozen for another project I am working on and there’s other stuff too. So, my resolution would be to release new material, start to reestablish the ‘business’ side of things and also buy more new/current music. Last year I bought a lot of Motown, 70′s Glam, and 90′s alternative. I need some more metal in 2013…13 is a pretty metal number so..seems fitting.
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A young Swedish singer by the name of Tommy Karevik has officially been selected as the new singer of one of our favorite bands here at the PiercingMetal Command HQ and of course you long time readers should know that I am speaking of the one and only Kamelot.  Karevik is a member of the Swedish Metal band called Seventh Wonder, and while I think that I might have one of their CD’s in my massive library, I do not recall them off the top of my head. This is not a slight at all, but just the sign that we have far too much music at our fingertips in this collection of mine.

Tommy Karevik by Jenny Hellström

I’ve been a fan of Kamelot since I first got my attention turned to them back in 2005 and while they were around for a few years before that, I caught up on their earlier stuff and always tried to be on point when they would visit our region because I just enjoyed them so much. It was horrible to find their singer Khan leaving for personal reasons a couple of years ago because I felt he was such an amazing presence, but lucky for the Metal fans of the world, this would not be the end of the band and they would soon enough press on with Rhapsody Of Fire’s Fabio Leone on vocals for their touring commitments. After seeing them deliver the goods together in NYC last year I will admit that I was one of the many people who had hoped that Leone would be offered the position in Kamelot and bring the bands next chapter. Obviously this would not be the case.

Online quotes from founder/guitarist Thomas Youngblood cite “We had around 800 candidates for the vacant position, among them a number of really renowned musicians, and having to reject them really wasn’t easy. We want to thank all the applicants, thank you for your understanding and we wish you all lots of success in the future! (on YouTube) “I listened to a clip of a studio production featuring Tommy and have to confess that his performance really amazed me. His approach to melodies and themes suits Kamelot perfectly, and during our European shows we had plenty of opportunity to find out what a great guy he is.”

Since Thomas referenced some YouTube clips, I went online and did the same thing to get a quick refresher course in what Mr. Karevik brings to the Metal table and I will say that he does sound pretty damn good.  He just might be the perfect fit for Kamelot but of course only time will tell if the larger fan base will embrace him in the lineup as he aims to execute their much loved tunes.  Either way, I wish him the very best of luck and will surely be on point supporting the band when they return to our region so I can bring the scoop to our readers.   Apparently he will remain a member of Seventh Wonder as well which will be interesting to see if its possible given Kamelot’s rigorous touring schedule.

Hello again, it’s great that you are sticking with our New Year’s Metal Resolutions for 2012 Blog Series, and welcome to Wednesday or our “third times the charm edition”. As you have seen over the last couple of days posts, we posed the inquiry to a number of musical greats about what their resolutions might be as it relates to Metal or Music on the whole. I’ve loved what we got back from them and without any further adieu, please enjoy this chapter.

Stu Block (lead vocals for Iced Earth): My New Years Resolutions for 2012 is, to broaden my knowledge to the things that are happening in my country, politically and financially. Eat healthier and work out more.

Oliver Palotai (keyboards for Kamelot & Sons Of Seasons): My New Years Musical Resolution is to continue making good music and to further kick the mainstream in the ass!

Nick Avila (bassist for Powerglove): Powerglove’s New Years Metal resolution for 2012 is to overcome our Skyrim addictions, and write and record a new Video Game album for you. We are also exploring the logistics of building a Starburst cannon, setting up a Powerglove video game metal convention, touring Japan, and entering the world beard and moustache championships. Seeing as none of us currently have moustaches, we have our work cut out for us, but with a combination of Rogaine, miracle grow, and self determination, I believe we have a good shot at failure. Cheers to failure, and Happy New Year to you all!
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Insert boos here (and I mean for the circumstance and not for my stating them).

OK so WOW!  If ever there was a reason for this “Heavy Metal Holy Sh*t” Category it would be this occurrence.  For the few short years that I have been a music journalist and man on the Metal scene, I have found the band Kamelot to be one of my very favorites.  I first went to see them as a “favor” to a label friend who needed an interview and I dragged a buddy along.   Since that time I have done my best to not miss a regional appearance if at all possible.  They were one of the bands that made me feel that this adventure of mine was not as much work as it often seemed to be.  So where we were.  Okay, to continue.

Roy Khan with Kamelot in NYC (2008)

In the almost Fall of 2010 the group had finally booked a US Tour after massive festival appearances and this had a stop in NYC over at the Nokia Theatre (which has since been rechristened the Best Buy Theater).  The band was going to use this show as a celebration of their new album “Poetry For The Poisoned” and the tour was to also feature Leaves Eyes, Blackguard and another band that I cannot recall at this time.  As the date closed in on the fans and tickets were almost completely sold out the news came up that Khan had fallen ill and was not going to be making the tour.   The announcements came quickly from founding guitarist Thomas Youngblood who stated that Kamelot would press on just the same and employ the talents of Michael Eriksen from the Norwegian band Circus Maximus.  The singer performed at one gig, which was the ProgPower USA event in Georgia and then the sad news about the entire tour being cancelled came to pass.

That sucked.  It was terrible for fans, but it was also terrible for all the people that earn their living doing the tours like this as now they had free time and would need to scramble to recoup the lost earnings.  Of course on the upside the band told us that they would return when Khan was feeling better and then give us the show of a lifetime.  Well, something like that was going around.  Fast forward a few months.

Khan with Kamelot in NYC (2007)

Very early in 2011 the new dates for a Kamelot US Tour were announced and this time around the band was going to be playing at Gramercy Theatre as opposed to the Best Buy Theater and that struck me as odd because the spaces are vastly different in terms of how many bodies fit inside them.  Best Buy holds around 2200 while Gramercy hits capacity at 650.  Then the worst part of the news was announced.

“Khan would be missing this tour as he was still ill”

What?  This makes no sense!  How is he still ill after many months of rest and just what the hell was plaguing the singer?   His fans wanted to know but no one seemed to be talking.  The world had lost Ronnie James Dio to cancer and Peter Steele to a heart attack last year and only recently Nergal from Behemoth was fighting leukemia so I had to admit that the thoughts going on in the minds of the Metal Republic were nothing short of grim.  Fortunately more news came to pass from the ProgPower USA Promoter Glen Harveston who released his thoughts across the interwebs about the whole situation.  I’ve pasted some of this here for your eager eyes so read on:

I 100% agree that Roy was and is an integral part of Kamelot’s success over the past 12 years. However, the band has been backed into a corner with no easy way out. The band has done everything in its power to accommodate Roy despite his abrupt decision to pull out of everything and cause all members to lose a substantial amount of money. They have given him multiple options in regards to returning and continuing the band. Need a year? No problem. Need two years? No problem. Just give us something so we can schedule and confirm things. *Silence*

It’s not happening. Khan is not in coma or mental institution screaming “BURNOUT!!!.” He has simply found religion and the music world is just a distant memory now. The band is no longer his priority. I may take some heat for this, but I don’t think the fans are either at the moment. If they were, he would issue a statement clarifying things so that grieving process for his fans could commence and eventually complete. Could that change in a few years? Absolutely. However, it may not. Fans need to accept that and move on. Is the band suppose to simply wait on the sidelines indefinitely in the meantime and see all their efforts wasted?

I didn’t notice any flack being tossed at Harveston for making such a statement so perhaps there were solid elements of truth to it.  It made sense to many that he would have an insider’s look to the band after having been so much a part of their success in this part of the world.  Either  way that you looked at it, this information sucked as far as I was concerned for the Kamelot camp.  This statement was soon followed by the news that Khan had indeed quit the Kamelot lineup and that they would continue on with another singer in his place once a suitable replacement had been found.  For the duration they would do their US Tour with Fabio Leone of the band Rhapsody Of Fire.   What????  I’m going to toss my own views out now because while I love what Fabio can do as a singer, there is no way that he is a suitable fill in or maybe even an eventual replacement for Khan right?  I guess only time will tell and I made sure to mark down this date for the concert so I can check it out for myself. I would be lying to you if I didn’t mention that this news really depressed me because I totally enjoyed how Khan worked in this band and just how magical the whole thing seemed with him at the microphone.  If religious pursuits were really the culprit of his leaving that made no sense to me since Kamelot was not singing about the kind of things that a band like Gorgoroth did and while mystical in some sense were hardly blasphemous. If he truly burned out from the pace then I wish him the best of health and thank him for his years of amazing contributions to a band I list as a favorite. He shall be missed for sure. Sigh.

Even though this is new and disturbing news to the fans of Kamelot we also have to remember that he was the second singer in the band and that often these things are never permanent.  Dickinson and Halford left Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and now are back in command of those bands so who knows.  Rock and Roll is a very interesting thing and always seems to surprise us with all of its happenings. At this stage of the game I do not think that Thomas Youngblood, Casey Grillo, Oliver Palotai and Sean Tibbetts will let us down and instead hold a steady course and deliver us a kick ass Metal show. Good luck guys just the same.

Check out the Kamelot coverage on PiercingMetal’s core site HERE.

I admit that I didn’t know too much about Kamelot when I first walked into a gig at B.B. King Blues Club to see them back in 2005 but since that night I have made up for lost time as best as possible and the band became one of my very favorite providers of Melodic Power Metal. I found them musically wonderful and felt that there was a sincerity about the way they did their thing that spoke to their fans again and again. I was still relatively new to the music scribe game back then but I have covered the live adventures of Kamelot whenever they returned to NYC, reviewed a number of their releases and even spoken at length to some of their members on the site and you can find it all by clicking the logo below. It will launch a search query of the band on the main site which we hope you will enjoy. If you are not all that familiar with them then I will repeat what I told a friend of mine who eventually joined me for a gig as I looked him in the eye and said “trust me on this one”. He did and has been pleased as well.

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Kamelot had quickly become one of my favorite bands to catch in concert when they come to NYC and this time around they would bring along EdGuy as direct support for the tour and offer the local openers in Arctic Flame the chance to start things off properly. We were on point for this show and delivered commentary and photos of all the performers for your reading pleasure. Click the logo below to be brought to our article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

So I lined out in my previous piece about my diehard belief in the Kamelot way and how back in the summer of 2007 when I had interviewed guitarist Thomas Youngblood, that my plans to also talk to singer Roy Khan were delayed. Of course it was only by a couple of hours and I would get to try again once the mind melting show had completed and lucky for me Roy was interested in talking. We found some space away from the crowd of well wishers that had gathered backstage and pretty much ran the same exact questions by him. I had to admit that it was interesting getting another viewpoint on the very same topics.

To read this whole item, just click the bands logo below since it will take you to our article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

Kamelot became one of my favorite Melodic Power Metal bands from the moment that I first heard them and with their always energetic shows are a group that consistently delivers. The summer was not yet over and the band had returned to B.B. King Blues Club for a gig with Leaves Eyes as their support. My original plan was to sit down with both Tom and singer Roy Khan but there was a miscommunication that found me sitting in the back office of the club as Tom ate where we discussed the new album, touring and being a member of this band.

I brainstormed that I would try and speak to Khan later on after the show if he had the energy and interest so if you want to see what I consider part one of a two way discussion about Metal, just click the bands logo below to be taken to our item on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

Tonight would be my very first time catching the band Kamelot in action and after enjoying their latest smoking CD “The Black Halo” I could hardly wait to see how they did in concert. Before the show I would have a chance to speak to the bands singer Roy Khan, and afterward do a little bit of the same with guitarist Thomas Youngblood. I was very new to what they did but felt we got some good points across. Since we did this in the course of the same event, I added the later talk to the end of the article for good measure. Check out the combined discussions by clicking the logo below as it will take you over to the main PiercingMetal.com site.

Kamelot is the always impressive in the live and recorded sense Melodic Power Metal band that had made me a hard core fan a couple of years ago. Their appearances at B.B. King Blues Club are always memorable and tonight’s appearance brought along Leaves Eyes. To learn our thoughts and see images from the show just click the logo below to be brought to our article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.