Author Archives: Joe

January 14, 2011

#9 – Kamelot: Karma

By Joe

Kamelot - Karma (2001)

Kamelot is a relatively new obsession for me.  I had the pleasure of doing college radio years ago (when appropriately enough, I was attending college) which was an excellent experience and a great way to hear new music.  For anyone embarking on that part of their life, I whole-heartedly recommend it.  That is assuming all college radio stations are as good as WKNH in Keene, NH.  WKNH had a great selection of music including an expansive library of my preferred genre; metal.  I was also fortunate to be allowed to play whatever I wanted so long as I met the station’s quota of five new cuts an hour.  During my time there I was able to find several new bands that would become among my favorites, one of them was Kamelot.

Kamelot is actually an American band from Florida, though their frontman as of their third disc is Norwegian born Roy Khan.  Despite being from the US, Kamelot is far more popular in other parts of the world than here.  That’s primarily due to the fact that the only metal that gets any attention over here is Metallica and latest flavor of the month.  I don’t mean to sound like an elitist snob but the metal scene in the US is awful, uninspired, and banal.  Kamelot blends multiple sub-genres of metal to create a unique experience.  The band started off as a fairly standard power metal group but evolved into a quasi-prog outfit, only without the pretentiousness.

While I was exposed to Kamelot during my college years, I didn’t become a card

Kamelot has been around since 1991, but it didn't truly take off until the addition of vocalist Roy Khan in 1997.

carrying member of the Kamelot fan-base until recently.  Most would probably say their best album is The Black Halo, and it’s hard to deny otherwise, but for my money I’m going with Karma.

Karma is the band’s fifth full-length album.  Released in 2001, it could best be described as symphonic metal.  There’s a certain theatrical flair to a lot of the music present on the disc.  It’s the perfect run-time for a full length at just under an hour and it contains a diverse section of music.

The opening number, “Forever,” is a soaring piece of catchy power metal tastefully done.  Power metal and taste do not often go together but Kamelot has made a career out of doing so.  Songs often contain a catchy chorus not over-exposed.  It’s easy for a band to ride a chorus, often having it repeat itself two, three, or more times at the song’s outro.  Kamelot almost never indulges in such a practice, almost to the detriment of some songs.  There are times where I wish they’d drive a chorus into the ground, because they’re just so good.  Particularly on the song “The Light I Shine on You,” but in the end I know their approach is for the best.  It just means I have to listen to the track again.

Kamelot throws in a couple of ballads to keep things in perspective, “Don’t You Cry” being the stronger of the two.  It’s a song guitarist Thomas Youngblood wrote about his father, whom apparently passed away when Thomas was very young, and as a result, has little or no recollection of.  The album has a big closing number, the three part “Elizabeth” which centers around the part true and part myth story of Elizabeth Bathory.  It’s a cool number but one I don’t think quite meets the band’s expectations.  It definitely works best as one long song, even though it’s divided into three tracks.  The title track is one of the band’s absolute bests.  It combines imaginative story-telling with great pacing and a typical Kamelot chorus, a staple of the band’s live set to this day.

I don’t feel like I have completely captured how great I think this album is, and that’s probably because at it’s heart it’s a pretty simple and straight-forward album.  For me, it just hits all of the right notes and walks that fine line between sophistication and bombast.  Kamelot is a really tight band and vocalist Roy Khan is among the genre’s most talented.  Not only is Karma perhaps the band’s best release, it’s also a great jump-in point for people new to the band.  The albums that follow are even more diverse and complex.  Khan is currently sorting out some personal problems that’s preventing him from touring in support of the more recently released album Poetry for the Poisoned.  Hopefully he can get things straightened out and rejoin the band as there’s still a lot of great music left in this outfit.

Top Tracks:

  • Forever
  • Karma
  • The Light I Shine on You

Leave a comment | posted in Music, Top 10 Albums

January 10, 2011

#10 – Alice in Chains: Black Gives Way to Blue

By Joe

Black Gives Way to Blue was Alice in Chains' first album in fourteen years and the first with new singer William DuVall.

As part of my lead in for my top 10 favorite albums I touched upon the omissions and surprises.  I was particularly surpised that three of my favorite artists didn’t have an album I included as one of my top 10 favorites.  Right behind that though, was my selection for number 10.

Alice in Chains was one of the top bands of the early 90’s.  Their debut Facelift was a stand-out amongst the similar sounding bands out of Seattle and distinguished itself amongst the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.  AiC was the grunge band with the most obvious metal edge.  Really, calling them grunge was a cop out.  Their sophomore album Dirt was their biggest hit and is cited by many as their best album.  Sadly, front man Layne Staley’s own personal demons limited the band to just three full length albums in the 90’s, as well as a couple of EP’s and a live album (Unplugged).

Dirt is a great album and I have no issue with someone proclaiming it the group’s best as that’s what I’ve always believed.  Then a funny thing happened, as I was making out my list I realized it was no longer my favorite Alice in Chains album.

That distinction now belongs to 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue, the band’s comeback effort following the death of singer Layne Staley in 2002.    No one really could have expected the band to continue on, and for awhile it seemed like it would not.  Only after doing a one off show for charity did the guys realize they had the desire to make more music together.

William DuVall was added to complete the band and handle the majority of Staley’s vocals while on tour, but for the album guitarist and principal song writer Jerry Cantrell handles most of the vocal duties.  DuVall is most used in harmony with Cantrell or on backing vocals, with the exception of the song he penned, “Last of My Kind.”

William DuVall has proven to be a great addition to the band.

Most people are familiar with the singles “Check my Brain” and “Your Decision,” both very good songs but if that’s all you’ve heard of the album you’re missing out.  “Acid Bubble” is one of the band’s most diverse compositions and perhaps the best song Cantrell has ever written.  “Private Hell” finds a nice somber melody for the verse and the explodes at the chorus.  It’s one of those songs that knows it has a great chorus, so it doesn’t over-do it.  The end result being you want to hear the song again immediately following it’s conclusion.  The album’s closer, a ballad dedicated to the late Staley, is the perfect way to wrap things up.  It’s sweet and to the point and features piano work by Sir Elton John.

So why do I consider this to be the band’s ultimate album?  Perhaps it’s the freshness as Dirt has certainly been over exposed throughout the years (I remember being so sick of “Rooster” when it came out, radio nearly ruined that song for me) to the point that maybe I’m now underestimating it.  I choose to think it’s because BGWB is the more complete album.  Start to finish, it doesn’t let up.  Yes there are a couple of tracks deserving of the label “filler” but the filler here would be stand-out on lesser releases.

This entry isn’t intended a slight against Dirt or the memory of Layne Staley but more to shine light on just how great this album is.  I’m happy Alice in Chains is back to making music again.  Replacing a lead vocalist is a daunting task for any band which is why it took so long, especially when something tragic creates the need to do so.  I look forward to more great things out of this group and if you have the chance to see them live don’t pass it up.

Top Tracks

  • Acid Bubble
  • Private Hell
  • Black Gives Way to Blue

Leave a comment | posted in Music, Top 10 Albums

January 10, 2011

Top 10 Albums – A Lead In

By Joe

Continue reading

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January 9, 2011

Why Do We Like What We Like?

By Joe

Ask someone what their favorite color is, or ask yourself.  Mine is blue, why?  I have no idea.  How can someone answer that?  Perhaps a psychologist might try to draw parallels between a color’s properties and your personality.  Blue is kind of funny in that it can be both dark and bright.  I trend darker in my preference but does that say anything about me?  I don’t think it does, but I don’t have a degree in psychology.

Some people might give a reason.  Maybe their favorite color is tied to a fond memory.  The color of the wallpaper in their first room, a favorite shirt, or something that reminds them of a departed relative.  When I look at things in my past it’s easy to find the color blue.  I am, after all, a male and blue is often the color most people associate with young boys so blue was everywhere in my childhood.  I had a quilt my aunt made me that was my favorite blanket, but was it my favorite because it was blue or for another reason?  I was a devoted fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and my favorite was Leonardo because he wore a blue bandana and wielded twin katanas (that looked nothing like actual katanas, just had to get that off my chest).  I can even remember getting my first TMNT action figures, the original Leo, Donatello, and Krang (who came with that walker and not his “body” that would show up around episode 5 or 6 of the cartoon).  When I bought them I had yet to see an episode so I knew nothing about the personalities of the characters and was going strictly based on visuals.  Why anthropomorphic turtles appealed to me and an entire generation of boys is beyond my comprehension.

Which takes me back to my initial question of why we like what we like.  When the question is asked of something more dynamic than a color we as human beings can often give a reason but how often is that opinion just revisionist history?  Sometimes things just appeal to us for no reason beyond that they just do and only when thinking about it in more detail do we find reasons to ascribe to our thoughts.  I don’t trust these reasons and consider most to be revisionist in nature.  That’s not to say our likes and dislikes are a total mystery.  A person may like a particular band because it sounds like another he or she is familiar with.  Or someone may enjoy a film because it’s from a genre, director, or actor they have enjoyed in the past.  It’s when you try to get to the root of all tastes that things become muddled.

My earlier thought that a psychologist could potentially yield some light may have come across as dismissive but in truth I do feel some of what we like is dependent upon personality.  Maybe something as simple as a color preference cannot be traced to a personality trait, but how about music?  For me personally I tend to be somewhat rebellious in thought, though not always in action.  If someone tells me I have to like something my initial reaction is to dislike or find fault with that something.  This thought process is probably why I enjoy heavy metal so much, or is at least partially responsible.  Metal is rebellious in nature so it makes sense.  Maybe my hypothesis is totally wrong but I doubt it.

All of this leads me to think that why we like what we like is mostly a pointless question.  It serves little purpose why someone likes something, as long as that something isn’t destructive who cares?  Are some people just born to prefer vanilla to chocolate and vice versa or did something in their life influence their, in this case, literal tastes?  My sister used to use the excuse as a child when she didn’t like how a particular food tasted was to say that she had different taste buds.  Perhaps that is true, after all, no one can trade tongues and see how things taste for someone else but my assumption is to think that’s a bunch of bull.  Vanilla is vanilla, chocolate is chocolate, no matter who the taster is.

A popular and seemingly endless debate in the world of politics and religion is in regards to homosexual lifestyle and marriage.  Homosexuals contend they’re born the way they are insisting their sexual preference is biological.  Lots of funding has been devoted to scientific study to try and find a biological consistency to explain this and still the question is unsettled.  The Religious sect, or those often referred to as homophobic, contend homosexuality is a behavioral choice not unlike any other choice we encounter daily.  There are even camps, usually religious in origin, devoted to “curing” homosexuals and are designed to cleanse them of their wicked ways.

My completely unscientific opinion is that homosexuality is not unlike my preference for blue over red.  It’s just something that is a part of me that I cannot explain, much like a woman’s preference for other women is a part of her.  I think if homosexuality were strictly a biological matter then those that are biologically exact copies of one another would share the same sexual preference.  I am speaking of course of identical twins and while there are cases where twins both are homosexual, there are also instances where one is and one isn’t.  For the ones that are not the same in their sexual preference one could always make the argument that the twin identifying him or herself as heterosexual is living in denial, but there is no way of proving that.

In the end, we like what we like.  I could start telling people I have a new favorite color, I could even get rid of everything blue I own, but why should I?  Just the same, why should someone who is attracted to the same sex only date people of the opposite sex?  It seems silly to me for someone in that position to do something that doesn’t appeal to them.  Now I know the conservative sect argues why stop there?  Why not love a dog if that’s your preference, or children?  My response is that we are logical, rationale beings gifted with such mental capabilities that allow us to create boundaries.  I also do not see the reason to defend homosexuality by pointing out its differences from pedophilia, they should be obvious.

In conclusion, I see no reason why there is such hostility by some people towards homosexuals.  I personally may not be able to understand why a man would prefer another man to a woman, but I also don’t know why someone would prefer yellow to blue.  I do know that I have nothing against the individual who prefers the color yellow, and that’s how it should be.

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January 9, 2011

Nothing Off Limits

By Joe

This blog is about nothing.  It’s just my thoughts and whatever is compelling me to write in a given moment.  I often have subjects on my mind that just don’t lend themselves to conversation.  Or that is, they would in the right company but really how many people care about the merits of the Bucky O’Hare cartoon and how it relates to the comic form?

I am blessed, or cursed, with an affinity for things from my childhood.  Not blindly, but I’m the kind of guy that can wander around a gimmicky store like Newbury Comics and be delighted by the novelty items.  A lego-styled representation of Marvel’s The Beast from 1990 – awesome!  As a result, my home is full of things most would label as junk.  DVD’s of the Super Mario Bros. cartoon, a Batman doll beside my TV, Optimus Prime guarding my laptop.  I’m rational about my compulsions, more so now than in my youth, but am prone to the occasional impulse buy.  I once sought an action figure simply because as a kid I could never find it in stores and always wanted it (Marvel Super Heroes Venom II, if anyone is wondering), so I bought it as a 20 year old just because I could.

That’s not all that fuels me.  I have a lot to say about music, specifically metal, and I never seem to tire of a good baseball debate.  It’s just sometimes I find that my best conversation partner for the more obscure or fanatical things is myself, which makes a blog a pretty natural thing for me.

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