Kamelot Live At Koko, London, March 28th 2010

Due to me and Steve taking a stop over in the hope and anchor for a beverage next to Koko whilst waiting for our other 2 friends to join us (mainly Div as he took a scenic route around Tottenham and the surrounding area in his car trying to find Koko) we missed Adagio and their temporary singer, arriving in Koko just as they finished. This did mean we were in plenty of time to catch Leaves Eyes, who I wasn't too sure about based on listening to them before the show, as I'm not too keen on the whole female fronted symphonic metal sub-genre (with Epica being the notable exception).

To begin with they seemed quite subdued, and strangely quiet for a six piece band. Fortunately this lasted only a couple of songs and by halfway through their 40 minute set most of the venue was onboard clapping, headbanging and fist pumping along. Liv Kristine's vocals are pleasant enough, though her male vocal counterpart (and husband) Alexander Krull comes across as something of the weak link of the band. By the end of their set they were very enjoyable, until a very long last number killed alot of the momentum and attention they had built up, but they were enjoyable enough.

Main event time and my second live encounter with Kamelot (first time for my 3 friends), the previous being 2 years ago in Islington where the sound mix was not great and you could barely hear Roy Khan at times so I was hoping for better. Kicking off with the title track from most recent album Ghost Opera Koko roared its approval and was singing along in full voice, and then did it's best to drown Roy out on the following Edenecho.

On the first conversation with the crowd of the evening Roy mentioned their new album and acknowledged the fact that "it was supposed to be out by now", mentioning that the album is now due in June. We were then treated to the title track of the upcoming new album, The Great Pandemonium, which sounded pretty damn good it must be said. There was then a swift and popular return to Ghost Opera for The Human Stain, Roy Khan prowling the stage complete with pimp cane accessory! This was followed by what might have been the song of the night in Centre Of The Universe from the Epica album, Khan's vocals sounding absolutely fantastic on this older song. Kamelot then stayed on the Epica album for the rarely played Wander and the vocalists took a breather while the rest of the bands played an instrumental. I missed the next track (it might have been Moonlight, someone might be able to help me finish the setlist).

Roy Khan: Conducting invisible orchestra?

There was no mistake over what the next song was as When The Lights Are Down was blasted around Koko going down a storm in the process. Keyboardist Oliver Palotai then took a moment in the spotlight for a solo which led nicely into the always fantastic The Haunting (Somewhere In Time), which Elize Ryd (from Amaranthe) did a fantastic job on. Not quite Simone Simmons from Epica but very very good nonetheless. We were then treated to a second preview of the new album with the track Hunter Seasons, which Roy dedicated to guitarist Thomas Youngblood's mother, who passed away last year.

We were then treated to an impromptu belly dance from a bikini clad Elize (that certainly didn't happen last time I saw them in Islington) before she danced off, leaving Roy to come strutting out and deliver a blasting rendition of the very popular Rule The World. A drum solo from Casey Grillo followed, only to then discover Thomas Youngblood had snuck upto the first floor balcony to deliver the intro to main set closer Forever from up on high, before legging it back to join the rest of the band as they launched into the song proper. This song also witnessed arguably London's longest "whoaaa oooo oooo" style singalong since Wembley Stadium left James Hetfield and his Metallica buddies speechless 3 years before on The Memory Remains.

Elize: Modern Day Pied Piper?

This wrapped up the main set nicely and set the stage for the encore, which was kicked off by The Black Halo and finished with a Barnstorming rendition of longtime favourite Karma, with Season's End (The Japanese bonus track from Ghost Opera) sandwiched inbetween.. Kamelot are well known for their double encores and after Karma the crowd still weren't satisfied so the band returned one more time to finish with the now traditional March of Mephisto (complete with Elize doing the drum intro) to finish off a cracking show and send the capacity Koko crowd home happy (or in mine and Rob's case, to do several laps of Camden due to bus stops being closed and Mornington Crescent tube station closing early).

A fantastic show from Kamelot on what has seemingly become their annual March trip to the capital, hopefully they will return before March 2011. If you like melodic/power metal it really does not come any finer than Kamelot.

Kamelot's setlist was: