Kamelot Live at Islington Academy London 28th April 2011 - Life After Khan?

I had decided months ago not to go to this show. As far as I was concerned, Roy Khan, Kamelots iconic lead singer was on a touring hiatus and that was the fact of the matter. As a result, I did not want to see the band with a temporary touring replacement, whomever it may be. Then, two things happened. One, I saw videos of Fabio Lione, lead singer of well renown power metal band Rhapsody Of Fire who was standing in for Khan on this tour (and on Kamelot vocal duties in general until September) on Youtube on the early dates of the tour. And he sounded really rather bloody good. Second and more importantly, on the 22nd of April, Roy Khan confirmed he was leaving Kamelot, leaving an awful lot of people including myself very sad and disappointed. Much has been written and said about Roy's departure elsewhere so I will not dwell on it too much but if his heart was no longer in it then it is probably for the best that he has stepped down. He is/was a fantastic frontman with a huge stage presence matched by few and a fantastic voice, even if his vocal range isn't quite what it was a few years ago. Good luck to him with whatever he does in the future.

With all that having transpired, I decided to go to the show. Not knowing what may happen for the band in the future I wanted to make sure I took the chance to see them while I could, so off I went to Islington Academy after roping (a rather willing) Tom from Thrash Hits & Metal Hammer into coming along for the fun. First up on the bill were Amaranthe, fronted by (amongst others) Elize Ryd, who did backing vocals for Kamelot on their last European tour and was again handling those duties this time round. In Amaranthe, she is one of three vocalists, alongside a clean singing Jake and a growling Andy. They were ok but there didn't really seem to be room for the band to have three vocalists. As Tom expertly summed it up, "get rid of one or both of the male vocalists and add another guitarist and/or a keyboard player". Elize's voice is the best thing about Amaranthe but musically they lack variety and could do with some more instrument based firepower. 5 / 10.

Amaranthe: Too Many Cooks (well, singers)?

Main support Evergrey were a band I had never heard of but greatly enjoyed with some pounding riffs and solos and some great drumming alongside the vocals from singer Tom Englund. They reminded me of a power-metal style Alter Bridge in some ways. I wish there was more I could say about them but due to my lack of prior knowledge I can simply say how much I enjoyed them and will definitely be checking their albums out soon. 7.5 / 10.

Evergrey: Worth Checking Out

Regardless of the good videos on YouTube, I went to this gig hoping to have a good time but not expecting Fabio to come anywhere near close to matching Roy's vocal powers. About two thirds of the way through set opener Rule The World when it became apparent that Fabio was not only not using a backing track and doing it all 100% himself, but he was also managing to imitate Roy Khan's vocal nuances and at the same time put his own stamp on the song, it became very apparent that this show was going to be fantastic. Rule The World is the most iconic song of the last couple of Kamelot albums and not only had Fabio matched Roy, he'd pretty much blown him out of the water.

The Fabio love in grew rapidly as he powered his way through Ghost Opera (backed by Elize Ryd and Tommy Karevik from Seventh Wonder) and The Great Pandemonium (one of the high points from the disappointing Poetry For The Poisoned) before absolutely nailing another one of the best recent Kamelot songs The Human Stain. It became apparently at this point that several people around us didn't realise Roy had left Kamelot. Fortunately thanks to how well Fabio was doing, for this night at least, it didn't matter.

Fabio Lione: Vocal Masterclass

There was a change in proceedings as Tommy Karevik took center stage for vocal duties for one of the true Kamelot classics, Center Of The Universe. That song is always a fantastic live experience and Tommy handled it very well, but with all due respect he is not in the same league as either Roy or Fabio, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Fabio returned for two tracks from The Fourth Legacy, Nights of Arabia and the slow song for the night, A Sailorman's Hymn where he joined by Elize Ryd. On these two songs Fabio displayed his full range, going through several octaves in a way I do not think Roy Khan is currently capable of doing (no knock on Roy who remains an excellent singer) but this was a voice at the top of its powers. It was around this point in the evening a couple stood near us asked what had happened to Roy Khan. They initially didn't believe us when we informed them he had left the band because as I put it, "he has found god".

Thomas Youngblood: Up close skills

The first outing from The Black Halo, When The Lights Are Down was met with one of the loudest responses of the night as several hundred people boomed the chorus along with Fabio while the rest of the band (Sean, Casey, Thomas and Oliver) looked like they were having a blast on stage, far more than most bands would with a temporary singer. Soul Society and Descent Of The Archangel were popular follow ups with Descent sounding particularly good and another personal favourite EdenEcho was raced through superbly with headbanging all round the ICA not a surprising sight.

Oliver Palotai: Key Based Goodness

Proceedings calmed down just a touch with Necropolis an unexpected addition to the setlist, Fabio doing his best with it but it was an example of why Poetry For The Poisoned was regarded as being somewhere below Kamelot's best. In contrast, the best bit of the night was to occur next with Simone Simons appearing on stage to perform The Haunting (Somewhere In Time) with Fabio for a proper Kamelot fanboy/fangirl moment. It was something I'd waited years to see and did not disappoint, Simone has a fantastic live voice as I knew from seeing Epica on tour with Sonata Arctica several years ago so I am very happy to say I can tick that off my list of musical events I needed to see. Although that was for me (and probably many others) the highlight of the night, the quality songs kept coming as the distinctive intro riff of Forever kicked in after a rather impressive Drum Solo from Casey Grillo to signify the end of the main part of Kamelot's set.

The lights remained down and we did not have to wait too long for the encore, bassist Sean Tibbits providing us with a mini solo before the whole band launched into Karma, sounding as good as it ever has before Elize Ryd appeared with her marching drum to provide the beginning of the traditional set closer March of Mephisto. Mephisto finished things off at the same high level they'd been at all night, leaving a full Islington Academy to happily go into the night equally surprised and thrilled by what they had seen.

The Full Kamelot Setlist was as follows:

• Rule the World
• Ghost Opera
• The Great Pandemonium
• The Human Stain
• Center of the Universe (with Tommy Karevik)
• Nights of Arabia
• A Sailorman's Hymn
• When the Lights are Down
• Soul Society
• Keyboard Solo
• Descent of the Archangel
• EdenEcho
• Necropolis
• The Haunting (Somewhere in Time) (with Simone Simons)
• Drum Solo
• Forever
• =====================================================
• Bass Solo
• Karma
• March of Mephisto

Overall, a night filled with not much expectation and hope turned into one of the best gigs I've been to in a very long time. Fabio Lione gave one of the best vocal performances I've ever seen, magnified by the fact that he wasn't performing material that was his or by his band. The whole band performed to the top of their ability and from a performance point of view I would love them to join up with Fabio full time. The whole set, plus the duet with Simone ensures that this performance gets a very high rating indeed. If you're in Europe or the US in the next few months and you can see Fabio on tour with Kamelot, for the love of god make sure you go along, Kamelot have rarely sounded so good. 9 / 10

Tags: Kamelot, Kamelot Live In London 2011, Kamelot European Tour 2011, Fabio Lione, Roy Khan, Tommy Karevik, Evergrey, Amaranthe, Elize Ryd, Simone Simons

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