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The new era of Kamelot albums is just frustrating, because, on the one hand, they are fine, but, on the other hand, they are just that, when this band used to be one of the very best. Three albums into the Karevik era, Kamelot have settled into a steady, somnolent groove.

I'm not blaming Karevik for that, he sounds better every album, and he continues to prove that he is the only person who could have replaced Roy Khan. No, the real downfall of this band came when the songwriting was largely taken over by keyboardist Oliver Palotai, as it resulted in a fundamental shift away from the symphonic metal of their old days to gothic keyboard wanking accented with guitars here and there, and the levels of overproduction have become completely ridiculous. The songwriting is sometimes quite catchy, but it's a very pop-oriented kind of catchy, and the lyrics have descended into absolute drivel. Youngblood's guitar work is completely buried under 40 layers of syrupy keyboards, and he hardly ever even plays leads anymore. Despite a general gloss of listenability, this is just metal-ish pop music that is pretty much an insult to the fantastic work this band used to put out. Sad.