The Black Halo

I picked up this album a while ago, hoping to be as impressed as I was by Kamelot's last two albums, Epica and Karma. As soon as I began listening to The Black Halo, I was completely swept away.

This album ventured out into a harder sound, yet remained distinctly Kamelot. The vocal arrangements were nothing short of amazing, with Khan's powerful tenor accompanied by Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir) and Simone Simons (Epica). Keyboard master Jens Johansson (Stratovarius) also lends his talents to the albums, giving the listener some impeccable keyboard solos.

The Black Halo had very few fillers and no obnoxiously long power metal guitar solos. The song writing was top notch, as was the musicianship. There were as many vocal layers as there were layers to the story, sure to keep even the most meticulous music-analyser busy for a good while.

Simply put, I wasn't able to put this album down for nearly three weeks. This is definately Kamelot's greatest effort, and one of the best metal albums of 2005.