Band:	Kamelot
Album:	Eternity
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	August 23, 1995
Guest review by:	iaberis

01. Eternity
02. Black Tower
03. Call Of The Sea
04. Proud Nomad
05. Red Sands
06. One Of The Hunted
07. Fire Within
08. Warbird
09. What About Me
10. Etude Jongleur
11. The Gleeman

Eternity is the first album of the Power Metal band Kamelot. It's also the first of the two the band recorded with Mark Vanderbilt doing the vocals. The guitarist and founding member, Thomas Youngblood, recently stated in an interview for the "Rock Hard" magazine, that when it comes to this album (along with their second one), 90% of their fans, are totally unaware of it. That's true and sad in a way, since it's a great album.

If you know Kamelot from their later works, this is something totally different. I'm not talking just about the vocals; the whole music is unlike Kamelot, so different that it could have been a different band. As a matter of fact, most people wouldn't even recognize them on this album. It is pure Power Metal, the one that I like and it has nothing to do with the usual Euro Power scene. It's too bad that they stopped performing this kind of music in their later works. Probably this is my favourite album of their whole career, even if the band has decided to forget about it...

The first thing you'll notice when listening to this album is how similar Mark Vanderbilt (the vocalist) sounds to the vocalist of Crimson Glory, Midnight. Many people accused him of copying Midnight, but I think he's just inspired by him. Ok he does sound like him in some songs and especially when screaming but generally it's not the same. I also think that these kind of vocals were more suited for this music, although sometimes the screams get on my nerves. Another thing that got my attention is the keyboards. They may not be that dominant but they do create a nice atmosphere. I can say that sometimes, I recognized some medieval melodies in their sound that reminded me of movies about knights and old stories. Really nice stuff, I wish I could see that more often. The only bad thing I've noticed, not only in the keyboards, but in all music as well, is that it's a bit cold; it's not as emotional as in their newer releases. Maybe this thing had an impact on the songs too because although there are some nice melodies that really go well with the music and the lyrics, it's hard to remember any after some time. I don't know, but the whole album didn't touch me much, this "cold" feeling blocks you from getting attached to the songs...and that's sad because the songs are good, with nice guitar work. But I guess this feeling that's missing, keeps this album from the spotlight.

I liked this album but it could have been better. Nearly all songs are above four minutes, giving it a descent play time. As I said, it's a different album than the usual Kamelot, so I don't know if all of their fans will like it, but I guess it's good for an average Power Metal fan.