Kamelot - One Cold Winter's Night DVD
SPV
Power / Progressive Metal

Release year: 2006
Kamelot, SPV
Reviewed by Ben

Kamelot is a complex Power Metal band with slight progressive tendencies that have been kicking around since the late nineties whose popularity is beginning to rise quite high. Ever since the release of The Fourth Legacy each subsequent cd has been the group’s “creative peak.” While watching One Cold Winter’s Night it is fairly easy to see that Kamelot is a fluid, well oiled, heavy metal machine whose musical output is at the top of its class. When I’m watching this DVD I am reminded of Queensryche when they were at the top of their game. The comparison isn’t much of a stretch seeing as how both bands are representative of this niche of music in their respective era’s. Frontman Roy Khan’s stage presence is remarkably similar to Geoff Tate circa 1990. Plus his ability to hit the notes and sing with laser like accuracy adds to the traits both singers share. A head turning section is definitely the opening to Edge Of Paradise. Here Roy sings the awesome falsetto vocal melody in the intro and its chilling to see the command that he uses to vocalize so fluently.

This particular show which comprises the meat of this two disc set was filmed in Oslo, Norway. For this shoot, Kamelot has gone all out in their efforts to accurately convey their music on film. This isn’t a typical club show by any means, this is a full on theatrical presentation. A small choir is utilized (although they are kept hidden from view so as to not clutter the stage I’m assuming), Mari Youngblood (guitarist Thomas’ wife) comes out for several songs and provides excellent female leads. When she does appear onstage she is also dressed in an appropriate wardrobe that pertains to the song’s lyrical content. For Center Of The Universe and Abandoned she is white and pure. For her role of Countess Bathory out comes the black attire. Little things like this really add to the enhancement of their presentation. Roy even gets into character a little bit on March Of Mephisto with a priest outfit while he sings around the same girl who appears in the video and Snowy Shaw thrashes about in the back singing to Shagrath’s vocals. Special guests that join the band are Heaven’s Gate guitarist and well known producer Sascha Paeth who rocks the guitar solo in Moonlight quite righteously and Simone Simmons who reprises her role in the song The Haunting. Despite all this extra stuff going on, there are many songs which involve just the band and no theatrics. All the niceties the band has thrown into this gig only enhances the performance, not hinder it.

Out of the fourteen songs played (excluding the drum and keyboard solo spots) seven are from the latest studio album, The Black Halo. This is a pretty heavy amount to play but each one is as powerful as the classics. Surprisingly, The Fourth Legacy only seems to get a passing nod with Nights Of Arabia and not surprisingly, material from Siege Perilous, Dominion and Eternity are nowhere to be found. Pertaining to the performances of the musicians, it’s hard to try and come up with an exciting term to describe how spot on they were. Casey was pulling a Tommy Lee and twirling the sticks, Thomas is head banging, bassist Glenn Barry is over there rocking out pretty nicely himself, and new member, keysman Oliver Palotai, is flailing his hair in his best Fabio impressions while not missing a note. And then there’s Roy who is busy himself singing his guts out as I stated earlier. Director Patric Ullaeus has really done a fine job in capturing Kamelot the way the were meant to be on this DVD.

The second disc has a hefty dose of interesting extras. The “Halovision” section answers several questions sent in by fans, you get a Cribs like look into Thomas’ home, Casey demonstrates how to play the drumline to a couple of tracks, and Oliver discusses his background and who he is in a great way to introduce himself to the fans. Each of these sections are very enjoyable to watch and you can tell that they were not haphazardly slapped together to kill time. The two promo videos for The Haunting and March Of Mephisto are here, a home made vid of Serenade and an interview with Simone that is a big Epica discussion. While I can’t really complain because this is a ton of cool material I must say that the inclusion of an older show, not necessarily of the same Patric Ullaeus quality or even length of the one on disc one, but some something nice and solid would have been a great way to top off the second disc.

One Cold Winter’s Night is a DVD that is entirely worth your time. Visually entertaining and musically sound this is an overall great package. Plus its obvious the band spent time on the extras and made them stuff that fans would actually want to see which is a nice touch as well. With so many groups today releasing sub par DVD’s its refreshing to stumble upon one that is much more than a quick filler release. However, I should have known this would be the case anyways with a band such as Kamelot.

Killing Songs :
Karma, Center Of The Universe, Edge Of Paradise, Soul Society
Ben quoted no quote
Other albums by Kamelot that we have reviewed:
Kamelot - Siege Perilous reviewed by Ben and quoted 75 / 100
Kamelot - Dominion reviewed by Ben and quoted 66 / 100
Kamelot - Eternity reviewed by Ben and quoted 50 / 100
Kamelot - Haven reviewed by Joel and quoted 93 / 100
Kamelot - Silverthorn reviewed by Cory and quoted 84 / 100
To see all 13 reviews click here
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