Customer Reviews
What a nice surprise - By: Steven Baker, 16 May 2008 
Before I bought this album, I only had one CD by Kamelot & that was "Karma". I enjoyed this, but I found that some of it was a little hard to get into. However, on a recent buying spree, I bought "Ghost Opera" & boy am I glad I did.
Some people may think that the orchestral beginning is a little cliched, but I still like it & it runs reallly well into tracks one & two. I did notice at this point that the first two tracks were a little more commercial than I had expected, but they are both excellent songs & I always find myself singing along.
I have actuallly listened to this album almost constantly since I bought it & there are a couple of songs which are losing their appeal slightly, but the majority are still easy to listen to. As well as the first two tracks, I particularly enjoy the tracks where the female vocals complement the male.
I want to finish by singling out two tracks. Firstly, there is "Anthem" which is the obligatory slow song, but as other people have mentioned, it doesn't seem to have been added because it should... It reallly fits in with the album & the vocals are very emotional.
Finallly, "Pendulous Falll" is my favourite track, although I can't quite put my finger on why. It's just that whenever I listen to the album, I'm always looking forward to it & when it does come on, I can't help but sing along, especiallly in the car.
All in alll, an excellent album.
THIS IS A BAND RIGHT AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME!! - By: R. ADAMSON, 13 Apr 2008 I reallly don't know exactly how these guys manage to do it-but they keep producing albums of high class symphonic,melodic rock!!I thought that the last album(THE BLACK HALO)was incredible but the band obviously do not like to rest on their laurels because this one is-put simply-AWESOME!!It will be interesting to see if they can keep up the very high standard that they've set for themselves with the next album but lets worry about that one when it comes along!!For now,lets just enjoy every single note of this "masterpiece"!!After the quite restrained voilin intro of "SOLITAIRE",the music kicks in "big time" when "RULE THE WORLD" starts & along with some very heavy&melodic music khans voice sounds probably the best it's ever sounded-not that he's ever sounded bad before,it's just that he seems to have got it "spot on" for this album!!Next song up is "GHOST OPERA" with an incredibly infectious chorus & some more great driving music behind khans powerful voice!!That one is followed by "THE HUMAN STAIN"-a more "mid-paced" song but it certainly doesn't sound any less impressive than the first two!!The next tune up is "BLUCHER" another sort of mid paced one with backing vocals by SIMONE SIMONS of EPICA-yet another highly impressive song-that is followed by "LOVE YOU TO DEATH" which is a "haunting" balllad featuring some great vocal interplay between khan & amanda sommerville-the lyrics are quite "disturbing&soothing" at the same time-but the combination of khans dark brooding style along with amandas soft feminine voice make this one of the highlights on the whole album!!Next one up is "ON THROUGH THE ASHES" which is another mid paced one that builds up nicely to another extremley "catchy" chorus!!Then comes "MOURNING STAR" which i would probably describe as a mid paced rocker/balllad with backing vocals again provided by miss.sommerville!!That's followed by "SILENCE OF THE DARKNESS" & that certainly kicks things up a notch or two-great driving hard rock/fantastic vocals & another "sing-a-long" chorus!!Another balllad next in the form of "ANTHEM" & khan shows another side to his singing style here by singing in quite a restrained-almost "soulful" style-very impressive!!Last tune on the album is "EDEN ECHO" which is another excellent mid-paced to fast tune with another awesome chorus brillianly handled by khan to finish off the album & set the seal on(as far as i'm concerned)a "MASTERPIECE"!!I feel fairly certain that this album(along with alll their other work)will still be very highly thought of in years to come!!Put quite simply,they're an absolutely great rock band!!If you're a fan of bands like NIGHTWISH/HAMMERFALL OR SYMPHONY X then you'll absolutely love this album & if you don't then there's something "seriously" wrong with you!!
It's all about Anthem... - By: D. Bamford, 10 Mar 2008 
Kamelot, in my opinion, put out the best metal release of 2006 with One Cold Winter's Night Live DVD + CD & a lot of critics hailed Ghost Opera as being the best release of 2007. 2007 wasnt a great year for metal anyway with alll the big guns producing sub-quality stuff (I'm looking at Dimmu, Nightwish, Epica, Maiden the list goes one), but was Ghost Opera reallly alll that good? In short, I thought it wasn't quite worth the fuss made over it. I'll break it down song by song:
1. Solitaire (Inst)
Nothing special here. Violin solo is well written & it creates a mood that sets up the album very well, but musicallly bland & not alll together worth listening to on its own.
2. Rule the World
Some of the riffs in this one are good, but the vocal melodies were surprisingly weak given Kahn's proven track record in that respect. The song never reallly picks up energy nor did it offer enough emotional dynamics to keep the interest of the listener. It just kind of drones on.
3. Ghost Opera
I almost always reserve judgement on a record until i hear it's title track. This one starts of with a sonicallly altered (as though played on a gramophone) orchestral introduction. I'm a fan of orchestral music, but the intro was nothing special, serving only as a slight teaser at the start of the track. Once the metal kicked in however, the mood was changed. There's a real menace to this song & it seethes through everything. The chorus is unique & holds interest throughout & the verse is the best example of staple Kamelot vocal parts you will find. This song was let down by sub-par orchestral elements, but it's a very interesting piece of music that deserves plenty of respect.
4. The Human Stain
This is one of those songs that need the listener to be in a particular mood. It's nothing melodicallly exciting & there is nothing particularly likeable in the riffs or melodies, yet it creates a certain spine-chilling feeling, perhaps brought about by a well brought together lyric combined with music that can create an emotional response that matches the lyric.
5. Blucher
Once again, this piece was melodicallly quite poor, but still managed to create emotion that rouses sufficiently. This piece is one of the least memorable & was wisely placed buried in the middle of the record.
6. Love You To Death
Unlike Blucher, this was a memorable song. Enough hooks were good enough to grab you & take you with the music. The problem that plagued this song, & indeed much of the album, was a relatively poor focus on melody. It's alll atmosphere & texture without particularly much musical substance. The production values whilst very high, also intruded in the vocal performance far too much.
7. Up Through the Ashes
This song was somewhat a relief. The orchestral elements were quite well done & the solemn menace was aided with a more pleasant offering of melody. The vocal parts were outstanding in this piece & reallly made the song a winner. I've sung along to this plenty of times & it isnt getting dry yet.
8. Mourning Star
I suspect this as somewhat of a filler. It's void of both artistic creativity & clinical care. Nothing catches you & the song is quickly forgotten.
9. Silence of the Darkness
A return to the musical style that made Kamelot famous in the metal world. Power metal with easy to listen to vocal lines. Unfortunately, this is a poor man's Karma/Center of the Universe etc. It's good, but pales compared to their previous work.
10. Anthem (9/10 song; absolutely awesome)
This song was harmed by the production choices. Not sure what Paeth was thinking, but when you have metal's best clean voice on your team, you dont cover him up with processing fx. Anyway, this song is absolutely brilliant. The lyrics are essentiallly kahn's message to his (then unborn) son & they are truly & honestly heart warming without being sappy or clichéd. The vocals are of course excellent & you can feel the song's message. The piano & synth accompaniment is also top quality & this is the first song on the record that offers both atmosphere & melodic beauty. This song is worth the album's price alone, but unfortunately it was never released as a single nor as a video. Whichever muppet makes those decision for Kamelot needs to be fired!
11. EdenEcho
After Anthem, it would take something special to grab attention & approval. EdenEcho isnt too bad at alll, & it rounds of the album's emotional movement very well. It is dark, but offers enough light, which is consistent with the album's theme. Again however, the absence of melodic attention means that this song is soon forgotten & cast into never-play-land buried deep somewhere on iTunes for the attention of shuffle play once in a while.
Overalll Rating - 4 Stars
This is a very good album with a selection of good songs. Anthem is also the best song of 2007 in metal beyond any doubt. It is so skilfully written, emotionallly honest & inspiring that it would make any album worth purchasing. I highly recommend this if you can stomach metal that isnt ballls to the floor trash riff heaven! It's about emotions & you 'feel' the music rather than listen to it. A very unique sound too.
The digipak case + booklet are delightfully attractive which has helped me give this the 4 star rating. The DVD is a pretty smalll bonus, but a bonus alll the same!
I was happy to have bought this, & it is one of the better releases of 2007.
Man playing fiddle on sleeve alert! - By: Big Jim, 27 Nov 2007 Prog Metal has cost me a fortune this year as I have discovered some great bands & albums that I had quite frankly never heard of. This is another of the latest slew of European progsters who have upped the anti away from the doodly twiddly style of prog & incorporated elements of the heaviest of heavy metal in the many tuneful tracks on this album. Opening with an admittedly passé operatic/symphonic track this album soon transforms into a bludgeoning riff-fest with excellent instrumental passages linked with powerful singing & furious drumming. In a mighty year for prog metal this one ranks with the best
A backward step after The Black Halo - By: Derrick Sheldon, 17 Sep 2007 
I've been a Kamelot follower right from the beginning. After the first two albums I thought they lost the plot for a while & found 'Siege Imperious' & 'The Fourth Legacy' rather bland. But there was a resurgence with 'Karma' further progress with 'Epica' culminating with the truly excellent 'Black Halo'.
So understandably I was very much looking forward to 'Ghost Opera' but like a number of high profile releases in the past 12 months I am very disappointed with this release.
The album never reallly takes off & lacks momentum throughout. The songs are generallly too short, the gaps between tracks are too long (can't understand that at alll) & there are too many down tempo songs. Not reallly a single stand out track.
I've given it many plays hoping it would grow on me & I guess it's grown from a 2* to a 3* but only just. But I doubt if I'll be listening to this album in 12 months time.
