Artwork by: Péter Sallai

Style: Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, Progressive Metal (Clean Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nightwish, Symphony X, Xandria, Queensryche, Ad Infinitum, Unleash the Archers
Country: United States (Florida)
Release date: 28 August 2026

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What can be said about Kamelot that hasn’t already? The international power metal outfit has been on the scene for an astonishing thirty-five years. Next to Symphony X and Savatage, they comprise my top three of favorite bands in the progressive power metal genre; Kamelot’s three album run of Epica (2003), The Black Halo (2005), and Ghost Opera (2007) stand collectively in my eyes as the band’s zenith, and milestone works in shaping the tastes of my teenaged years.¹ The departure of vocalist Roy Khan felt like an impossible void to fill. Since 2012, Tommy Karevik (ex-Seventh Wonder) has done a remarkably solid job fitting into the black crepe shirt and silver-threaded doublet, slowly but steadily chiseling his way out of the Khan mold to bring his own flair to Kamelot’s darkly glittering, velvet-lined progressive symphonic metal.

Despite the general shruggery that seemed to follow 2023’s The Awakening, I found Karevik’s fourth outing with the band to be one of their more lively affairs, with glimpses of the band’s neoclassical swagger cutting out the chuggy fat that had come to define much of their modern era. Which is to say, it was the first time since Haven (2015) that I felt maybe Kamelot could deliver on another truly worthwhile endeavor in line with their best works. Now, Dark Asylum is here. I’ve walked its halls, chatted with the inmates, and even sampled some of that questionable gelatin. Have Kamelot proven themselves responsible landlords? Or is a visit from OSHA² in order?

No Kamelot record is complete without an instrumental / conceptual opener, though for my money “Sanctorium” stands as one of the most skippable, a spoken-word prologue that really offers nothing of value to the project. A generally forgivable affair, however, as “Ashen World” is otherwise a rock-solid start to the album. Thomas Youngblood leads in with a riveting bit of guitar work that sadly gets lost in the halls of symphonic instrumentation and double-bass-led verses to follow. Flickers of his playing can be glimpsed haunting the composition, and when the solos kick off he gets a proper spotlight—the man can still rip—but I wish he wasn’t so buried in the mix. Still, “Ashen World” stands as a fun and furious slice of Kamelot’s power, and the band continue to press the assault on follow-ups “Dark Asylum” and “Sanctuary”, the latter of which shines with the dual contributions of singers Clémentine Delauney (Exit Eden, Visions of Atlantis) and Ignacia Fernández (Decessus).

Unfortunately, the gleaming halls of Dark Asylum begin to show their wear and tear, starting with the interlude “Nocte Veritas”, which brings absolutely nothing to the table. “One Last Masquerade” has the bones of an interesting song, with the arrival of Avantasia’s Tobias Sommet adding a melodramatic whimsy reminiscent of Jon Oliva’s spirited turn on Poetry for the Poisoned’s “The Zodiac”, but “Masquerade” never manages to stick and instead fades into the night with little impact. Likewise, “Ivy, My Dear”, with its folksy wind instrumentation and plucked acoustics, does little but serve the purpose of being the requisite Kamelot ballad—the inclusion of which I welcomed in their narratively charged and thematic works like Epica and The Black Halo. Dark Asylum, however, feels so divorced from any sense of thematic or narrative guidance that “Ivy, My Dear” is simply perfunctory as a result. Luckily, the band rebound at the midpoint with “Godlike Alchemy”, an absolute banger of a track that exemplifies everything Kamelot are great at: stirring symphonics; big, infectious choruses; and well-crafted compositions that flirt with grandiosity without ever losing their footing. “The Sleeping Mind (Orphic Paradigm)” and “Cassandra’s Disease” don’t quite hit the same heights but nevertheless manage to carve out space amidst Dark Asylum’s bloated runtime.

Kamelot have always been allergic to concise runtimes, and they’re no strangers to bloat. All the way back to their earliest releases, they’ve telegraphed an issue with editing. However, their best works always showcased a sharp sense of pacing, even when dallying with tracklists thick with narrative interludes (Epica, The Black Halo), and varied songcraft that always avoided feeling repetitious. As time has marched on, Kamelot have increasingly fallen into the rut of homogeneity that has claimed acts like Arch Enemy. Everyone involved is too good at their jobs to ever write anything truly awful, but some of the old Promethean spark has gone missing in recent efforts, leading to a late-career discography of reliable, but hardly robust material.

Of course, few are the bands capable of penning continuously vital and evolving material thirty-five years into their career—hell, most barely manage it in five. And to call Dark Asylum a disappointment, or worse, would be hyperbolic and disingenuous. Kamelot are consummate professionals of their field, and despite a sense of sameness orbiting some of the material here, they never sound like they’re phoning it in. Songs like “Godlike Alchemy” and “Cassandra’s Disease” are proof Kamelot still have that fire in them, a capability to execute grand, winsome songs of Gothic-tinged, melodramatic and romanticized progressive power metal. With a tighter focus on song selection, and perhaps an abandonment of needless filler interludes, Dark Asylum might’ve presented itself as a zippy, punchy entry in their modern canon. Still, there’s enough highlights for returning fans, and newcomers could do far worse than this to discover a new (old) band. So call off the inspectors. There may be some drafts blowing around these gilded halls, and the lights flicker from time to time, but the bones of this ancient edifice continue to hold strong.

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Recommended tracks: Sanctuary, Godlike Alchemy, Cassandra’s Disease
You may also like: Seventh Wonder, Sunburst, Conception, Pyramaze, Seven Spires
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Napalm Records

Kamelot is:
– Thomas Youngblood (guitars)
– Sean Tibbetts (bass)
– Oliver Palotai (keyboards, orchestrations)
– Tommy Karevik (vocals)
– Alex Landenburg (drums)
With guests:
– Ignacia Fernández (vocals on “Dark Asylum” & “Sanctuary”)
– Clémentine Delauney (vocals on “Sanctuary”)
– Rannveig Sif Sigurðardóttir (vocals on “Beneath the Moon (Tunglið)”)
– Sólveig Sara Leupold (vocals on “Beneath the Moon (Tunglið)”)
– Lea-Sophie Fischer (violin on “Beneath the Moon (Tunglið)”)
– Sascha Paeth (additional guitars)
– Kobra Paige (vocals on “Ivy, My Dear”)
– Miro (strings on “Ivy, My Dear”)
– Billy King (choir / backing vocals)
– Kiara Huber (vocals on “Dark Asylum”)
– Tobias Sammet (vocals on “One Last Masquerade”)

1. Alongside albums like Divine Wings of Tragedy and The Odyssey (Symphony X), Hall of the Mountain King (Savatage), Once (Nightwish), and The Divine Conspiracy (Epica). ↩︎
2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for those unfamiliar. ↩︎