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On first listen, this album comes across as what might have happened

Then on a second listen, you realise that there are a few melodies going on, and some of the musicianship is quite nifty.

But a third listen betrays the fact that Kamelot are out of their depth. A decent enough power metal band for two decades, they really don’t have what it takes to move into the more esoteric and demanding area of progressive metal.

Just being to play a lot of notes together, and having guests like Jon Oliva, doesn’t suddenly make you the natural successors to Cynic.

A wasted effort.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.