Band : Kamelot

Album title : Ghost Dance – The Second Coming

Label : Steamhammer

Distributor : SPV/ CNR

Release date : 31/03/2008

Release : Re-issue with bonus videos & (live) tracks (double CD)

No...nót a new chapter following the Ghost Opera release of last year (reviewed/ posted 10/06/2007), but merely another special edition to keep the interest in the album burning while they're roaming the earth in support of that album...which did incredibly well, by the way. Besides getting top ratings in most magazines, sales figures were to get the disc into the charts: in the USA, the album got to #48 in the Indie charts, in Japan it got to #13 in the international albums charts, and the same goes for several countries in Europe (#24 in the British Rock & metal charts; #61 in Germany; #35 in Finland; #83 in France; #23 in the foreign albums charts in Greece; #25 in Norway; #88 in Switzerland; #29 in Sweden; and finally #51 in Holland). When the album was released in early June of last year, the band was already in the midst of their One Cold Winters Night tour of Europe, a tour which started March 29 and ran all the way 'til May 19 th . During the Summer the band then did a couple of festivals (Holland's Fields Of Rock , Spain's Monsters Of Rock Festival , Italy's Evolution Festival , and Norway's Midnattsrocken and Kvinesdal Rock festivals, putting in a short visit to Russia to play a gig in Moskow as well. While at home during August, the band already started planning a truly extensive European tour for 2008. Mid August saw the band start off on their US tour in promotion of the Ghost Opera album, a tour which ran 'til September 9 th ! Not much time for rest, because from September 28 to October 7 the band put in some more European dates (in places they hadn't been earlier in the year, restricting themselves to the UK, Holland, France, and Spain) before heading off to Japan with Firewind to do a foursome of gigs there! Both that European and Japanese tour were done with former Kamelot bassist Sean Tibbetts falling in for Glenn Barry , who was unable to go on tour due to family commitments.

In fact, it's in order to attract some extra attention to the tour that this new version of the album is being released, see? But before goin' into the specifics of the album itself, I feel some more additional info on the band's activities in the last year is warranted (a slight synopsis of the multi-paged info available in the news section of the band's website). First of all, the band finished work on the video for "the Himan Stain" in late July, launching it on kamelot.com in mid September. In October news comes that the upcoming 2008 Europtour will see the band allied with Greek Power Metal masters Firewind and Austrian/ Am eric an band Visions Of Atlantis . In the November issue of Metal Maniacs magazine, a contest was started in which fans could win a big format picture autographed by the complete band, a guitar hard case, and an ESP guitar, of a model which is quite similar to the one played by Thomas Youngblood , autographed by the guitarist in gold ink. Singer Khan took out time to record some vocal participations for the new Avantasia album, and November saw drummer Casey Grillo did a clinic on December 6 th at Seminole Music at Key Largo, Florida. The rest taking some time out (well, there were new stage sets to be created, new pyrotechnics to be developed,...) get to hear that due to personnel changes within Visions Of Atlantis , the band will not be touring with them. Meanwhile, Youngblood was installing a new studio, where the band intends to record once the bugs re out and all the touring for Ghost Opera is done and over.

2008 was started with the band travelling all the way back to Belgrade, Serbia (where they did the shoots for the album's title track), to record two new videos (for "Rule The World" and aonther, as yet undisclosed track). Also in January the band's drummer accepts a full endorsement with Pearl , and the band gets featured on Argentine television in a one-hour program including the band's full biography and discography, video clips, and the Kamelot Argentine Fanclub . News from Germany puts the band in the Top 10 of best sold concert tickets. Further news in late February announced that for the upcoming Eurotour a replacement for Visions Of Atlantis was found in Forever Slave (a female-fronted Spanish Goth Rock/ Metal act).

So, when the band was given word about the re-issue with bonus tracks, etc...they felt they wanted to include a live CD recorded in Belgrade, Serbia, while on their 2007 European tour (exact date was April 14 th ). With Ghost Opera still about to appear, the 10-track set nevertheless sees 4 songs off that album being played. The rest of the set (except for the previously unreleased "Epilogue" , which is a 2 ½ tribute to all their fans) comes off 2005 album The Black Halo , and even sees Epica 's Simone Simone appear on stage for a vocal contribution to "The Haunting" . With real great sound quality, this certainly is a must-have for Kamelot fans, even if they purchased 2006's double live album One Cold Winter's Night . In addition, the bonus CD (which is aptly dubbed "Live From Belgrade" ) also contains a total of 4 studio tracks including "Pendulous Fall" , which was the bonus track for the limited edition of the first version of the album, a remix of the album track "Rule The World" , a studio version of the above mentioned "Epilogue" , and an additional new studio track titled "Seasons End". Thus far disc two of the double-CD re-issue...because the first disc also contains bonusses! In addition to the play-list of the regular edition of the album, you'll get videos for "Human Stain" (so now you know which extra video was recorded in January) and a live video of "Memento Mori" from their set at Belgrade. To top it all, the special slipcase got new cover artwork and a comprehensively enhanced booklet...

...and the hardened Kamelot fan sees yet another bloodletting of his bank account with the addition of this collectable thingy to his collection! Ehr...no need for a rating, is there? I still think this band rocks! If you're curious about how mùch I feel they do thàt, just check out the original reviews!

In additional news, the band has already put several dates together for a tour of North Am eric a in October & November. Support for this tour would be Germany's Edguy ! I suppose the band will be making good use of the Summer to start recording their upcoming album...yet another thing to look forward to in dire anticipation!

Tony.