Tommy Karevik has been the singer of KAMELOT for fourteen years and five albums, and in a new interview with Ethereal Metal he allowed himself a conclusion he has mostly avoided until now.
"It's been — what is it? — 14 years. I guess it's enough time for it to start feeling like your own," he said. "Of course, it's a challenge. Anyone would understand it's a challenge to step into someone else's shoes that is immensely loved and talented. And I would lie if I said I wasn't nervous about it in the beginning."
His way through it was research. "I didn't understand the magnitude of KAMELOT before I started researching it, but when I saw and when I understood, I just took it upon myself to make sure, in the beginning, that I wasn't trampling all over sacred ground," he said. He studied the structure of the songs, the phrasing, the intervals inside the melodies, and wrote to stay near the shape the band already had. "Those were the first two albums, maybe."
He also addressed a rumour that followed 2012's "Silverthorn" — that the material had been finished before he arrived, and he had simply sung Roy Khan's leftovers.
"I remember seeing a lot of comments, like, 'Obviously, the songs were already written. They had Roy's songs already,' so I just sang them. But literally nothing was written," Karevik said. "From day one I wrote the melodies and the lyrics, with help from Sascha Paeth and Oliver Palotai, too, in the beginning. But now — now it feels like my band, for sure, since a couple albums. I think with 'The Awakening', I started taking more space. And I think with this album, I maybe take even more space again, exploring even more."
Khan left KAMELOT in April 2011 after several months away recovering from burnout. He later joined a church in the coastal town of Moss, Norway, and eventually reactivated his pre-KAMELOT band CONCEPTION. In 2018 he called leaving "the best decision I have ever made" and praised his successor: "Sounds classical KAMELOT in my ears, and Tommy is a great singer."
The album Karevik was talking about is "Dark Asylum", out August 28 via Napalm Records. Its fifteen interconnected songs extend the RavenHill narrative across orchestral passages, guitar-driven arrangements and character-based storytelling. Two singles are out — "Ashen World" and "Godlike Alchemy". Longtime producer Sascha Paeth returned, with Jacob Hansen mixing and mastering, and Ignacia Fernández, crowned Miss World Chile 2025, guests on "Ashen World" and "Sanctuary".
Karevik lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife, KOBRA AND THE LOTUS vocalist Kobra Paige.
Source: blabbermouth.net