I'd never heard of this band until just yesterday, as I was searching around for something new to listen to. I tend to be a fan of Power Metal (there are a few bands I can't stand - Sonata Arctica, or Within Temptation, for example), but most of it I find rather enjoyable. When I first found this band, I figured that it would just be another stereotypical Power Metal album, with lightning-fast guitars and high, squeaky vocals.

I've never been so glad to be wrong.

The opening track, "March of Mephisto" opens with a kind of march-sounding beat, complete with a background voice, from the singer (I assume) from Dimmu Borgir. The guitars, as I was pleased to find, aren't fast and somewhat uncoordinated, but rather slow. Not too slow, but slow enough. The vocals for this song - and, indeed, all the songs on this album - are wonderful. No more are the vocals reminiscent of a 13-year-old. They are very slow and melodic, and, I think, fit very well with the music.

Some of the songs do have faster guitar playing in them, but all in all, I wish that more bands sounded more like Kamelot.

This album has everything. "Normal" songs (March of Mephisto, The Haunting (Somewhere In Time), and Soul Society), faster, more upbeat songs (When The Lights Are Down, The Black Halo, and Nothing Ever Dies), and slow, ballad-like songs (Abandoned, This Pain, and Serenade), and even a few "intermission" tracks, featuring latin chanting. Alltogether a very nice listen, for those of you who enjoy either Power Metal, or just Rock/Alt. Rock in general. If you do, I highly recommend you give "The Black Halo" a listen. And if you aren't... do it anyways. You might surprise yourself.