Metal Reviews

A discussion has begun in the live Kamelot DVD forum about the use of backing tracks while playing live. It was suggested that they may have been used for this Kamelot DVD. I pointed out that it looks to me like Blind Guardian did as well at least for A Past And Future Secret on their Imaginations Through The Looking Glass DVD. The backing vocals sound identical to the studio version and even though Andre appears to be singing while sitting and playing acoustic guitar, there's no mic in front of him. Also, some of the main acoustic guitar melody lines appear to not be played by either Marcus or Andre if you watch closely. This is not meant to slag Blind Guardian but just my observations. Am I imagining things or have others noticed this?

Well, when I saw them live, most of the backing vocal lines were sung by the bassist, which is what I think was going on for the show there (they just basically ignore him on the DVD, so its hard to see). Also, I haven't noticed the guitar discrepancies.

Andre often sings along while it's not his place for backing vocals, as does Marcus. Oliver and the keyboard player are almost always involved in the backing vocals, even if you can't see them much on the DVD. Marcus is the next most often utilized, and Andre, while mouthing along alot, is the least often in front of the mic. They make it a point not to include any extra vocals beyond what can be recreated with the 5 people on stage. They even rehearse the songs without instruments just to get as many vocals correct as possible in a live show.

I mean, they could go Rhapsody if they wanted to and include the choirs as backing tracks, but they don't, so it seems crazy that they would cheat on a simple harmony line in A Past and Future Secret when they go all out and sing everything possible in ATTWS, while still having to miss a few parts. A Past and Future Secret would still work without the harmony, so why would they go through that effort of backing tracks to get a couple little harmonies in one song while other songs miss out on entire parts due to the lack of choirs. And like I said in the other forum, I saw them with my own eyes do it nearly perfect live.

I watched it on the DVD again tonight and don't see any guitar discrepancies. You may be speaking of some other notes, that sound similar to guitars but are actually effects also heard on the original, I believe meant to be another medieval string instrument. I assume the keyboard player does those because I heard them at the concert, and I saw his fingers going.