Kamelot Setlist

Sanctorium
Ashen World
with Giada Etro
The Great Pandemonium
Rule the World
Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)
Godlike Alchemy
Karma
Revolution
New Babylon
with Giada Etro
Dark Asylum
Ivy, My Dear
Drum Solo
One More Flag in the Ground
Keyboard Solo
Sanctuary
Veil of Elysium
— Encore —
March of Mephisto
with Giada Etro
Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)
Sanctum Requiem

Visions of Atlantis Setlist

Master the Hurricane
Clocks
Tonight I’m Alive
Legion of the Seas
Hellfire
Pirates Will Return
Melancholy Angel
Armada

Frozen Crown Setlist

Kings
The One
Neverending
Who Wants to Burn in Heaven
Reborn
Iris (Goo Goo Dolls cover)
I Am the Tyrant

There are performers who draw the audience in with the power of their charisma, skill, lyricism, what have you. There are bands that you can’t look away from because of their on stage antics or that the joy they have in playing is infectious. And then, there are performances, artist and bands who have purposefully added a visual aesthetic, often centered on a specific world or theme, and that’s a completely different thing yet again. It was going to be a night of performances over in Minneapolis as First Avenue was playing host to a full evening of power and symphonic metal, with Kamelot headlining on their Dark Asylum tour.

The first of the three band bill was Italian power metal band Frozen Crown, playing for the first time in North America. Formed in 2017 in Milan, they already have six albums, including October 2026’s upcoming release called The Legend of the Six Kings. There’s a world building mythos here, and the heavy triple guitars are densely layered and playing up against lead vocalist Giada “Jade” Etro’s scorching tones. The quintet (vocals, guitar/vocals, guitar, guitar, and drums/backing vocals) came out on a quiet opener. Just kidding, they were shredding from the get go, and that triple guitar, dual vocals was catchy and melodic. Given that much of the stage was covered for set pieces for the next band, Frozen Crown was constrained to a fairly small chunk of real estate along the front. They had three small platforms and while our singer obviously made prodigious use of them, she often gave way to the guitarists. And lest you worry about the drummer, fear not dear reader. He was as emotive as the rest of the band, and multiple times played while standing. If it wasn’t clear from the intro, the band knew the moves and with shoulder length hair being the absolute minimum, there were locks flying all over the place. Who Wants to Burn in Heaven was the lead track off the new album and had the crowd all in on the shouted “heys” and they were super responsive. We had the heaviest metal section of the set on the interlude there, and the closing on was simply tremendous. A cover of Goo Goo Dolls’ Iris was pretty inspired in its accelerator to the floor pace. Closing up with a final anthem had Federico Mondelli take lead vocals, including a growled screamo mode and giant drums in support. Frozen Crown had made the most of their time in their first North American tour and after posing for one last photo op, headed off the stage.

Up next was Visions of Atlantis, an Austrian symphonic metal band formed in 2000, whose recent work is pirate themed. (Side note: Would it surprise you to learn that there is a sub, subgenre called pirate metal? The world can be a truly joyous place.) They have numerous albums, such as 2024’s Pirates II – Armada and 2026’s Armada – An Orchestral Voyage. The band entered one by one to Master the Hurricane, with drummer Thomas Caser (the only member who has been part of the band for their entire existence) starting alone, and the song built up as the quintet (vocals, vocals, guitar, bass, and drums) continued to layer in. These songs were mini epics and the pirate metal was a clever space for the band to exist. Singer Clémentine Delauney had a hilarious bit of getting the crowd pumped up, and rolling into Tonight I’m Alive was another example of the power of the alternating female and male vocalists from Delauney and Michele Guaitoli that hit together on the chorus and after a split audience of yelled “ooh” and “aah”, gave way to Christian Douscha’s guitar solo. We had Delauney waving a gigantic VOA pirate flag to open Legion of the Seas and this was a nearly pop metal, with some great musical hooks before a nearly operatic bridge changed things up, though we quickly settled back into the rollicking tone. An extended guitar solo from Douscha led to the climactic finish and now it was Guaitoli’s turn to wave the flag. The band hit a new gear, and Hellfire ended with Guaitoli killing some belted falsetto notes. The backing symphonic music, including some ethereal organ, was a great add as Visions of Atlantis ramped up volume and the vocalists hitting increasingly impressive notes. But the craziest moment of this one was where the band got the crowd to sit down on the First Avenue main room floor and “row” the pirate ship. That the crowd went for it spoke volumes to how fully the world building had gone. Armada was the big finale and Caser’s drum work was a magnificent way for Visions of Atlantis to close out with a literal bang.

Dsc03554 compressed — Visions of Atlantis

Dsc03586 compressed — Visions of Atlantis

The crowd was amped up for the headliner Kamelot. The Florida based band was initially formed in 1987 by teenage guitarist and songwriter Thomas Youngblood, the only consistent member of the band. Keeping in the evening’s theme, they have so much music, with fourteen albums, most recently this year’s Dark Asylum. Mostly performing as a quintet (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards/keytar, and drums), they also had Giada Etro from the opener occasionally come on and off stage as needed. Opening on Ashen World had the band loud and lead singer Tommy Karevik all over the stage and the additional platform had him right with the front row of the crowd. The stage set up was intense and multi-level with stairs, and the keyboardist and drummer were well above the rest of the rest of the band in the back left and right corners respectively. That the female vocalist brought the screamo mode on the opener was a fun change of the genre’s norm and Kamelot was is full control. The Great Pandemonium had four or so smoke machines blasting at various points (think pyrotechnic flame bursts, but fog instead), and combined with an impressive on stage light show, there was a true visual flair for the evening.

Youngblood got several early guitar solos that helped solidify the vibe and things were moving smoothly. Godlike Alchemy was from the new album and was a sonic assault with soaring keys and vocals. The drum work from Alex Landenburg on Karma was intense and when the dark organ sound from Oliver Palotai took over, the crowd was having a blast. The set pieces continued, with a lectern appearing up front and Karevik in dark professorial mode and Palotai in the fully yelled growl vocals. His playing keytar allowed him to come up to the front of the stage, while bassist Sean Tibbetts headed up to the second level. The stage craft was well executed and kept giving looks for Kamelot. New Babylon cranked the volume up even farther and Etro was back both singing and growling, and the seemingly effortless switch between the two modes was outstanding. A bit of pre-recorded music and speaking introduced the title song of the new album and the opening guitar and bass work was top notch. We had phone lights on for the keyboard supported only ballad of Ivy, My Dear, though the symphonic swell of the backing recorded music and eventual return of the drummer late in the song helped quite a bit. Sanctuary got both Delauney and Etro on stage singing and the performance was at its peak. The main set ended with the epic and intense Veil of Elysium, with the light show working overtime. The two song encore finished with the first song Karevik had done with the band (“It’s a special song for me”), and Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife) was one final blast, with the stage full and all the stops out as Kamelot had given a performance for the adoring fans.