MetalRules.com recently caught up with KAMELOT vocalist Roy Khan to discuss the band's new album, Ghost Opera. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview:

MetalRules: How do you feel that Ghost Opera extends the sound of Kamelot or pushes it forward?

Khan: "Just one thing that hits on another thing you asked. The difference between The Black Halo and Ghost Opera is actually quite essential. Not that it matters really, but The Black Halo was a concept record, and so was Epica. But this time around that was the only thing that we knew, that this was not going to be a concept record. Although I’m sure a lot of people perceive it as a concept because there are the atmospheres and my style of lyrics and the overall melancholy on the album make it feel like a concept record but it’s not. But anyway, the songwriting process was totally different this time because we just sat down and were free to put down any ideas that we had in our heads at the time without having to worry about lyrics or a lyrical idea, which always was the case when we wrote stuff for The Black Halo."

MetalRules: It’s got to be getting harder to pick songs to play on every tour as you get more and more material. How do you decide what you want to cut and what you want to add?

Khan: "Well, as long as we produce albums that are as good as the ones we have done so far, you always have to present a good portion of the newest album. That’s just the way it is because you want to promote your newest thing. And we’re extremely proud of Ghost Opera. So we’re gonna probably play five, six tracks off of that album. The tour we just did we played three of them: 'Mourning Star', 'Ghost Opera', and 'The Human Stain', and there’s gonna be two, three more. It’s impossible to satisfy everybody. There’s always somebody walking up to me after the gig and telling me hey why didn’t you play this track. If we wanted to play all of the songs that we’ve played live, it would take three and half hours. And we could probably add more songs that we’ve never played live that we would like to play live, but it’s just a matter of time really. Of course, we could extend the set and play a little bit longer. But then again if you have one or two opening bands…our experience…we did that a couple of times, but people get tired and some people leave and that’s not necessarily the best way to do it. Unless we cut the openers and just do a long Kamelot kind of night."

MetalRules: I’m sure there isn’t, but is there any chance that any songs from the first two albums will ever see a live show again?

Khan: "I don’t know. It’s not gonna happen on this tour or in connection with this record, and there’s several reasons. First of all, we all feel that the new songs are better. The two first records didn’t sell anything compared to any of the other albums. Let’s say we wanted to play 'We’re Not Separate'. We could of course, but then we would have to take out a song that ten times more people would like to hear. So it kind of has to be like that. But maybe."

Go to this location for the complete interview.