SeaofTranquility.org recently caught up with KAMELOT guitarist Thomas Youngblood to diuscuss the band's new album, Ghost Opera. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview:

SoT: Ghost Opera has come out fairly soon after The Black Halo and One Cold Winter's Night - with such high praise for both of those releases, how hard was it to come up with fresh, exciting material that could equal or better the standards set by The Black Halo?

Thomas: "It's been over two years since The Black Halo, so in our mind it was really later than we wanted. The DVD came out but this was not new material, so we were ready and so was the record company to release a new album. There was no pressure on our side."

SoT: Can you talk a little bit about the new CD, and the concept, both lyrically and musically, behind these new songs?

Thomas: "Everything from current events in politics and religion to our touring and visiting cultures around the world. On the Ghost Opera, we used these events for the album as well as some historical references, like in Blücher."

SoT: The band has been pretty busy touring, especially here in the US, over the last year or two. Have audiences really started opening up to the band in recent years, warranting repeated visits, especially here in the US?

Thomas: "It's pretty awesome actually, we are playing the same countries 2-3 times on the same album. The reason we can do this is we bring a new set and show every time as well as a new growth of fans in between each visit emerges. We hope that we give a show that makes fans want to see us as soon as possible."

Go to this location for the complete interview.