KAMELOT: Thomas Youngblood on Dark Asylum, RavenHill Asylum and the Band's Future. Exclusive Interview with Gino Alache

Thomas Youngblood, founder and guitarist of Kamelot, joined Gino Alache for a new exclusive interview with Rockum and the Rockum Radio Show as the band prepares to release its 14th studio album, Dark Asylum, on August 28, 2026 through Napalm Records.

The conversation marks Youngblood’s second interview with Rockum. Six years earlier, in 2020, he spoke with Alache in Kamelot’s Thomas Youngblood on I Am the Empire – Exclusive Interview, reflecting on Kamelot’s live production, the Shadow Empire tour and the creative path the band had followed up to that point. This time, the story moves forward into a very different world: the dark corridors of RavenHill Asylum and the making of one of Kamelot’s most concept-driven albums.

At the center of the interview is Dark Asylum. Unlike its predecessor, The Awakening, the new record was built around a connected concept. Youngblood discusses why Kamelot decided to return to this kind of storytelling, where the idea of RavenHill Asylum originated and how working within a single narrative affected the songwriting process.

RavenHill Asylum provides the setting for a story built around fractured memories, identity, psychological torment and the search for redemption. Once a cathedral, the fictional institution became the framework through which Kamelot could connect music, characters and atmosphere across the album. Youngblood talks about developing that world and about the creative challenges involved in making individual songs work while still belonging to a larger story.

The interview also goes inside the actual construction of Dark Asylum. Youngblood discusses how the songwriting began, what Kamelot learned from making The Awakening, which parts of the writing and recording process demanded the most time and how the album developed from its earliest ideas into the finished record.

With a career now stretching across more than three decades, the conversation naturally moves beyond the new album. Youngblood reflects on what makes him most proud when he looks at Kamelot today, what continues to inspire him to create new music and how his relationship with songwriting has evolved since the band’s formative years.

That retrospective also becomes more personal. Alache asks Youngblood whether there are elements of Kamelot’s early days that he still misses, what he would tell his younger self before beginning the band and what more than 30 years of Kamelot have taught him not simply as a musician, but as a person.

One of the broader questions looks beyond albums, tours and career milestones altogether: what does Thomas Youngblood hope people remember about him beyond the music? It is part of a conversation that places Dark Asylum within a much longer journey rather than treating the album as an isolated release.

The present and future of Kamelot come back into focus with the Dark Asylum World Tour. The North American run begins August 28 and includes Visions of Atlantis and Frozen Crown, followed by European dates later in the year. Youngblood discusses what fans can expect from the new production and Kamelot’s return to the road with the world of RavenHill Asylum surrounding the album.

Canada also forms part of that conversation. Kamelot will return for dates in Vancouver,Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City during the North American tour, and Youngblood talks about bringing the band back to Canadian audiences.

The tour lineup creates another interesting connection to Dark Asylum. Visions of Atlantis vocalist Clémentine Delauney appears on the album track “Sanctuary,” alongside Ignacia Fernández, while Dark Asylum also includes guest appearances from Tobias Sammet and other musicians. Alache asks Youngblood about the possibility of those collaborations extending to the stage and whether fans could see special guest appearances during the new touring cycle.

From the origins of RavenHill Asylum and the songwriting behind Dark Asylum to the lessons of a career spanning more than three decades, Thomas Youngblood’s second conversation with Rockum captures Kamelot at another turning point: preparing to introduce a new conceptual world while continuing a story that began long before the band became one of symphonic metal’s most internationally recognized names.

Watch the complete exclusive interview with Thomas Youngblood of Kamelot, conducted by Gino Alache for Rockum, below.

Interview conducted by Gino Alache – Music Journalist and Editor of Rockum