Thomas Youngblood — born in the United States in 1965 — is Kamelot's founding guitarist and principal composer, and the only member present throughout the band's history. Kamelot is an anomaly: an American band, formed in Florida in 1991, playing European symphonic power metal in a country where that genre barely existed. Youngblood built his career looking towards Europe — that is where the band found its audience, its label and its festival circuit, and where it remains bigger than in its own country. As a composer, he is the author of the formula that defines the group: minor harmonies, orchestral arrangements written rather than simulated, heavy riffs combined with wide vocal melodies. Records such as Karma (2001), Epica (2003), The Black Halo (2005) and Ghost Opera (2007) are references of 21st-century symphonic metal, and the two concept albums based on Goethe's Faust — Epica and The Black Halo — are among the genre's most ambitious works. His greater importance lies in having sustained Kamelot through two vocal transitions that could have ended the band: Roy Khan's departure in 2011 for health reasons, and the arrival of Tommy Karevik. Few groups survive losing a voice so identified with their sound; Kamelot carried on without losing its identity because the writing was always Youngblood's.
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