PROGPOWER USA XXIII

[jingle.boy]

I pointed out the question about Arion's pronunciation to multiple people yesterday 

And ... is it like Air-eon, or Orion-but with an "Ah"

[Skeever]

I pointed out the question about Arion's pronunciation to multiple people yesterday 

And ... is it like Air-eon, or Orion-but with an "Ah"

Amazing you'd have to do that because they have a song where the name of the band is sung out multiple times.

[Melphina]

Brief thoughts to be expanded upon later, but I just got home and am about to sleep for eternity, so:

Didn't watch many of the sets on day 3 and 4 this year for several reasons but mostly because I just wasn't as interested. That said, Ihsahn had an amazing show. I've only listened to some of his work outside of Emperor. That set - minus the brutal technical difficulties that eventually killed the show for several minutes right in the middle of it - was amazing. His drummer is a monster and a delight to watch. I preferred the super heavy black metal stuff to the rest. That shit was straight up demonic and exactly what I like to listen to so I'm going to explore his stuff and maybe I'll find some more dark slow stuff to enjoy too. Also the Wrathchild cover kicked so much ass.

Rhapsody was, tied with Stratovarius, the highlight of the fest for me. They only played classic songs from the early records and even through some deep cuts in there. I absolutely lost my shit during this set. Also got Alex's drumstick so now I have sticks from the three drummers of my three favorite power metal bands which I'm pretty chuffed about for selfish vain materialistic reasons 

Merch situation was dire this year though. So many bands had no merch, Stratovarius had 3 questionable selections for shirts that didn't last long and Rhapsody had only one shirt. I know the reasons why these things happen and why some bands have nothing at all but it's still disappointing when you want to throw money at the band right there. 

Another kickass progpower in the books!! 

[TAC]

Any of you guys see Witherfall?

[Ben_Jamin]

I did not see Witherfall. That was my sacrifice band to go out and eat.

I know Cram did because he posted a video.

[cramx3]

Any of you guys see Witherfall?

yeah, they were good but kind of sounded off a bit.  They were late to come out and it sounded like they had some sound issues just from hearing them before the curtain opened and then how the singer was reacting during the first song. I'm guessing they had to cut a song because of it.  Overall, pretty good though, but Tempest was the only song from Curse of Autumn played and therefore, the only song I knew of their set.  My only complaint, I wish they played more from that album.

Witherfall - Tempest

[cramx3]

Still need to finish editing my day 1 and day 2 videos tonight, but I wanted to share what I think may be my favorite clip of the festival. 

It was right before the end of the Rhapsody set and a bunch of people in the crowd right in front of me started grabbing each other and swaying left/right together.  Just a very nice unity type moment in the crowd. (plus the couple dancing in front of me)  Reminded me of the head banging wall at the end of Demons and Wizards from the last PP.  Moments like this are why the festival is so great.  Just a great community.

Turilli / Lione Rhapsody - Lamento Eroico LIVE @ ProgPower USA XXI (timestamped for when it starts to form)

[TAC]

Marc, just bounced around your Day 2 video. Stratovarius looked fantastic. Who's in the band now?

Spektra looked surprisingly quite enjoyable.

[cramx3]

Stratovarius were very fun.  I'm not a hardcore fan though so according to wiki pedia:

Current members
Timo Kotipelto – lead vocals (1994–present)
Jens Johansson – keyboards (1995–present)
Lauri Porra – bass, backing vocals (2005–present)
Matias Kupiainen – guitars, backing vocals (2008–present)
Rolf Pilve – drums (2012–present)

Spektra was pretty good. AOR type of music, reminded me a bit of Eclipse/W.E.T./JSS solo type of music which all makes sense.  Spektra is also JSS's backing band so those same guys were the band that did the Queen tribute set.  Also nice guys who I met who seemed very appreciative of the support and happy to have the opportunity.   

Also Tim, I finished my Day 1 video very late last night but forgot to upload it this morning, I'll have it up tonight but it's got a significant amount of Flotsam and Jetsam.  I didn't even realize how much of them I recorded and how little of everyone else  but you may enjoy that.  I even recorded an entire song (new song, The Walls) I never uploaded for some reason (I'll blame the alcohol) but I'm holding off uploading that full song until after my Day 1 video is up for some consistency in my channel. 

[jingle.boy]

I've given Spektra a listen.  They had a release last year that had a couple of gems.

[TAC]

Stratovarius were very fun.  I'm not a hardcore fan though so according to wiki pedia:

Current members
Timo Kotipelto – lead vocals (1994–present)
Jens Johansson – keyboards (1995–present)
Lauri Porra – bass, backing vocals (2005–present)
Matias Kupiainen – guitars, backing vocals (2008–present)
Rolf Pilve – drums (2012–present)

Spektra was pretty good. AOR type of music, reminded me a bit of Eclipse/W.E.T./JSS solo type of music which all makes sense.  Spektra is also JSS's backing band so those same guys were the band that did the Queen tribute set.  Also nice guys who I met who seemed very appreciative of the support and happy to have the opportunity.   

Also Tim, I finished my Day 1 video very late last night but forgot to upload it this morning, I'll have it up tonight but it's got a significant amount of Flotsam and Jetsam.  I didn't even realize how much of them I recorded and how little of everyone else  but you may enjoy that.  I even recorded an entire song (new song, The Walls) I never uploaded for some reason (I'll blame the alcohol) but I'm holding off uploading that full song until after my Day 1 video is up for some consistency in my channel.

Cool. I thought that was Jens Johanssen.

Yeah The Walls is awesome. It's off their latest (last year's) album.

[cramx3]

Yeah, their newer stuff is really good so I'm glad I captured that song (and Brace for Impact). Just wish I had remembered I had it on my camera last week   

[Lethean]

The Spectra guys are all really really good singers.

[TAC]

The Spectra guys are all really really good singers.

I heard they were spektracular.













..sorry..

[cramx3]

The Spectra guys are all really really good singers.

This became obvious during the Queen set doing the harmonies. 

[jingle.boy]

The Spectra guys are all really really good singers.

I heard they were spektracular.













..sorry..

No you're not.

[TAC]

No, I'm really not.

[Ben_Jamin]

I was very impressed by Spektra. I also thought of Eclipse, but to me, Spektra is more my style. The vocals were great and they were energetic.

[TAC]

The video is up!!! 

Gave it its first 

[Mebert78]

For those who attended this year, how was the Ray Alder performance?

[Ben_Jamin]

Amazing....

He played my two favorites from What The Water Wants, Wait and The Road. His vocals were really good as well too.

He got Nick Van Dyke to fill in for their other guitarist who had other obligations with his other band.

It was funny too when Ray joked about his show being "World Exclusive" saying he wouldn't go that far. 

Ending with Walls by Redemption was awesome as well, I was sad when he left Redemption because I wanted to hear him sing this song. After reading his interview in the ProgPower program, I figured when he mentioned Nick Van Dyke was joining him, he would do a Redemption song. I appreciate his reasons for not doing any Fates Warning songs as a sign of respect to the other guys. He thanked Nick for letting them play Walls as well.

[Lethean]

I agree with Ben.  I'd say that Ray didn't need to apologize for playing the new stuff as much as he did - maybe just mention it one time and get on with it.  But I think he was probably a little concerned that people would be wanting Fates songs.

I think his solo album is great, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Melphina]

Don't mind me, carry on, but I just wanted to share a few select pics of Stratovarius that I took 





I love how both times I've seen them I've gotten to meet them. I took photos with them all of course, but meeting the (imo) greatest metal keyboardist of all time after two hours of sweaty headbanging to my favorite power metal still has me on cloud nine.

[cramx3]

The video is up!!! 

Gave it its first 

danke

For those who attended this year, how was the Ray Alder performance?

I thought he was really good.  I've never been a huge Ray fan.  Like I'm not into Fates Warning and I enjoy Redemption but not really for his vocals.  But his solo stuff is really good.  I never bought the album, but I listened to it a bunch leading up to the festival and I was really digging it.  The bass playing on the album stands out just as much as his vocals.  But live, something about his vocals finally clicked for me.  Maybe it's his uniqueness but there's something there for sure that I never got until now.  His backing band was pretty solid.  The female bass player was fantastic.  If you are interested, here's my videos from his set (timestamped for his part):  https://youtu.be/lo_c2RnpEqo?t=1969

[Lethean]

I was very impressed by Spektra. I also thought of Eclipse, but to me, Spektra is more my style. The vocals were great and they were energetic.

.
Did they have a lot of harmony vocals during their own set?  I was only there for days 3 and 4 so I only saw the JSS set.  Some of them were with JSS the first time he played ProgPower and they were great then.

[cramx3]

I was very impressed by Spektra. I also thought of Eclipse, but to me, Spektra is more my style. The vocals were great and they were energetic.

.
Did they have a lot of harmony vocals during their own set?  I was only there for days 3 and 4 so I only saw the JSS set.  Some of them were with JSS the first time he played ProgPower and they were great then.

They had them, I'm not sure if it would be considered "a lot" though.  JSS was playing keyboards and singing the background vocals too so you could hear him in the mix.  Here's the full song Lonely Road https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXxbDG_6Hio with some harmonized backing vocals during the chorus.

[Lethean]

For those who attended this year, how was the Ray Alder performance?

I thought he was really good.  I've never been a huge Ray fan.  Like I'm not into Fates Warning and I enjoy Redemption but not really for his vocals.  But his solo stuff is really good.  I never bought the album, but I listened to it a bunch leading up to the festival and I was really digging it.  The bass playing on the album stands out just as much as his vocals.  But live, something about his vocals finally clicked for me.  Maybe it's his uniqueness but there's something there for sure that I never got until now.  His backing band was pretty solid.  The female bass player was fantastic.  If you are interested, here's my videos from his set (timestamped for his part):  https://youtu.be/lo_c2RnpEqo?t=1969

Glad you enjoyed his set.   I love Fates and Redemption and Ray's been one of my favorite singers for a while now.

[EVILPROGBOY]

Any of you guys see Witherfall?

The band before them went over. So they didn't have time to set up and had to cut a song.

yeah, they were good but kind of sounded off a bit.  They were late to come out and it sounded like they had some sound issues just from hearing them before the curtain opened and then how the singer was reacting during the first song. I'm guessing they had to cut a song because of it.  Overall, pretty good though, but Tempest was the only song from Curse of Autumn played and therefore, the only song I knew of their set.  My only complaint, I wish they played more from that album.

Witherfall - Tempest

[cramx3]

BUMP!

Progpower is back in less than 2 weeks!

This year's line up:

Day 1:
The Reticent
Elvenking
Cynic
Swallow The Sun
Doro

Day 2:
Seven Kingdoms
Zero Hour
The Halo Effect
VOLA
Beast in Black

Day 3:
The Cryptex
Battle Beast
Ad Infinitum
Green Carnation
Caligula's Horse
Kamelot

Day 4:
Poverty's No Crime
Evil Invaders
Visions of Atlantis
Delain
Unleash The Archers
Myrath

So for the first time for me, I'm not attending Day 1.  A few reasons, the line up is OK, but I saw Doro last time at Progpower and the last two Day 1s have been kind of dead in terms of the crowd environment.  I just can't justify the cost of the ticket and an extra hotel room this year.  Also doesn't help that my gf's birthday is the 7th and she's PISSED that I'm going to Atlanta that day.  So we are going to do something for her birthday before I leave.  Sucks, but what can I do?  I'd like to be there generally and I've always stated that if you are going to go, might as well go to all days.  It's just not working out for me this year.

However, Day 2, 3 and 4 are INCREDIBLE line ups for my tastes.  They actually may be the best line ups I've seen since Progpower came on my radar.  I'm really looking forward to a lot of the meet and greets.  I'm about to place an order on amazon for a bunch of CDs to be signed (I already own the digital music, but need to get that physical to have it signed).

And of course I'm excited for the line up reveal for next year.

[TAC]

Day 1 has the best lineup.

[Evermind]

I'd go to Day 1 just for The Reticent and Swallow the Sun Day 3 is just incredibly stacked, the only band I don't know is The Cryptex, the rest of the day should be amazing.

Day 2 and Day 4 are weird, I've seen VOLA and Delain (with Charlotte though) already and the only band I'm really interested in is Myrath.

Obviously I'm not in a position to see any of them but thought I'd post.

[TAC]

Obviously I'm not in a position to see any of them but thought I'd post.

Same here.

[cramx3]

Day 1 has the best lineup.

To each their own, I'd go if the costs of hotels wasn't so damn expensive these days and my gf wasn't so mad at me even if the line up isn't my favorite.  Who do you like on day 1?

I'd go to Day 1 just for The Reticent and Swallow the Sun Day 3 is just incredibly stacked, the only band I don't know is The Cryptex, the rest of the day should be amazing.

Day 2 and Day 4 are weird, I've seen VOLA and Delain (with Charlotte though) already and the only band I'm really interested in is Myrath.

Obviously I'm not in a position to see any of them but thought I'd post.

Day 3 is definitely stacked for my tastes as well. I like the new Delain album so I'm very excited to see them live with the "new" band.

It was also announced today that the singer of Xandria will perform with The Cryptex.

I also saw Kamelot/Battle Beast just last week and it was such a good show (specifically Battle Beast who were way better than the previous times I saw them).

After Progpower Ill see Beast in Black and Delain/Visions of Atlantic again in NYC.

[lonestar]

Definitely a good year, I'm seeing Kamelot et Al next Friday, and seeing Swallow the Sun open for Batushka Monday, but am bummed Caligula's and Myrath didn't add tours to the festival this year, especially Caligula's since they canceled a tour because of the Rona.

[TAC]

Day 1 has the best lineup.

To each their own, I'd go if the costs of hotels wasn't so damn expensive these days and my gf wasn't so mad at me even if the line up isn't my favorite.  Who do you like on day 1?

All of them. I'd love to see how the guy behind The Reticent translates it to a band format.
I like Swallow The Sun, and while I'm not really into Cynic, they'd have my undivided attention live.