PROGPOWER EUROPE
My first experience of ProgPower Europe was in 2006. It was the line-up which attracted me then, but in spite of the bands being less familiar this time, it had been such a fantastic occasion that I had to go back. The event takes place in the JC Sjiwa club in the village of Baarlo, just south of Venlo in Holland. The locals, who take pride in helping with the organisation, mix in with the flood of people from all across Europe, and beyond. Most visitors take advantage of a superb package deal and stay with many of the bands in the nearby Castle de Beerkt, ensuring the weekend is just one big, continuous European party.
Proceedings begin on the Friday evening with a “pre-party” concert in the club underneath the main concert hall. This year the first band on was Picture of the Moon (Holland). Ideal for this setting, a fusion of Prog and Heavy Metal was what we got. The first song grooved. The set was enjoyable enough but it all got a bit lost after that. The keyboards were too high in the mix. The band need to assert their own identity more. Not bad though. A number of the Finnish contingent were alcoholically intoxicated already, so probably didn’t notice.
Unfortunately I missed the next band Thessera (Brazil) altogether as I was otherwise engaged (don’t ask). The consensus from the Swedish / Dutch jury I spoke to afterwards was that they were good, much harder edged than Picture of the Moon, a bit like Dream Theater, the vocalist’s voice was nasal and the band had a good relationship with the crowd. Oh, and they did a cover of Genesis’s “Land of Confusion”. Now you know as much about them as I do.
Meanwhile in the unofficial European Drinking Championships, the Finns took an early lead.
So, on to Saturday. Non Divine (Holland) opened up. They looked like rock stars with their white shirts and long flowing hair, and pulled it off. Bags of energy, driving rhythms but the vocals were a bit weak in an otherwise strong display of melodic Rock/Metal. The set ended with a Sepultura cover. Not my thing personally but definitely crowd-pleasing.
Oceans of Sadness (Belgium) were second on. I’d never heard Progressive Thrash before. I have now. Added to that were catchy guitar riffs worthy of a Finnish band, atmospheric keyboards which wouldn’t be out of place on a symphonic Black Metal album, and a vocalist preaching evil and doom, that was when he wasn’t burning everyone alive with his furious stage antics. In amongst it was an interesting Alice in Chains cover. Utterly grooving, a great stage performance, an awesome band. In their own words, “metal madness”. Check them out.
DGM (Italy) played Hard Rock / Power Metal in a Prog way, but it was very clichéd, and the singer wasn’t that great. The guitar work was solid, but basically it was too similar to Rhapsody and Dream Theater and lacked originality. In one ear and out the other, as they say.
Nahemah (Spain) were next. I’d never heard this band before. At the start, the progressive doomy passages, the Gothic edge, the singer’s appearance, the dulled out drums and the technical riffs immediately brought Moonspell to my mind. But Nahemah went much further than this. The singer was utterly charismatic and enjoyed a great rapport with the crowd. It became apparent that Nahemah play dreamy, intricate, sometimes heavy Progressive Metal with majestic Opethian guitar interludes. It was so beautiful and moving towards the end that it brought a tear to my eye. Sublime. Why have we not heard of Nahemah in the UK?
I’d heard a lot of complimentary things about Orphaned Land (Israel) without having heard their music. I was disappointed. The band was enthusiastic enough but getting the crowd to jump around after one muddy-sounding mediocre track when people might not be used to their sound was their first mistake. The songs were solid and progressive with a 70s sort of feel but it wasn’t exciting and never got going. Indeed, they contributed to their own problems by losing momentum in breaks between tracks, and then went through the rigmarole of introducing someone who performed a bizarre, unconvincing and seemingly pointless lovey-dovey death duet. There was a nice Israeli song with an audience sing-a-long involved but I had the impression that by inviting the crowd to shout “oi” a few times and adding a few “exotic” Middle Eastern parts, they thought that success would be guaranteed. One of my fellow spectators commented to me that the performance lacked spirit. I agree.
Alchemist (Australia) headlined on the Saturday. I saw them support Cult of Luna two or three years back but although I liked them myself, the general reaction was mixed. I recall their style was described then as “Psychedelic Metal”. Well, it’s certainly colourful. Throughout the show, an electronic wave ran through a very powerful melodic base. There were so many interesting layers. The background comprised at various points hypnotic jungle beats, aboriginal sounds and well-chosen samples. Up front the guitar work was flamboyant, while the impassioned vocalist screamed and occasionally grinded. Yet as we were swept along, there was a pervading aura of calm in amongst all the movement. The range was incredible. The encore track sounded like a trailer to a suspense film or thriller. Compared to the last time I saw them, Alchemist had gone up six notches in terms of quality and breadth, and thoroughly deserved the enthusiastic applause they received. Theirs had been a creative and mature performance.
On the party front, the Germans drew level in the drinking championships, without doubt the purchase of a 24 pack of 8% proof beer and their willingness to drink it helping the cause. The most dubious achievement of the day goes to the Finnish metalhead who went to the supermarket to buy food, but instead came back with a pack of balloons and the Transformers DVD … and then proudly told us about it.
Sunday came. After cadging a lift to the club in Sylvia’s lovely show-off car (Vielen Dank, Sylvia, und Mercenary hailz!) to cries of “you lazy b***ard” from the Polish representative, day three started with Day Six (Holland). After an unpromising start, Day Six gave a good display of heavyish technical Prog. Unfortunately the power went off after the second track but the band came back with humour intact and undeterred. The overall impression I had was that the longish tracks were over flowery and formulaic. I didn’t like the emo parts but the long technical guitar passages were worth waiting for. It left me thinking I could have left the room for the first part of each track and come back when they settled down. The vocalist’s face pulling was comical and didn’t help the ambience I think they were seeking to generate. Day Six are a young band and have the raw material to develop into something really good.
A complete change next with Mevyn (USA). Ah, some welcome heaviness. The powerful wall of sound hit us from the outset. By and large, they maintained it, the band not being frightened to bombard us with heavy guitar technicality at every available opportunity. The bassist was amazing and provided back-up vocals although I thought growls would have worked better in the context. The power vocals of the lead singer were excellent, but he was always going to be fighting an uphill battle against this thunderously impressively wall of noise. I gathered that one of the songs was about Iraq but beyond that, who knows? Shame, because the overriding impression was that the band were interesting, had thought out their material carefully and from the vocalist’s actions had something to say. In fact the only time he was clear was when presenting between tracks. He did so extremely professionally and in an audience-friendly way, even remembering to thank the band’s sponsors, who enabled them to fund a trip of this distance. In between the headbanging stuff, the slower tempo opened up an atmospheric window, which the guitarists exploited well. The keyboardist played his part too but all in all the distinct impression was that the heavy framework and the Power/Prog vocals were never going to meet each other. I suspected also that this style might take some getting used to but for now it was at least vigorous and enjoyable. Since the show, I have listened to the band’s album “Splintered Skies”, on which the sound balance is right and sure enough, there are some awesome tracks. Mevyn are worth looking into.
I had high hopes for Circus Maximus (Norway), knowing that Norway is the home of some original and imaginative Progressive music and the label they are signed to has some interesting bands. As far as their performance here was concerned, the singer had a great voice and the band were technically accomplished, but the crowd was divided. For some, myself included, they were too sugary, emo and one-dimensional, whereas for others they rocked. And why is that Norwegian bands without corpsepaint have such a disjointed appearance? Prog emo? No, thank you.
Having recently had “5th Season”, the latest album by Dreamscape (Germany) to review, I was really looking forward to seeing them live. I saw them at last year’s ProgPower Europe but they were nothing like I remember them, possibly due to the band’s line-up changes. The first part of the set was dominated by tracks from “5th Season”. The style was distinctly more Power Metal than the album which features more Prog and as such lacked depth. “Somebody” with its catchy repetitive chorus came across as a mere pop song when it is much more in its recorded version. There was no shortage of enthusiasm from the band, but poor sound quality was stifling the singer’s attempts to match power with any feeling. The audience was unmoved. “Breathing Spaces” took us into a heavier Prog direction and then it quietened down again. And then to finish ….20 minutes of the most dynamic Prog imaginable with an old track “End of Light”. Fire, passion, enthusiasm, technique, variety – just what Circus Maximus didn’t have. The singer had enormous presence. The band had just burst into life. Where did that come from? Dreamscape went off to rapturous applause. The crowd was buzzing.
I’d never heard of Sieges Even (Germany), but found that many people present regarded them as the potential highlight. “A modern version of Rush”, I was told. Well, from the outset I could see what all the fuss was about. This was indeed highly accomplished, modern day technical Prog rock with a definite edge. Tracks developed slowly with sophisticated and hooky guitar riffs before developing into new fields of technical excellence, indeed perfection. The drum beat set a steady pace. The nervous-looking guitarist weaved webs. You sensed that the bassist knew he could make his guitar walk down the street if he wanted to. And the singer’s voice was as clear as a bell, as he pranced around, engaging everyone in his happiness and enthusiasm. Four individual band members made a vastly greater whole. The Finns near me danced around an imaginary maypole. It was 70s in style but distinctly for the modern age. The rhythms were deep. There were occasional overtly crowd-pleasing moments but nothing to disturb the intricate weaving of simple sounding but complex rhythms. You want to get carried away to another world? Listen to Sieges Even. The singer told us the track titles but it didn’t matter. Each one was a gem. All the band’s wares were on display. It grooved, funky beats made an appearance, it was momentarily robotic, it speeded up, it slowed down. It was seamless. The vocals were stratospheric. No forced crowd interaction was necessary. The band was generating it through their hypnotic brand of music, and they knew it. I was told afterwards that the live performance was heavier than the recorded version. Well, this did for me. Wow.
And finally, Jon Oliva’s Pain (USA). A number of the ProgPower visitors had described Jon Oliva and his band Savatage to me in terms of some sort of religious experience, and it was clear that the locals present thought the same. On came this grotesque figure in black (“like the Penguin in the Batman movie” commented my fellow neutral from the Czech Republic) and my worst fears were realised: anthemic Classic Rock “Warriors of the World”. My children would have found it infantile. Yet this is what everyone wanted. But actually it was, when looked at on another level, all rather good. The lead guitarist was so good that he was worth coming for in his own right, the drumming had authority, the man himself drank, smoked, sang and played the piano with awesome power. Here’s someone with charisma. Jon Oliva should write a book on “How to Work an Audience”. The songs themselves were classic, the lyrics were simple and the band interacted well. Jon Oliva smiled, gesticulated and ad-libbed his way though guitar problems. The show went on. The crowd rocked. I didn’t like the mellow cheesy numbers but preferred the bluesy stuff. At one point I thought they were going to burst into “Eye of the Tiger”. This was pure entertainment, folks. It all ended with the infectious “Hall of the Mountain King”. The audience joined in the party. Everyone left feeling better.
In the drinking competition, I announced that the Germans were the winners on the basis of sustained effort. The Finns were a close second. No-one else came near. In the process of this announcement, I learnt my first word of Finnish, “tumult”, which one of their group helpfully explained means “getting hammered”. The Finns disappeared to the after-show party to do just this, joining the victorious Germans. Getting into practice for next year already. I said my goodbyes and headed off into the night, reflecting on yet another great ProgPower festival.
For pictures and other details of this event, check out the official site www.progpower.eu.
Andrew Doherty
BAARLO, HOLLAND, 05 - 07/10/07