PROGPOWER EUROPE
BAARLO, HOLLAND - 03-05/10/08
This was my third visit to ProgPower Europe. It was clear from the outset that this festival was as well organized as ever, and that once again a big international party was in store.
Musical proceedings began on Friday evening with Division by Zero (Poland). A dramatic entrance preceded a punchy and atmospheric heavy rhythm from the guitarists. The singer had a good roar but his clean voice was suspect. There was a degree of variety with emotional talking parts and a Latino style number but the vocalist seemed to be operating in a world of his own, one which bore no relation to the impressively thunderous wall of sound around him. In contrast, I heard him singing plaintively about flowers and self-control. Meanwhile the guitar solos and build-up were good but I couldn’t see where this band was heading. Rather patchy and unsatisfying.
Then came Atrox (Norway). Picture a guy with one arm in a white jacket stained with who knows what, a lopsided cap and a neckerchief. The music was as nuts as this guy looked and acted. “Hello Africa” proclaimed the guitarist. Whilst there was a circus element to Atrox, the music was deliberate, measured, very heavy and powerful. The steady pace was the cover for sounds of controlled madness. It was like Green Carnation gone mad. I had no idea what was coming next. It was just great. The singer’s carefree joie de vivre was infectious and epitomized the entertainment. “Welcome to the Atrox fair”, they told us. Sure, they may act like clowns and vacillate between slapstick and Monty Python, but musically they are excellent. The riffs are seriously strong and catchy. It was quirky, but wholly professional and hugely entertaining.
Pagan’s Mind (Norway) were the headliners this evening. They may have an odd look about them with their studious gurning guitarist, the avuncular bass player and a singer looking like an 80s rock star, but their musicianship is supreme. The tracks came from the full range of their four albums. The guitar solos were just amazing. This guy could make his guitar walk down the street and back again. The keyboard player’s input raised the bar and accentuated the expansive style they have. Just as it was all going well, “The Seven Sacred Promises” off “Celestial Entrance” sounded a bit of a mess, but then they came back brilliantly with “Entrance to Infinity”. The band slowed it down, and altogether provided well-thought out interpretations of their recorded material. “Hello Space Boy”, a Bowie cover which is on their latest album, provided a vehicle for the singer’s theatricals and got the crowd going. The sound wasn’t always right, but the guitarist kept pulling brilliance out of the bag. The performance of the epic “New World Order” was supreme. The band took a well-earned break in their two hour set, and whilst they continued to radiate energy, enjoyment and drama, not to mention those sublime guitar solos, there didn’t seem to be anything extra on offer for the last 30 minutes. Have they got enough variety within their material? Did they run out of steam? As one of the Swedish contingent put it to me, “We knew what was going to happen and it happened”.
Maybe with Pagan’s Mind it was the expectation. I came to ProgPower knowing a lot about them and very little or nothing of the other bands who were playing. This was a good thing. I heard people discussing whether this or that band would be good. For me, it was a bit like the Euro football championships this year – England weren’t playing so there were no expectations, just the possibility of enjoyment and entertainment.
So, onto Saturday, which started with Cilice (Holland). This was seriously aggressive stuff. The lovers of soft metal left the room. Listening to this band, I thought I was back at the London Deathfest. They’d have gone down well there. This was seriously brutal Death Metal, bassless and thumping but irregular in that Mathcore way. Hard-hitting rhythms met brutal screaming. The assault came from all directions. The samples were atmospheric and industrial. The one weakness they did have was the wimpy clean vocal passages. There was no real need, and they weren’t sung very convincingly. Other than that this was a great start for me, but not so much for others who didn’t appreciate the style.
As is the norm at ProgPower, the mood changed again with the next band. Sun Caged (Holland) played conventional Prog with a heavy edge. As with Division by Zero the day before, the vocalist brought them down. If the instrumentalists had come down a range, it would have been better but still not good. The keyboards were screechy. One of my fellow ProgPowerees did draw my attention to the quality of the guitar masturbation near the end from a certain Marcel Coenen, who is known for this sort of thing. He did also recognize that everything was set in the context of, or even in competition with the ball-squeezing vocals. “Is the Pizza place open?”, I was asked during the set. Precisely.
Now, here was an interesting idea. Wolverine (Sweden) came on to repeat the set they played at the same event in 1999. Unfortunately it was cut short because of earlier late running, but I heard enough to know that I was listening to something amazing. I never heard the band play in 1999, but this wasn’t dated. To say it was steady-paced, developing Prog is true but too mundane a description. The drummer set that steady pace. The guitarists created vision and the pathway for feelings. This was the real deal. These musicians succeeded in capturing a deep and mellow mood with being precious or “clever”. It was remarkable. The structures of the songs were immaculate. The ambiance was electrifying. The sound was powerful, ranging between soft and heavy. The drummer provided the growls, timed and delivered impeccably. I had no idea beforehand what to expect. This was a performance full of feeling and impact. Thank you for allowing me into your world and letting me stay there for a while, Wolverine. It was an absolutely brilliant performance.
On came Alarum (Australia). They played a sort of heavy technical Prog-Thrash. I didn’t know this band, and unlike Wolverine before them, I couldn’t see what all this was about. The standard pattern was a fast and furious lead-in, accompanied by rapid-fire drumming, angry vocals, all followed by a sophisticated technical section, more rapid fire stuff and a sudden ending. Alchemist without the melody? I’ve also heard Aeternus, who I like a lot, play like this. At one point there was a nice funky, warming rhythm but instead of developing it we were soon back to the usual pattern. A sense of disorder was the impression given, and that’s fine, but the band did themselves no favours. The lead singer mumbled the track titles hurriedly into the mic as if the bar was going to shut imminently and there’d be no drinking time. If this was because the show was running late, could they not have adopted “Plan B” and dispensed with a song? The band looked disinterested and at odds with each other. Quite apart from their lack of presence, the songs themselves, whilst competently played, were uni-dimensional. Alarum didn’t get their message across tonight.
Next on were Zero Hour (USA). At first hearing, signs were that the heavy brigade was out again. A pounding hypnotic rhythm provided the backdrop to a high degree of mostly rapid technical intensity. Set against all this was a singer with a high-pitched voice. Mercifully, the Bee Gees impression was transformed as the sound was sorted out, and what followed was an amazing performance. One minute the music was thunderously heavy, the next it was reflective, which served to highlight the singer’s excellent clear voice. Then the pace would slow down to allow the singer freedom of expression which he used with great feeling and dexterity. Magnificent technical passages from Troy and Jasun Tipton accompanied the angelic voice and choruses, never standing still and progressing up and down in pace and heaviness. The drama and tone of the vocals on one track (sorry, never got the title, it might have been “There for Me”) would have been entirely suitable for a London West End musical, a strange thought as the singer’s appearance would have scared the living daylights out of the children and their mums. The song was also heavy and driving. On “Demise”, the hypnotic beauty was provided by the bass and supported by minimalist guitar work. So it wasn’t just the singer who created the drama. His role was to add a dimension to the technically-refined, well structured songs. Add to that a great audience interaction, and the result was an excellent performance.
Cynic (USA) were the headlining band on Saturday. There seemed to be a mystique about them, not least because they hadn’t recorded anything since 1993. Their 90 minute set list was always going to consist of that album and a new one coming out soon. The set opened with a deep sounding guitar track. The band was led by guitarist/singer Paul Masvidal. The mellow, indistinct vocals made him sound drowsy. The technical Prog being played had no urgency but it flowed quite well. Masvidal (it was all too formal to call him Paul) introduced a track called “Evolutionary Sleeper”. To this point, the atmosphere had been sleepy, most notably the songs themselves and Masvidal’s presentation of these tunes, as he called them. This one actually started with a more powerful instrumental pitch. Masvidal droned on. It also slowed down to a pleasant dreamy section which could have come from the later Beatles catalogue. A nice track. In spite of this, I was beginning to have my doubts as to whether Masvidal was bored, the songs were boring or this somnolent atmosphere was deliberate. As a presenter, Masvidal was dry and dead pan. I warmed to that. As a singer, he sounded like Jonas Renske without passion. We then heard a track which was distant, slowed down to a crawl, and spent 5 or more minutes – it seemed like 20 – creating a progressive dream world. We were entering the experimental / avant-garde zone now. Things were picking up. We even had a man playing the chapman stick. The guitar work remained technical and mellow, sometimes it was jazzy and heavy. The presentation of the next one “King of Those who Know” gave a clue as to where we stood. “We’re going to slow it down. Some of you will need the coffee shop”. Perhaps Cynic should set up a sponsorship deal with Starbuck’s. I guess this was all about engendering a certain becalmed mood and feeling. This was never going to set the pulses racing. The crowd listened attentively. The sound was momentarily cranked up, but we were soon back to abject dreariness. This clearly seemed to be the point, but it didn’t make much of a spectacle. There were occasional moments of passion and even humour but the style and the aloofness of the band made it difficult to empathise. Masvidal tried a bit of audience interaction with his words but it just sounded tired. I know he was laid back and it kind of went with the atmosphere, but the set seemed like a private rehearsal in which the audience wasn’t involved. The presentation was like a private joke. There was no audience relationship and a lot of people left. A lot of those who remained lapped it all up. Take your choice. As someone said to me afterwards, it’s something you might want to listen to if you’re in the lounge, drinking coffee and wanting to get away to another world. I did think the newer material was more rounded, but I can’t say I completely “got” Cynic. It was certainly enigmatic.
Saturday merged into Sunday as is the tradition at partying ProgPower. The rain came down as we re-entered our adopted home, the JC Sjiwa club. Today’s performances began with 21 Eyes of Ruby (Holland). Melodic Death heaviness was supported with solid riff lines. The band weren’t frightened to mix it up. We heard a bass-driven jazz solo, then an Eastern rhythm which really needed an Arab singer rather than a Dutch one. Grooves overlapped with a mysterious atmosphere. It wasn’t always clear where they were going. One unnamed track ended in chaotic Doom Prog. A long presentation in Dutch preceded a funkier number. The twirling structures made me think of Canvas Solaris. The singer had the tones of the guy from Subway for Sally. It was all very refreshing, original, definitely melodic and with room for headbanging. The set ended with a powerful progressive number, injected with nightmarish electronic samples. 21 Eyes of Ruby did everything to capture our imagination, and it worked well. Very creative and interesting.
Next on the bill was Pathosray (Italy). A fellow concert goer explained that this was going to be typical Italian Prog. Well it was flamboyant. The band gave the impression of creating a big atmosphere, but it didn’t happen. The singer churned out something which had its origins in a fusion of Classic Rock, Power Metal and Emo Prog – yuk. To be fair, all the punching of the air and other theatrical gestures went down well with a sizeable proportion of the audience, while all this Hero Metal stuff was lost on the rest of us. There was no depth in it. If it was about fun and laughter, then ok, but I didn’t see anyone being overwhelmed with side-splitting joy either.
Aurora Project (Holland) were a last minute substitute for Myrath. Coming from the lighter Pink Floyd/Riverside/Porcupine Tree end of the scale, they played some well shaped songs and without being in any way spectacular, were nevertheless very pleasant to listen to. “Nice” is the word to describe these songs. Catchy and melodic would define them too. There was one surprising moment when a track started with something like Burzum’s “Filosofem”, but generally it was about absorbing light melodic passages. The singer sounded like Phil Collins and had a nice voice. They may have been a stand-in, but the band gave it everything and put on a streamlined and enjoyable show.
Suspyre (USA) then came on and offered up some Heavy Rock/Metal of a classic variety with some keyboards thrown in. Having three guitarists, a drummer and a keyboard player ensured a heavy instrumental impact, but whilst it was all delivered with gusto, there was no real edge to it. At times there were elements of Melodic Death Metal, and it bordered on Power Metal, but rarely did it move away from the standard verse and chorus routine. There was an anthemic quality about some of it and the singer gave his all. He screamed forcefully into the mic and put himself about, but the overall result from the band was a lack of spice, not helped by the odd clumsy break. There was plenty of enthusiasm but not a great deal of musical inspiration. As a post-note, the person who gave me a lift after the event (thanks again, Daniel!) played some Suspyre in his car, and it was totally different. What I heard was the same enthusiasm but with orchestral depth, a lighter and cleaner version of Graveworm. I suspect that the sound quality and the logistics of getting equipment from the US conspired against them at ProgPower.
Now, after Saturday’s masterly performance, it was time for Sweden’s Wolverine to play to a modern set list. The drummer and guitarists dropped straightaway into the mellow sound. The rhythm guitar was magical. Again we were being gently whisked off to a faraway land. The drummer’s perfectly timed growls added a sinister touch. The mood and pace changed periodically. Heaviness partnered a jazzy and dreamy style. The constant element was the slow beat being tapped out by the drummer. This proved the ideal vehicle for the guitarist to press on languidly while the singer added feeling. A track from the album “Still” (I believe it was “Sleepy Town”) was faster and bouncier. The audience started to clap and bounce. The lyrics, which seemed to have to with pain and insecurity, were easy to pick up on. I could see the anguish in people’s faces around me. The music wasn’t for the most part emotional, in fact it was at various times funky, groovy and heavy. Rather it was wistful and appealed to the emotions – what Prog is about, perhaps? I sensed a Pink Floyd influence (later confirmed by a band member to be the drummer’s musical preference). The skill lay in the fact that the music and the words did not overpower each other, all the more impressive for the fact that the sound quality here was muddy, to say the least. Wolverine knew how to work an audience without incitement. The crowd swayed, clapped and punched as the tracks crept up through the soft beats and quieter moments to the solos and then the epic, anthemic moments. The complete range was there, and it flowed. It’s a pity they didn’t tell those of us who didn’t know what the tracks were but it was another magical performance nonetheless.
To end it all, we had Threshold (UK). I’d been forewarned about the singer Damian Wilson, who had just rejoined the band. He raced on to the stage and launched into “Slipstream”, a real motorway rock anthem from the album “Dead Reckoning”. The guitar play was tight and the beat insistent. Damian smiled. He was everywhere. I get the impression that this man doesn’t spend much time in public libraries (that’s libraries, not lavatories, George Michael to note). This was the total rock experience, and we’d only had two minutes. After the rip-roaring beginning, the Damian Wilson Show gave way to the instrumentalists who proceeded to set the mood. The interweaving of guitar technicality, drum beats and the singer’s range produced a powerful concoction. Threshold specialize in huge anthems and were doing them all justice. Their songs are essentially simple and lyrically easy to catch hold of, and in live form they were being masterfully executed. The output was explosive, catchy and technically tight. The keyboards gave an ethereal feel. Then came a track – I believe it may have been “Part of the Chaos” - in which we were witnessing a musical drama, again with a catchy chorus and superb instrumentals. Dynamic Damian was like a Metal Jesus Chris Superstar, inviting us all enthusiastically to join in the fun. No problem there, mate. In amongst all this non-stop action, the song structures changed but remained tight. They played a personal favourite of mine, the evocative Classic Rock song “Pilot in the Sky of Dreams”. Not for the first time at this festival, I found myself comparing the singer’s voice to that of a West End musical star. “I’m loving it”, he told us. So were we. Threshold took “Pilot in the Sky of Dreams” to new heights. After inviting some of the audience to have a go, with impressive results, Damian’s singing power was just awesome. So were the rest of the band who provided superior glue. Everyone was having fun and rocking. The timing and musical discipline were superb. After more interplay with the audience, a little “Get Out Demons” sing-song automatically led us into the Threshold-style power ballad “Sanity End” from the “Wounded Land” album. Damian piled into the audience and disappeared. Apparently he gave fellow Metalteam scribe Wojtek a hug at this point, showing great bonhomie but questionable taste. The band played on meanwhile with a harmonized guitar and keyboard section. The man returned. “Let’s go for it” he pronounced, while introducing “This is Your Life”. Last year Rene pulled off a masterstroke by getting Jon Oliva’s Pain to headline at ProgPower Europe. He did the same this year with Threshold. They had energy, imagination, technical skill, co-ordination and great songs, and to cap it all off put on a fantastic stage show. It defies belief that they have not earned greater recognition than they have. Threshold were worthy headliners at a wonderful event.
And it doesn’t end there. It never does at ProgPower. This event is about people of all nationalities having fun. The package which Rene offers provides far more than it could say. The level of friendliness and camaraderie of the people at the village of Baarlo and the castle where many spectators and band members stay is amazing. As an event, it is so well organized. A huge thank you is due to Rene and his team for their efforts. Check out their web site: www.progpower.eu .
And finally, some awards:
Band for Friday – Atrox
Band for Saturday – Wolverine
Band for Sunday – Threshold
Heros: Rene, the Zero Hour guitarist for playing with tendonitis, the Threshold drummer who had a dislocated shoulder, the Aussie guy (sorry, I’ve forgotten your name) who came all the way from Perth W.A. just for the event, all the bands who travelled great distances to be there, “Saarlander Daniel”, Tony and Dave for helping me and Wojtek avoid the Belgian strike, and Wojtek himself for help with some of the detail.
Top Drinkers: Sweden – Skol!
Sobriety Award: UK. I tried hard but it wasn’t enough. I think we’ve become a nation of fitness fanatics or recovering alcoholics, not sure which.
Award for Insanity: Atrox for their performances on and off stage.
Kindness Award: Holland, for arranging the cold, wind and rain on Sunday to make the Brits, Finns and Northern Europeans in general feel at home.
Best Comments: Finland, for the following contributions:
“I took a picture of 15 centimetres of snow at Heathrow airport. I don’t know why because we have a lot of snow in Finland”.
“Andrew, why have I been calling you Nigel?”
Friendship Award: Everyone!
An alternative review by Wojtek can be found here
Andrew Doherty
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