Haken

[azal]

evo ga ceo, Matt je world-class hater  boldovao sam najbolje momente

WEDNESDAY

Darkwater:

For some reason, went almost straight to the venue from the airport early enough to catch some of the first band, Darkwater. I had never even heard of them before, although someone told me they played PP before. Darkwater are a throwback to early 00s prog metal, especially of the neither-technical-nor-really-progressive variety, like Superior or Vanden Plas, but at least in 2024, not every Swedish prog metal vocalist sings out of his nose (see: Mayadome, Treasure Land, Timescape, etc.). No stage presence to speak of, but they at least came off as a genuine band making music to please themselves.

Victorius:

I only stuck my head into the venue briefly to see this band. Terrible, terrible power metal for children who have never heard of Helloween and don't like bands who don't play dress up. Is it a legacy of ProgPower that a heavy metal safe space was created for autistic nerds, who promptly reinvented the metal wheel in the image of an afterschool musical program?

Dream Evil:

I don't care what anyone says, the first Dream Evil album is a lot of fun. I always liked how sweet and soft the singer came across - that contrast was the only thing that could save the corn syrupy cloyingness of this kind of power metal. That singer is fronting the band these days, but I have to say: he is not as cuddly looking as he sounds. Definitely had some Fury Road sartorial vibes. He sounded great, and the band is solid as hell, and as long as they were playing old tunes, I was loving it. At the end, original drummer Snowy Shaw came out to drum a tune, then sing a duet of "Book of Heavy Metal" and he was an absolute blast to watch. I confronted him in the hall a day later and demanded he produce a new Memento Mori album, but he crushed my dreams and said it could never happen, because Messiah Marcolin is a giant baby and no one likes working with him. Bummer. Anyway, it was nice to finally see this band after their fourteen ProgPower cancellations. Would have been even better 10 years ago, but what are metal festivals for if not living in the past?

Circus Maximus:

Remember when this band came out? How stunningly amazing that debut album was? Good times. Sure, they peaked early, and really only ever released a single great album, but vocalist Jake Busey still sounds as much like Tony Harnell as ever, and while they played a lot of their garbage AOR, they played some of the classic tunes as well and for a moment, it was like 2007 again.

Angra:

It breaks my heart to think of what happened to this band, and watching them now brings me no joy. I suffered through two wonderful songs sung atrociously, then the third song amounted to a bass solo with vocals, and I bailed. Fabio, who looks like Gru from Despicable Me pretending to be Weird Al, never had the timbre or subtlety to effectively front Angra, but at least in the past he could be counted on to at least hit the high notes. Now, he cheaps out on half, and croaks the rest. I wish this band would just stop.

THURSDAY:

Nospūn:

Another throwback prog metal band. These guys played light Magna Carta 2000 metal with some djenty flourishes. Good singer with terrible stage presence. He's basically what Joe would be like as a frontman. This band had negative charisma, but they probably have a lot of Cisco certifications among them. Nick suggested the band should be called Six Sigma Blackbelts. Also, the name is pronounced No Spoon, as in, "There is no spoon." FFS. At one point the singer had a very Libertarian shouting match with the voice of God on the PA, which was hilarious, although I think we were supposed to think it was edgy and cool.

Temperence, Earthside, Twilight Force:

Did not watch. I have seen Earthside's reverse karaoke show twice (thanks a lot, Ken) so I definitely didn't need the threepeat. Twilight Force are the metal band equivalent of a console RPG character selection screen. I don't know anything about Temperence, but I hope they're some kind of Puritan Metal band who accused the audience of being witches.

Leprous:

Although Malina is my favorite of their albums, everything since has been pretty bad, and I was even a bit letdown the last time I saw them live. But while the setlist was for sure heavy on their boringest newer albums, they played and sounded great, had an excellent light show, and all around reminded me why I love them. It's the drummer. The drummer is why I love them.

Dark Tranquillity:

Never need to see these guys again. Every song is the same tempo, has the same arrangement, and goes nowhere. Stanne is a great frontman for a death metal vocalist, but this band is just not very interesting anymore. There were more riffs in one song on The Gallery than on their entire latest album. But hey, next year will be the third consecutive appearance of Stanne.

FRIDAY:

Striker:

Total cosplay overdose. Striker are not an original band by any means, so it's not surprising that they'd show up dressed as extras for Stranger Things, but I really wish they would grow up and calm down. Amazing singer, and the bass player sings the high harmonies (in tune, no less!), and all around they're a formidable live unit. I do like their songs, derivative as they may be, but enjoying Striker brings me no small amount of shame.

Fifth Angel:

The ProgPower nerds sure looked like they had never heard of this band before. Sad crowd reaction. But, the band was awesome and their leathery, bleached singer is fantastic. My favorite part was Ken Mary trying two giant stick throws and missing them both. I was sure he'd go for redemption before the end, but I guess he was forced to recognize his limits. They played "Fallout" second and "Time Will Tell" third, which was a bold choice and one that I applaud. This band was not afraid to dole out the hits early, but nothing they could do could engage the snoozy crowd.

Elegy:

I saw Elegy in 2004 at the second BWBK fest, but it was the degraded late band, with only one guitarist (and a french one at that) and only one original member. They were fine, but it was not the Elegy I wanted. THIS is the Elegy I wanted, with Henk and Gilbert on guitar. They only played tunes from the first five albums, and most of them were from the first three, which featured singer Eduard Hovinga (another Tony Harnell clone). I was curious to hear how Parry (who is not a young man) handled that older stuff, and he utterly slayed! I can't even believe how good a singer that guy is. The guitarists were wonderful and played tons of those fast runs that were a hallmark of their early work, and now, they even play them together! As far as I'm concerned, this was a LEGENDARY ProgPower set that would have been exactly as exciting had they played it at ProgPower 2. I talked to Henk after the show and he was so excited for the reaction they got, and promised a new album next year. Can't wait!

Soen:

Did not watch. I have nothing against Soen, although they don't do a lot for me. I just had to eat! Also, it was kind of driving Roman crazy that I didn't care about this band, and I told him that one of the songs sounded like Nickelback just to give him the business, which is probably as much fun as I can reasonably expect to get out of Soen.

Lovebites:

I watched the last 25 minutes of their set, mainly because I thought when I started that there was only 5 minutes left of their set. What a horrible band! Exceedingly boring power metal for horny anime fans. The guitarists (especially the dark haired one) looked like hostages. The bass player learned her moves from Ian Hill, although at least she smiled more. The singer has an annoying voice and her melodies are not good. The drummer was kinda fun, at least. Total animal. If this band were dudes, they would have a bandcamp page with 27 downloads.

Amorphis:

Did not watch. I recognize that since they gave up on their real artistic ambitions that they make reasonably good melodic death metal that's basically in line with Tales if it were a modern album. Good for anyone who is into that. I just don't need it. I saw them plenty back in the day, so I don't need anymore.

SATURDAY:

Frozen Crown:

More bad power metal tolerated by the tasteless for tits. Singer is truly awful. They had three guitarists, which was kinda fun, and at least one riff where they used them all. Is Underground Symphony still a label? This is Underground Symphony shit.

Disillusion:

Highlight of the fest for me. One of the best death metal bands ever, and they're on a real tear since they got back together. They sounded great, had excellent stage presence, and played a fantastic set heavy on their last couple albums, but they hit Back to Times of Splendor a couple times and even played a Gloria tune if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure I'll never get another chance to see these guys, so this felt like a real treat. They got a good reaction from the crowd, too, which was nice, especially so early in the day. Overall, I'm really impressed by how full the venue feels even early in the morning. Some of those early bands a decade ago sometimes played to fairly empty rooms, but these days, even the 2:00 bands play to at least 70%, with tons of people on the floor. ProgPower really is an unreasonably great festival.

Illumishade, Damian Wilson:

Did not watch. It's hard to think of a worse band name than Illumishade. I have never been a fan of Damian Wilson, although the couple other times I saw him at PP he was always surprisingly good on stage. I'm just not that into his tunes, and I opted to eat expensive meat with friends at that time instead.

Winger:

The Winger debut was one of the first tapes I bought after I started working at McDonald's as a 14 year old in 1988. I had literally just gotten interested in metal because all the other kids had started to form musical identities for themselves, and the dudes I hung out with at lunch were metal guys, so... Anyway, I saw Madeleine on Headbangers Ball and loved it, and honestly, I still think that album is pretty damned good. I ended up owning a Hurricane tape and a Bulletboys tape (yikes!) before I discovered thrash and by the end of the year I was buying Coroner and Bolt Thrower albums. But yeah, Winger. One of my only hair metal interests. I didn't like their second album and didn't even bother with Pull until probably five or six years after it was released, because people on the original Perpetual Motion board raved about it. Probably Glenn!!! It's okay - it's not a hairy embarrassment like the second album, but even though the songs are heavier and maybe a little proggy, they're just not as catchy as the ones on the debut. But it was still cool to see them play the whole thing! Kip himself seemed like he was very stoned or something - low energy, distracted-seeming, but he played and sang well, and his great banter is the obvious product of thousands of shows. I'm super impressed that all four original guys are still in the band, plus two more guys, one of whom was Kip's older, infinitely less glamorous brother, with whom he was evidently in a band before Alice Cooper. Everyone in this band is a musical beast - Reb was a lot of fun to watch, and I appreciate the Suhr guitars the band used. Rod Morgenstein is still impressive in his 70s. And then they played Madeleine (I would also have accepted Hungry) and DIDN'T play Seventeen, so win-win! I'm glad to have seen them, it was a fun show, and now I think I can be done with Winger. I did expect some ballet kicks or jumps or anything from Kip, though, and got bupkis, so there's that.

Pagan's Mind:

Didn't watch. I've watched them before, and they made me furious with boredom, so I wasn't about to subject myself to that again. I don't understand the appeal of this band. They're so unextraordinary! I guess the singer is okay sometimes, although generally he's worst in this band. Anyway, I don't feel like I missed anything.

Edited September 19 by azal

[ShinigamY]

Au hahahahaha, Matt zvuci kao lik sa kojim bih izblejao ceo festival i hejtovao ovako, i bukvalno dao pozitivne ocene bendovima kojima bih i ja dao. Bukvalno moram da se slozim sa svakim komentarom, osim za par bendova koji licno nisam cuo uzivo do sada (al jesam video neke klipove pa mogu da ocenim kako je  ). 

A jebote, dobro me nasmeja. Elegy se mora videti live uskoro, jos ako krene novi album, bombona. Darkwater mi je jedino bend koji mi je nekako prirastao srcu iako nemaju nikakav stage presence, mjuza koju furaju je onako up my alley, nemam sta da se zalim, pa i ako ih vidim live super. Circus Maximus su koliko sam skapirao pristupili pisanju novog albuma sa ciljem da zvuce kao na prva dva, i da guraju takav fazon, posto ovaj AOR spori a la Leprous meets DT je njesra. 

Sve u svemu, odlican review, tacno mogu da zamislim kako je bilo kroz ovo. Nesto se razmisljam 2025 ili 2026 da odem na PPUSA (posto sad imam vizu pa je lako skakati tamo), al' samo ako bude neki dobar lineup.

Edited September 19 by ShinigamY

[azal]

zaboravih da postujem I taj kljucni detalj:

on inace ide svake godine od pocetka festivala, tako da je vise tamo da bi se vidjao sa prijateljima.

forgot to add that next year's lineup is a war crime. I don't know Skåld, but they look fun. Other than that, oof! Scheduling dinners will be easy. Hopefully a lot of these bands get their visas denied, or better yet: break up. It's sad that Hell's Heroes, a vastly inferior festival, scooped Glenn on Crimson Glory. I mean, maybe he's holding out to book them for the last year, but I'd say it's awfully optimistic to assume they'll still be a band that far in the future 

[ShinigamY]

Ufff, sad videh lineup, nesto mi promako. Def se ne ide sledece godine  PP Europe isto relativno meh ove godine. Ovde u Minhenu upoznao ekipu na SyX koncertu, organizuju Prog Metal Mania, dobih majicu od njih juce 😄 Lepo su se organizovali, imaju para i poznanstva da spakuju fest, ici ce se obavezno, imena su relativno nova (mlade nade proga da kazemo), al' kapiram da ce rasti vremenom ako se poseti festival konkretno:

[azal]

dada, video sam to, solidan fest. vredi bog Disillusion I Vulkan realno, sve ostalo je samo plus. 

Turbulence spada u Haken-core def, mozda I jos neki od ovih 😄 

Edited September 19 by azal

[ShinigamY]

Isto sam im reko, Scar Symmetry me realno ne zanima preterano vec duze vreme, al' Loch Vostok, Vulkan, Poem, Disillusion pa i Ihlo u neku ruku odlican kombo sam po sebi. 

Edited September 19 by ShinigamY

[azal]

jel ste vi svirali kad sam doveo Poem i Until Rain 2017 i prodao 35 karata? 😄  

[Angelystor]

1 hour ago, azal said:

Fabio, who looks like Gru from Despicable Me pretending to be Weird Al

Sinoć sam baš na Hakenu razmišljao kako je pevač cosplay 80s Weird Ala, a Fabio je stariji Weird Al

[ShinigamY]

58 minutes ago, azal said:

jel ste vi svirali kad sam doveo Poem i Until Rain 2017 i prodao 35 karata? 😄  

haha da, cudilo me da i toliko si uspeo da prodas, koliko su nepoznati bili tada (a i sad su realno  )

[Haos sam ja]

3 hours ago, ShinigamY said:

Joj de baci link za to  Al to je bukvalno to, moram da se slozim skroz. Haken, Nospun, BTBAM, Wilderun, i ostali neo nu-prog sta god, red mesa, red tech prog circle jerk, a nigde pesme, aranzmani ko da AI generisani samo da tera i da trpa i zadovoljava incele sa ADHD-om. 

Gde stavi BTBAM među ove, sa izuzetkom Coma Ecliptic albuma oni baš imaju pesme, ja ih sve znam maltene napamet. A i Haken je počeo da pravi pesme. 

[ShinigamY]

Jbg, bend koji je meni apsolutno polarising. Ili ih ljudi vole kao sto ih ti volis, ili ne mogu da skapiraju ni jednu pesmu kao ja. Meni bukvalno ni jedna pesma do sad nije naisla da kazem, u jebote, ovo je do jaja i pamtljivo, na prvu poslusam i ostane mi ear worm da pevusim i vratim se pesmi. Nema boga. Niti riff koji mi je pamtljiv da je dobar riff pa da se vratim. Baci mi pesmu koja moze da upadne u ovaj opis i poslusacu pa cu ti reci, al' do sada ni jednu nisam cuo da mi je legla. Bukvalno mi zvuci kao bend za ADHD, osobama kojima treba fix necega novog i da se vrti stalno nesto da drzi paznju (bar moj licni osecaj za bend i muziku). A i cuo sam ih uzivo, jedan od retko dosadnih bendova uzivo po mom misljenju. Jednostavno nista pametno nema da se kaze, a ja nemam vremena da sednem i cinculiram pet sati jedan album da bi mi usao u uvo i da pokusam da skapiram sta su domacini hteli reci.

Edit: Znam samo jednu pesmu onako iz secanja, Extremophile Elite, zbog one klavijature na pocetku. Od cele diskografije (nije da sam bas preterano duboko i sa paznjom slusao u proslosti sve), to mi ej jedino nekako zapalo za uvo. 

Edited September 19 by ShinigamY

[Haos sam ja]

Polarizing je jer su oni počeli kao metalcore bend pa je gej(t)kiperima mrsko da im priznaju status punokrvnog prog benda, koji je nadjebao mnoge stare heroje. Čak ih nema ni na metal arhivama iz istog razloga. Meni je jasno da nekom ko je odrastao na power metalu i takvoj estetici ne prijaju njihovi breakdownovi i slične stvari iz -core domena ali kod njih stvarno ne postoje granice kad su uplivi u pitanju. Razumljivo mi je takođe da Tommyev vokal nije svačija šolja čaja, i meni koji sam baš fanboy nije ponekad po volji. Pa ipak osovina gitara, bas, bubanj je ubitačna. 

Dosta mi je glupo da izdvajam po nešto jer 95% stvari od njih volim, ali evo nekih hitova pa vidi da li tu ima nečeg da ti promeni mišljenje:

Nešto iz novijeg opusa, ja ne znam šta je pamtljivo ako ovo nije

neki stariji hitovi

neka totalna ludila koja nemaju veze sa bilo čim

i da ne lepim sad sve probaj ceo Colors album sa pažnjom, a posebno završnicu ovog epa, meni lično jedna od najboljih solaža / outroa ikada, recimo od 10-og minuta kreće totalno ludilo mada je i intro rif legendaran i dosta toga između

A možda sam ja stvarno samo fanboy pa ih precenjujem jebemliga, sve je to subjektivno

[Angelystor]

Nikad pustio bend, ne volim kad je rečenica ime benda

Sad ovo malo što pustih, Proverbial Bellow i All Bodies, potpuno mi jasan "bend za ADHD" opis od iznad.

[azal]

stariji bend koji se dosta menjao pa ne ulaze u isti kos kao Hakencore ali svakako slicna publika. 

mada su realno u poslednjih 10-15 godina moderni Dream Theater sa nebitnim growl vokalom i ponekim blast beatom. 

Ali Colors def bio meni boom kad je izasao, mada mu se retko vracam.