ProgPower UK II
Cheltenham – March 31
Capacity 4,000
The UK edition of the ProgPower festival franchise began life just last year and was the first event of its kind to be held in the newly built Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse. With a bill topped by Therion and English progressive metal kings Threshold the event was labelled a resounding success by the press, organisers and the fans, who had been treated to cheap ticket prices (maintained this year as well), free gifts including an exclusive sampler CD (this year a double CD plus a DVD), a ‘metal market’, and seven of the best bands in power and progressive metal in a perfect arena. Last year’s bill was rounded out by Pagan’s Mind, making their UK debut, Freedom Call, Orphaned Land, Secret Sphere, also making their UK debut and Firewind.
Having missed last year’s event, something I’m still quite upset about, the first thing that struck me was what a superb venue The Centaur is. Whereas venues normally have the stage at one end, with a bar at the back, The Centaur’s stage is on one of the long sides of the rectangular room, with seats at the back on the opposite side, and a second tier which also runs along the short sides, and massive standing area. It looks like it could hold around 3,500 people comfortably. It’s a venue that has been designed and built with some thought (makes a f**king change). I can only imagine how good Threshold were in this setting.
Upping the number of UK exclusives this year, the PPUK organisers arranged no less than five UK debuts, with Heed, Cloudscape, Dreamscape, Communic and Haggard all playing in England for the first time. The bill was rounded out by rare appearances from Leaves’ Eyes and Kamelot, and a very special exclusive performance from former Savatage singer Jon Oliva and his new band. With a metal market, a free gift bag full of stuff, including the official event double CD and DVD, and plenty of food and drink on sale, everything was in place for a fantastic event. All that remained was the bands.
Bands reviewed:
Heed | Cloudscape | Dreamscape | Communic | Haggard | Leaves’ Eyes | Kamelot | Jon Oliva’s Pain
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The Swedish power metallers were called in as a late replacement for Scar Symmetry, who cancelled in early February in order to go on a month-long North American tour with Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted and Into Eternity. Founded by ex-Lost Horizon singer Daniel Heiman and guitarist Fredrik Olsson their heritage is strong power metal and they were added to the bill as openers, with fellow countrymen Cloudscape moving up one slot. Essentially the only real difference in the first six slots was the time of day, since all six bands were allocated 40-minute sets.
Heed proved to be a big hit. This was their first time playing in the UK and, unknown to many, their powerful set showcasing Heiman’s outstanding voice, prompted many to rush straight outside and purchase t-shirts, which were proudly worn for the rest of the festival. Packing in selected cuts from their debut album The Call, and adding a handful of new songs, there was something new to discover for everyone, including those already familiar with the band (likely through the Lost Horizon link). Personally, I was familiar with Lost Horizon, but didn’t much care for their output and was thus out of touch with this new project. I’m happy to say they have impressed greatly.
“ outstanding voice ”
Setlist: I’m Alive / Ashes / Fate And Blood / Salvation / Running With The Shadows / Enemy / Corona / Last Drop of Blood
Moved up one slot following the cancellation of Scar Symmetry, Cloudscape, another Swedish band debuting in England, were equally as unknown, I think it’s fair to say, to most of the crowd as Heed were. Those that had picked up, or at least sampled, their new album Crimson Skies were very excited about the band’s appearance, especially after reports that the band’s performance at last year’s Sweden Rock Festival was one of the highlights of the event. They certainly didn’t disappoint the expectant few, but I fear they were not explosive enough to win over the uninitiated completely, although everyone did seem to enjoy the set, but perhaps not enough to go out and buy a CD or a T-Shirt.
Drawing equally from their self-titled debut and the new record didn’t mean a great deal to most, as all the songs were equally unfamiliar, but for those that knew it was a good balance. Front-man Mike Anderson was energetic and powerful in his delivery and performance, and his voice equally up to the task. They are arguably similar to Kamelot in many respects, so perhaps didn’t offer enough that was unique for some people, but catchy, punchy songs, big riffs and voice and tasteful solos make them perfect fits for ProgPower.
“ catchy, punchy songs ”
Setlist: Breach In My Sanity / Shapeshifter / Everyday Is Up To You / Demon Tears / Aqua 275 / We Will Remain / Under Fire
One huge, progressive song meant German outfit Dreamscape, led by Roland Stoll, packed fewer total tracks into their 40-minute set than either Heed or Cloudscape, but were no less dynamic with it. The lively front-man strutted around the stage pulling plenty of rock-star moves as the band debuted two new songs from their forthcoming fifth album 5th Season alongside three older songs, including the 20-minute epic The End of Light from third album End of Silence. One of only two truly progressive bands on the bill they had their work cut out, because genuine prog fans were thin on the ground (though mostly not in the waist), but they took to it with remarkable energy.
The length of that one track did hinder them slightly when they were told their time was up after Somebody and Stoll had to quickly retract his announcement of the next song and say goodbye to an audience who weren’t quite ready for the end of the set. One has to question the logic of performing such a long track in the middle of a short set to an audience who, for the most part, are not familiar with your music. But at no point did Dreamscape become tedious as the track swept back and forth through key and time changes galore, probably seeming like more than one song segued to many people. Book-ending it with shorter, more accessible songs was a smart move, the come the abrupt end of the set I think they received more appreciation than Cloudscape. While mildly unfair on Cloudscape, who I think were under-appreciated, Dreamscape did deserve the respect they were awarded.
“ remarkable energy ”
Setlist: Clockwork / Fed Up With / The End of Light / Thorn In My Mind / Somebody
Gracefully agreeing to switch slots with late-arrivers Haggard, Communic won over a mostly unfamiliar audience with ease. The smallest band on show, with only three members, their amazing musicianship proved a big hit with the prog-lovers in the audience. Despite being a festival intended to appeal equally to both sides of the target spectrum, a lot of fans do seem to be split between power and prog, and as such no band enjoyed a completely full house. But when you’re a prog band, and you don’t appeal to non-prog fans, I doubt that’s much of a headache.
With songs running to seven or eight minutes each, Communic, like Dreamscape, only managed to get five into their allotted 40 minutes, and to those new to the band, these songs hit hard. To me, being already familiar with their latest CD, from which the whole mid-section of the set came, their time seemed to drag. Oddly Dreamscape’s didn’t, and that is probably because they were new to me in the same way Communic were new to many others. As great as prog metal is, I can’t help but feel it is best suited to much longer shows than 40 minutes. A decent length of time allows the bands to stretch out, play the long songs, and still get plenty of them in. Shorter festival sets need to be quickfire, sharp and hard hitting. Minimal chat with absolutely no solo spots and the maximum number of songs.
Communic are a wonderful band, and I would love to see them play a full length set, but in this setting they actually bored me, which came as much as a surprise to me as Communic themselves did to the uninformed.
“ amazing musicianship ”
Setlist: Communication Sublime / Frozen Asleep In The Park / Under A Luminous Sky / Waves of Visual Decay / They Feed On Our Fear
Having already arrived hours late, and Communic having gone on early to accommodate this, Haggard’s crew still managed to take over an hour to set the equipment up, and as such the band were rightly limited to just 25 minutes on stage by the festival organisers. Haggard are a bigger band than the others, with extra musicians and the assorted paraphernalia that entails, but a few extra music stands and risers really shouldn’t have taken an extra 40 minutes to set up. With good and accurate information from bands and their crew, change-over can be very quick, because all of their needs are already provided for. Evidently this didn’t happen with Haggard, and their late arrival only compounded matters.
I would love to say that despite all this they were worth the wait, but they really weren’t. First of all, they had three vocalists. Of these three female lead Susanne and the Willie Nelson-meets-Lemmy Fiffi have magnificent voices but were criminally under-used, with front-man Asis applying his extreme vocals more often. Perhaps the songs cut from the set because of time would have featured Susanne and Fiffi more, but on this evidence alone the balance was off.
On top of this their music, although complex and more involved in terms of instruments than the other bands on show, was rather uninspired and by the book. Their symphonic/orchestral take on metal had a worryingly familiar sound to it and became almost predictable. Haggard were the only real let-down of the day, and only had themselves to blame.
“ by the book ”
Setlist: Per Aspera Ad Astra / ??? / Eppur Si Muove / Awaking The Centuries
Leaves’ Eyes were probably the one band of the day that could legitimately be accused of not fitting the general ProgPower remit, being neither prog, nor power. Consequently, many purists took the opportunity for some food. What they missed in the process was a classy display led, of course, by figurehead front-woman Liv Kristine and her towering husband Alexander Krull. Leaves’ Eyes music is not intrinsically the most energetic or up-tempo, so it takes the enthusiasm of the whole band to bring it to life, and that’s something they try hard to achieve.
Liv has one of those flawless voices that sounds absolutely perfect every night and it’s her foundation on each song that allows the rest of the band to play with ease and devote some energy to showmanship. Perhaps the least varied of the bands on show I think 40-minutes in this setting was enough, and selecting a set that featured both vocalists as much was possible, while making sure the hits like Elegy and Legend Land were in there was essential (Legend Land seeming to be the only one he majority knew).
Maybe not the biggest hit of the day, but a performance they can be proud of as they comfortably held their own amidst more eagerly anticipated colleagues and provided some variety ahead of “the big two”.
“ classy display ”
Setlist: Farewell Proud Men / Ocean’s Way / The Crossing / Into Your Light / Temptation / Lyset / Legend Land / Solemn Sea / Elegy
Not a debut this time, but Kamelot had not played in England since 2002 and having gained critical acclaim for their sensational concept album The Black Halo, then an equally outstanding double live album and DVD, and with a new album promised later this year, they were comfortably the most anticipated band of the day, to the point where many conversations in the queue outside at midday ultimately resulted in the phrase “I’m just here because of Kamelot”.
In response to such high expectations Kamelot did everything right, including all of the best and most loved songs from the last album, the first single from the new album, and some of the biggest sing-a-long tracks from older albums made their performance up to this point in the day, with one band to go, the best we’d all seen. Kahn’s rock-star posturing even seemed acceptable as the band very clearly put everything into their playing, benefiting greatly from having the venue’s lights turned down for the first time all day, something I think everyone agreed was long overdue.
Being in the “special guest” slot meant the American quintet enjoyed an hour long set with tracks like Descent of The Archangel, Karma and Nights of Arabia drawing a lot of noise from the crowd and, especially in the case of the latter, a lot of singing. It’s my suspicion that Kamelot could have gotten away without trying that hard on this occasion, such was the anticipation, but they did anyway and on any other night would have been the highlight of the day. However…
“ did everything right ”
Setlist: When The Lights Are Down / Soul Society / Morning Star / Center of The Universe / Nights of Arabia / Abandoned / Descent of The Archangel / Forever / Ghost Opera / Karma // March of Mephisto
Although technically not a debut, Jon Oliva hadn’t played in England since his time in Savatage, and with the promise of a “very special” set exclusively for this festival, his performance with new band Jon Oliva’s Pain was highly anticipated. Personally, having not been very familiar with either Savatage or Pain material at that point (that’s certainly changed now!) I must admit to not being particularly interested; Kamelot being a much bigger draw. However, what’s the point in going to a festival if you’re not going to at least try all the bands on offer?
And I’m very glad I did because Jon and co. turned in the performance of the day, particularly pleasing all the Savatage fans in attendance with his big surprise. After opening with two classic sing-a-long Savatage numbers in Warriors and Sirens Jon announced that after a couple of new ones the band would be playing the entire Streets rock opera album for the first time ever. The cheering was ecstatic, to say the least.
Several references to Jon’s departed brother and original Savatage guitarist Criss brought plenty of respectful applause and towards the end of the set the band dropped in the very last song the Oliva brothers ever wrote together, Edge of Thorns, from the album of the same name, before closing the main set with the title track from Gutter Ballet. Jon had injured his knee earlier in the day when he fell off the band’s bus, confining him to the keyboard for the majority of the set, but he limped back on for an encore of the ever-green Hall of the Mountain King all the same, dragging those attempting a quick getaway back into the hall.
Somehow, as great as the other bands had been that day, JOP’s performance blew them all away. Like Kamelot they had the distinct advantage of having the lights turned down, meaning a proper light show on stage was possible, but beyond that Jon’s charisma as a front man and the band’s all-round showmanship was top class.
“ performance of the day ”
Setlist: Warriors / Sirens / Maniacal Renderings / The Evil Beside You / Streets / Jesus Saves / Tonight He Grins Again / Strange Reality / New York City Don’t Mean Nothing / Ghost In The Ruins / If I Go Away / Agony And Ecstasy / Somewhere In Time / Believe / Through The Eyes of The King / End Times / Edge of Thorns / Gutter Ballet // Hall of The Mountain King
Photo(s): Johan Eriksson | www.rockersdigest.com
Written by Andy Lye More: Festivals, Power Metal, Progressive, Cloudscape, Communic, Dreamscape, Haggard, Heed, Jon Oliva's Pain, Kamelot, Leaves' Eyes
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