Silent Edge
Fifteen minutes later than planned, Silent Edge had the ‘honour’ of opening ProgPower. These guys from The Netherlands played pretty good and it didn’t take long to get me into their (to me unknown) music. Singer Willem Verwoert came out wearing a long coat, which he took off when it started getting hot in the venue as more people gathered around in front of the stage. His voice was quite powerful and managed to fit in with the music, music that has quite a few instrumental passages in the songs.

One of the highlights of the show was a song where guitarist Emo Suripatty played on an acoustic guitar placed on a stand (while still having his electric guitar on). A nice ballad where Suripatty showed his skills turned into a pretty heavy song with the rest of the band members playing along. The song ended slowly again with Suripatty on the acoustic guitar, greatly appreciated by the crowd.

I thought he was shy at times, especially after the applause he received when he did a nice solo on the guitar. This and the interaction between the band members made them seem to be very down to earth. Playing good music like that made Silent Edge a good festival opener. And it made me eagerly waiting for the next band…

Zero Hour
And that band was Zero Hour from the United States. To my disappointment they weren’t really my taste. Playing dark and heavy music with lots of odd time signatures, they had too few moments where you could just relax and enjoy the music without having to worry about the changing of the riffs. While most of the audience seemed to enjoy it, their participating became less as the show got near its end. I felt that their music could have used more inspiration, especially if you want to keep the attention of the people you’re playing for.

I got bored pretty quickly and that’s what I heard around me after a while from several people. It could be that Zero Hour is less enjoyable when you haven’t heard the music before seeing them live. I love music that’s complicated and that takes some time to grow on you, like for example Planet X, but I don’t think Zero Hour fits in the category of playing that kind of music while still remaining a certain melody or groove. Despite good efforts from singer Frank Mendez, who was active all over the stage, their 50 minute show didn’t do much to me. Just because it’s progressive, doesn’t mean it’s good…(now there`s a statement! -WA)

Superior
After the 50-minutes shows of Silent Edge and Zero Hour, it was time for Superior to play for an hour. Definitely one of the weirdest shows of the weekend. The main reason for that, is because the keyboard player of Superior was in a car accident prior to ProgPower, as guitarist Michael Muller explained. He’s doing ok, but he injured his arm to a point where he wasn’t able to play. So Muller took over duties behind the keyboard, having learned all the parts in one night, the night before ProgPower!!

Muller did a great job considering the circumstances and it was appreciated by the crowd. He even apologized for not putting on a perfect show and he promised to give that the next time they’re over here. He shouldn’t have to say that, since the performance was very enjoyable.
Most of the songs they played were from their upcoming album. It was clear that this was a show to test how the new songs came out live and that it’s going to take a couple of months before it’ll be released, since vocalist Michael Tangermann had to read the lyrics which he placed in front of him on the stage to sing the new songs.

The huge guy who makes a big impression on stage was active during the older songs which he knew by head. During the newer songs, he was forced to look down to read the lyrics and thus stand in one place a lot. He was still able to put on a decent show, but it did do damage to the total look, feeling and music of the band. It didn’t help much that Muller had to switch between guitar and keyboard every now and then. Because of that the music sounded less powerful as it normally would with the use of 2 guitars.

Despite all these things, it was still a good show. Tangermann remained secure without turning arrogant and it helped to establish credibility of the band. A very smart move was to end the show with a cover of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’. People easily sang along with it and it helped to end the show in a good way with the involvement of the crowd and the recognition that might have been missed earlier during the show because of the new songs.

They sounded great and I’m looking forward to hear the new album and to see them put on a show without all these handicaps.

Pain of Salvation
The delay that was made at the beginning of the evening got even larger, so the headliner of the night started about 30 minutes later than planned. But let me tell you, it was worth every minute of waiting. Pain of Salvation was the fourth and last band of the first day. They put on a show I’ll never forget and I’m positive that no one else will, considering the crowd’s fantastic reaction to the amazing Pain of Salvation performance. The progressive metal band from Sweden who also played at the first ProgPower in 1999.

They started the show with ‘Used’, the opening track of their latest effort ‘The Perfect Element I’. This song kicked in hard as the enthusiasm of the crowd became even bigger. Followed by ‘In The Flesh’ which has a nice build-up, they continued into their single and great live song ‘Ashes’. The chorus of that song is incredible live and people started to sing along again. It almost surprised me to see how many fans there were and how well they knew the songs/lyrics. It’s good to see talented bands such as Pain of Salvation being appreciated like that. The beautiful slow ballad ‘Morning On Earth’ ended the the first four songs of ‘The Perfect Element I’.

Time to get back in the past, by playing several songs from the debut album ‘Entropia’. This included the magnificent ‘Winning a War’. Because of the song’s diversity, this was a great moment for Pain of Salvation to display their talents. Maybe even more impressive was the stunning performance of the 9-minute epic ‘People Passing By’.
The only complaint I have about the performance, was the sound quality. But Pain of Salvation can’t be blamed for that, since every band seemed to have problems with finding the best possible sound. Pain of Salvation is one of those bands that can reach a certain emotional level with their music that not many bands can manage. They deserve to have the best sound possible. It got better as time passed by turning the volume up for Daniel Gildenlow’s vocals. The bands` mainman has got one of the best voices in the rock and metal scene.

It’s no surprise he will be a guest member during the European tour in November of the progressive supergroup Transatlantic, featuring Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater among other reigning prog bands members. Rumours have it that Pain of Salvation might open for Dream Theater during their tour that starts early next year. When I asked Daniel about it, he simply smiled and said ‘who knows’. They are definitely talking about it and I hope it’s going to happen. The two leading progressive metal bands in one show, what more can you possibly want? (well...-WA) (it has been confirmed now that Pain of Salvation will be Dream Theater’s opening act! –FA)

Back to Daniel’s performance on ProgPower. If you’re worried he isn’t able to do live what he does on the studio albums, you can forget about your worries. He hit the high notes flawless and sounded beautiful during the slower songs, even while playing the guitar.
The other guitarist in the band, Johan Hallgren, was really into the music. Jumping up and down during the heavy moments, kneeling on the stage while soloing and standing silenty with his eyes closed during the touching ballads. His backing vocals sounded really good and fitted nicely with the lead vocals of Daniel.

Other than the great musicianship, there was also room for some laughter. One of those moments was when bassist and Daniel’s brother Kristoffer Gildenlow told Daniel to tell the crowd to buy t-shirts at the stand in the back of the venue. They were laughing of course when he said that and someone in the crowd yelled he wanted the shirt Hallgren had on, which was nothing since he had taken off the shirt during the show. Daniel had to laugh at that and said that the guy in the audience would be better off with drummer Johan Langell, that his skin is worth twice the money. He was refering to the many tattoos (the also shirtless) Langell has. Good news for all the Langell fans out there, cause Daniel told us he would get another tattoo in two weeks.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end. After playing several more songs, including from ‘One Hour By The Concrete Lake’, they ended the show with a brand new song! Their new album, called ‘Remedy Lane’, will be released in January, so it was great to already hear one of the songs. If all the tracks are going to sound like the one they played, it’s going to be one hell of a great album again.

After a two hour show it was time to go home again, which was around 1.30am. Thinking back about a successful night, I wondered how and if the bands that were going to play the next day, were going to be able to top the performance of Pain of Salvation.

SATURDAY, day two:
I had to get up early on Saturday to witness the second and last day of ProgPower. Armed with my camera and teamed up with Rockezine founder ‘Dr. Prog’ Winston, I headed to Sjiwa again where the first band of the day was scheduled to play at 1.30pm.
This time the doors were open on time. Since we were there early we had time to check out the nice decorated basement while enjoying the music the DJ played, which included live songs of Judas Priest and a live track of Dream Theater (‘Eve’). The sun was shining beautifully on Saturday, so many people choose to stay outside to enjoy the nice weather. Band members were walking around freely and chatted with the fans who came from several countries like Germany and Poland.

Andromeda
A bit after 1.30pm it was time for the swedish band Andromeda to hit the stage. I was looking forward to their show, since I consider the debut album ‘Extension of the Wish’ to be one of the most promising cd’s this year in the progressive rock/metal scene. Andromeda plays technical music with the main focus on the combination between the guitars and keyboard, supported by a more than solid performance of the drums and bassguitar. On the album performed a guest singer (Lawrence Mackrory) to handle the vocal parts. While I found his vocals to be decent, they weren’t good enough to make the debut album perfect.

Several months ago, Andromeda finally found the singer they had been searching for a long time. David Fremberg is his name and it was the first time for me to hear his voice at ProgPower. It’s difficult to judge someone for the first time in a 50-minute show, but he did a great job. The range of his voice reaches farther than Mackrory and he’s got more of a singing voice. With an age of 24 years, he’s still young and I’m sure he’ll be able to improve during the years to come. Although his stage presence wasn’t bad, it still leaves room for improvement.

Andromeda also wasn’t able to find the right sound. The drum sound was too loud and the combination between the guitar and keyboard was therefor too difficult to hear at times. That’s too bad since guitarist Johan Reinholdz is extremely talented. He wrote all of the music himself and that’s quite impressive for someone who’s only 21 years old.

With only one album released, there wasn’t much room for surprises. Fortunately, they played two new songs. I found them to be very heavy, loved them both as did the big crowd that was already there. Fremberg made a comment that he wasn’t happy with their early time slot, but he thought it was amazing to see the big turnout. Ending the show with the fast paced ‘Star Shooter Supreme’ it was time for this young band to leave the stage.

Too bad the soundquality wasn’t that great, but Andromeda is a talented band that can make it far, very far. I will definitely keep an eye out on them. Expect to see an interview with young mastermind Johan Reinholdz at Rockezine in a couple of weeks!

Anomaly
Next band was Anomaly. While these guys are pretty talented, I’m not too fond of the music although I liked them better than the first time I saw them at the Dream Theater convention day. Here’s what Winston ‘Dr. Prog’ Arntz has to say about it:

After the impressive but bad sound suffering performance of Andromeda it was time for the only Dutch band on the second day; Anomaly. The band was the support act of Dream Theater a year ago so I guessed there were quite a few people there who saw them before. The band is from Den Haag (aka The Hague) which still is a very music rich city, a legacy from the 60`s.

Anomaly`s music is purely intrumental, so the sight of a microphonestand in front of the stage was a bit confusing, at any time I expected a singer to jump in...but it didn`t happen. Despite a kinda messy start soundwise the musical signature of Anomaly tickled my eardrums pleasantly, with freaky and frantic parts but with wonderful and soulful melodies as well. During the song `None Of The Above` a musical description came to mind; Joe Satriani meets Dream Theater meets Den Haag...

The band was very tight, secure and every now and then really suprised me with their originality which I think is hard without the `use` of vocals. The presentation however was sober and dry, the bassplayer made some comments in between the songs but it was noticeable he rather wouldn`t have. All in all a good show from a talented band.
Back to Frank for his view on the next band;

Poverty’s No Crime
The third show of the day was one of the biggest surprises of the festival. The German Poverty’s No Crime released their latest album called ‘One in a Million’ in June this year, which quickly grew on me.
The show began with the opening tracks of ‘One in a Million’, namely ‘The Stolen Eye’ and ‘Ancient Lies’. At this point it became clear that the guys played very tight together. Especially the voice of Volker Walsemann was stunning. It was almost impossible to distinct it from the studioalbums. After playing a song of their previous album ‘Slave to the Mind’, they went back again to the new album by playing ‘Just a Dream’, which is a great song to move your head along with.

I was hoping they would play ‘Logan 5’, the instrumental song I really love and they did! The middle part that seems to be inspired by Dream Theater’s ‘Home’ (the ‘wah wah’-sound) came out great. They obviously played a lot of the new album since it was the first of ‘One in a Million’ gigs.

I have to admit that you had to look past the ‘look’ of the band in order to totaly enjoy the music. They haven’t got that much charisma in my opinion, so I’m glad they made up for it by playing this kind of music.
Keyboardplayer Jorg Springub for example was kind of weird to look at at first. He was wearing pretty thick glasses and he was bending over on his keyboard during the parts where he was soloing, so it looked as if he wasn’t able to see very well. Winston and I quickly refered to him jokingly as Elton John.

Bassist Heiko Spaarmann seemed a bit arrogant at first, but after a while it became clear he was loving to perform and he started joking around which was cool to see. It reminded Winston of Proglegend Chris Squire of the legendary Yes, who is also very active with his presentation.
All in all it took me a short time to get used to the whole look of the band, but the skillfully played music made me forget about all that. Too bad there weren’t that many people watching the show. The people who did decide to attend it saw one of the best shows of the festival.

Wolverine
Wolverine is a band that is familiar to Winston since he saw them at the very first gig they did in Holland coincedantly also at ProgPower in 1999, so here’s his opinion about their gig:
Wolverine was the second band today that also played on the first ProgPower, 2 years ago in Tilburg (Poverty`s No Crime the other). They opened the day and immediatly stole everybody`s hearts who saw them perform on the small stage. Since then things were going ok for the band but due to some problems with a record label they are only resurfacing now, exactly 2 years later. They just recorded a new album, `The Window Purpose`, for DVS Records and recently recruited a new bassplayer to relieve singer Stefan Zell, who was handling the four strings before. I was more than curious to see how they have evolved and luckily I wasn`t dissapointed...

The contrast between gruntlike and clear vocals is still an element in Wolverine`s music but the music has become more progressive. The new songs that were featured in the set made an immense impression, can`t wait for that new album to arrive! `His Cold Touch` and `The Storm Iside` especially were the most impressive ones to me.
Stefan Zell looks a bit `clumsy` at times without his bassguitar to hold on to but his enthusiasm and vocal perfomance made up for that big time. One of the few singers of the day that was singing with much depth and emotion. `Whispers On The Wind` the best track of the first album `Fervent Dream` was played towards the ending of the show and that chorus (again) stayed in my head for days.

The audience appreciated Wolverine`s show with big cheers and massive applause, the look on the musicians faces made it clear that they were enjoying the show just as much. This band has grown as I hoped it would and these youngsters from Sweden do have a big chance at making it big time in the world of Prog for sure.
Before Frank takes over I had the honour to review the next band as well:

Into Eternity
Into Eternity was next on the bill and they are labelmates of Wolverine but the comparisment ends there an then. Progressive music is often automatically connected to Symfonic Rock or Metal, Into Eternity from Canada showed us Europeans that bringing in other musical styles can be just as well progressive too.

Especially in the new songs from their upcoming release they really do go where no Prog band has gone before; Death Metal? Yes sir...but they keep in the band, it still sounds like Into Eternity. Melodic passages varied by riffs and thundering rhythms. A point of crticism though; the vocal approach is definately impressive, with the singer singing with a grunt and a clear voice, kinda like Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory does, but the variation in melody lines could be better to my opinion. It sounds the same after a while which is a pity.

The band has a real furious drive now and at times they seem to be a NYC Hard Core band, they do have the same kind of energy on stage. What a contrast with a band like Anomaly or Anathema (that bassplayer never moved an inch!)

I think Into Eternity was the surprise of the day and the band must have been surprised too by the great reaction they got from the audience. They kept on taking pictures of the crowd which actually was a bit annoying after a few times, I never had to say "Cheese" so many times before in my life ; ). But they are a young band, on tour in Europe for the first time so I don`t blame them. I think we`ll be seeing a lot more of this band in the near future, they really are something else...the new album is coming very soon on DVS Records by the way. Ok Frank back to you for the two last bands;

Vanden Plas
The second last band of Saturday could easily have been the headliner. Vanden Plas is a respectable band in the (progressive) metal genre. They always know how to give a good show and tonight’s performance was no exception. The strong fanbase of Vanden Plas saw them play songs that they usually seem to be playing. This included the opening song ‘I Can See’ from their latest and breakthrough album ‘Far Off Grace’. Other songs from that record included ‘Inside Of Your Head’ and the title track ‘Far Off Grace’.

Drummer Andreas Lill had his usual short drumsolo during ‘Into The Sun’, something that is always nice to see. From ‘The God Thing’ album ‘You Fly’ was played and of course the ever popular ‘Rainmaker’ as the encore. They also played quite a few songs of the ‘Coulour Temple’ album and of those, ‘Judas’ was the most surprising one. It was the first time I saw them play that song after having seen them live twice before. Very cool!

What was also cool about the show, was to see guitarist Stephan Lill back in action. Several months ago he was diagnosed with the ‘carpal tunnel syndrome’, which basicly is a pinching of the median nerve within the writst. Because of it, he wasn’t able to play the guitar and thus Vanden Plas had to postpone recording the new album. He has definitely recovered from it, judging by his energetic performance.

One other noticable member tonight of the friendly guys from Germany who have never had a line-up change in its 7 years existence, was singer Andy Kuntz. Not only noticable with his voice that was perfectly in shape (it’s almost unbelievable how long he can carry a high ‘scream’/note), but also with the way he was interacting with the crowd. When he asks the crowd to clap their hands, he has such a facial and body expression that almost makes you feel forced to clap your hands together, otherwise you fear he’s going to beat you up.

This is of course not meant literally, but once you’ve seen him live, you’ll know what I mean. I think it’s cool he acts like that, although as much as I love Vanden Plas he did ask it too many times. The crowd didn’t seem to mind cause everyone joined the fun party Vanden Plas gave.

It’s been two years since they released ‘Far Off Grace’, so it’s time for them to release another album. Expected to be released in January next year, I hope it will mean Vanden Plas can do something new again and put some surprises in their always good and fun shows. I personally can’t wait!

Anathema
Headliner on Saturday were the English Anathema. Looking around me I felt a new group of people standing in front. Anathema’s latest two cd’s ‘Jugdement’ and ‘A Fine Day To Exit’ have prog elements in them, but also some pop sound.

A lot of those songs are slow paced, so even though I love those 2 cd’s, Anathema didn’t really seem to fit in with the rest of the bands. This made it strange for me to enjoy the show as I hoped I would.

I can’t complain about the performance though. Opening with ‘Pressure’ from the newest album the soundquality was much better than earlier that day. ‘Deep’ followed from ‘Judgement’ (my personal favorite). It was good to see them perform several more songs of this album, although it also made me think back about the extremely heavy act of Into Eternity and the party Vanden Plas gave and what a strange contrast that was. I mean, they were all standing there pretty static.

I have to point out the bass player here. Standing on the right of the stage he didn’t move at all and what was almost more annoying, was that he stood with his back turned to the crowd several times. He kept looking at his bandmembers so it looked like he was someone dragged out of the audience who got offered to play with Anathema. He felt out of place…

Through circumstances I had to leave the show before it ended, so I can’t say much more about Anathema’s gig. Our REZ photographer Marcia, who was lucky enough to stay til the end, said that the show got heavier after the first set of slow songs.

And that the encore was a cover of Pink Floyd, a huge influence of Anathema, sang by the crowd. (`Comfortably Numb`-WA) I saw a nice show, but I prefer to see them on their own and not after 7 Prog Metal bands.

ProgPower 2001 was a successful festival musicwise. There are things though that really need to be improved. For example, there was no announcer. The bands basicly had to introduce themselves after they were on stage for the soundcheck and had to begin right away when they’re done. This was a really big shame in my opinion, since there was no interaction at all between the organization of the festival and the people who attended it. Add to this the huge delays (why there were delays remained unknown) and you had absolutely no idea what’s going on and when the next band starts. Anathema actually started one hour too late!

Another weak point concerning the mood of the ProgPower was the music that was played during the breaks. Uhm, I should say the lack of music. There was no DJ (Can I? Can I? -WA) on the floor who played some nice songs and that’s something I think is a must have at an indoor festival. The only cd they played was ‘Extension of the Wish’ by Andromeda. As much as I love that band (especially after having seen them live) it got really irritating to hear it constantly, on *both* days. Other than the ears that weren’t satisfied during the breaks, there was also a small problem with my stomach.

There was no possibility the buy food at the venue. For such a long day as Saturday was, one would expect some hot food, like hamburgers or hotdogs. Fortunately, there were some cafetaria’s close to the venue, but it made people leave the venue for a longer period of time and that was noticable during some performances during the day.
Hopefully these things will improve next year cause I’ll definitely be there again. Despite the things that didn’t go very well, it was still very much enjoyable. The music was fabulous on both days and it was nice to see people (and bands) from several countries experiencing a wonderful weekend filled with excellent music.

Frank `The Puppy` Alders with a little help from Winston ‘Dr. Prog’ Arntz.
Pics `Anathema` and `Into Eternity` by Marcia.

(Review & Pics: Frank Alders)