Brayndance
Twilight couldn`t play, so Brayndance filled their spot. This band was founded in May of 1996. All members are musicians from the German town of Kassel and all long-time experienced in playing with bands of various styles (ranging from German dance music, Top 40 covers, rock/pop/soul to jazz and, of course, heavy metal). The band was never really meant to serve commercial purposes, but to be a "fun" project. The guys simply all wanted to create more complex and sophisticated music than they usually did. According to what I heard, Brayndance is supposed to bring keyboard-driven, powerful progressive metal. I`m sorry, but I don`t hear these progressive elements during their gig. I think it`s just heavy metal, plain and simple. The music is solid and the vocals are good, but where are the progressive parts? Do I miss them? "Into The Light" or "No Man`s Land" are nice songs, but not to be played at a progressive metal festival. And, certainly not being performed by a band with a firm traditional heavy metal look. Even the (traditional) Scottish clothing from the singer can`t change my opinion about Brayndance, sorry guys. I did like their cover from Savatage "Gutter Ballet", but to do "Music" from John Miles as well... (JG)

Manticora
Hey, what`s going on here? I thought this was supposed to be a progressive metal festival? Is this Progpower? First Brayndance and now we get another real heavy metal band from Denmark: Manticora. I do hope we`ll get a better line-up in the afternoon next year at Progpower 2001. Formed in 1996 on the ashes of other Danish underground metal-acts, Manticora wants to make the eighties power metal collide with a semi-progressive nineties-touch. Well, they fail big time. This band sucks, sorry. The macho attitude from the singer makes me laugh and he`s almost constanly off key. No, he`d better try and get another job instead of being a vocalist. The band ended on the second place in the Scandinavian Progpower Contest and I can`t understand why. The jury must have been deaf, I guess. No, songs like "The Vision" and "Private Hell" can`t interest me at all. Let`s hope the replacement from Everon (their singer is sick), Sonic Debris will get the crowd going a bit. To me, Manticora is just Multiboring! (JG)

Sonic Debris
Norwegian band Sonic Debris are unknown to a lot of the visitors, that`s obvious. They played yesterday together with Evergrey and due to the sickness from Everons frontman, here they are again. The band recently signed to DVS Records and their debut album "Velvet Thorns" has seen daylight in September 2000. The band can be described as a mix between progressive metal and mainstream rock. They even have some commercial sounds in their songs. Sonic Debris is a good newcomer at the end of the year 2000. Whether you`re into Dream Theater, U2, Rush, Simple Minds or Faith No More, you`ll find something you like in songs like "Kiss&Kill", "Snowflake", "New Horizon" or "Velvet Thorns". Rune Sörheim isn`t the typical progressive metal frontman, but he sure has personality and a good clear voice. The about 500 visitors present at this moment appreciate this gig and so do I. (JG)

Spiral Architect
After some delay (due to technical problems), finally the first `real` progressive band got on stage. The "technical problems" were still there in the beginning of Spiral Architect`s set but these comprised mostly the sound (not only in front of the stage but also on stage). Luckily it got better during the show, because the highly technical metal of Spiral Architect (references: Watchtower, Psychotic Waltz) needs a good sound. I had high expectations for this show because it always remains to be seen whether this kind of metal can be performed live. And I was glad to see (and hear!) that it was possible! Of course, most of the songs were from their album "A Sceptic`s Universe", but they spiced up the show (like if that was necessary) by playing two covers, one of Fates Warning ("Anarchy Divine") and the first half of "Natural Science" from Rush. Perhaps that helped the people that had never heard of Spiral Architect because songs like "Moving Spirit" or "Insect" can be quite overwhelming. The torrent of riffs and breaks can be devastating for musicians that are playing some kind of progressive music themselves. Apparently those people were there because I noticed some open mouths and glazing eyes in the audience. I hope this band will return to the Netherlands very soon for a club tour (with their own sound man and a proper sound check!!!) although I think it will be kind of difficult, because a lot of bands don`t like playing with bands that are better than themselves (ask Opeth…). Guess that leaves Watchtower as the only option, not that bad. (JGK)

After Forever
When Everon unfortunately had to cancel their performance at the Progpower festival, the new Dutch metal revelation After Forever moved up a place on the bill and became co-headliner of the festival. For a band that has just recently released their debut album, this is of course a great achievement. This gig is my first introduction to this band, but I must admit that I do not completely understand the hype around this band. It`s clear that the band has potential and female vocalist Floor Janssen is a major asset to this band. However, I wouldn`t say that their music is that spectacular or original. It`s all rather similar to bands like Trail of Tears, Nightwish and Tristania. However with tonight`s performance, After Forever proved that they can put down a solid live-show. Although the emphasis lies on Floor`s voice, the band also has 2 male vocalists whose grunts and screams form a nice contrast with the sometimes opera-like female vocals. The music can be described as atmospheric metal with obvious death & black influences. Besides material from their debut album "Prison of Desire" (among others "Leaden Legacy", "Semblance of Confusion", "Yield to Temptation" and "Beyond Me") the band also played all the songs from their Mini album: "Follow in the Cry", "Silence from Afar" and the brand new song "Wings of Illusion". The set included another completely new song for which even the band hadn`t thought of a name yet (at least not on the setlist). After Forever was the first act on this festival that gained massive response from the audience. The crowd applauded enthusiastically after every song and throughout the whole show people were headbanging fanatically. Still something keeps puzzling me (and don`t get me wrong I do not question the band`s musical qualities) but in what way is After Forever`s music progressive?? (MK)

Opeth
(………………………) I am trying express my speechlessness to all you REZ readers. But I guess that this is just a useless effort to describe the absolute brilliance of Opeth`s performance at the Progpower 2000 festival. You just had to be there!! If only to witness `chief` Johan`s unexpected encore after the Opeth show. I think I can safely state that this was the band almost everyone at the festival had been waiting for and it has been a long wait. Not because the festival already started at 13:30, but because it has been 4 long years since the Swedes last hit the Dutch stages and on this cold November`s eve they have finally returned. As for many other fans today this will be my first ever Opeth gig and expectations ran pretty high tonight. Minutes before the actual show the tone had already been set as the band did all the soundchecking themselves and even when the organizer announced Progpower`s headliner the band just stood there waiting on stage. This was all very characteristic for the relaxed atmosphere during the show itself. "Just let the music speak for itself". There was no intro or anything, the band simply announced the first song of their set which was "White Cluster" and finally the moment was there: hearing Opeth play their magnificent (my own opinion of course! MK) songs live. Even though the band was probably a bit nervous during the first song and the sound had to be adjusted slighty (lot of feedback on the microphone), it already sounded so good and with the huge applause afterwards the audience expressed their excitement. And there was still so much more to come! The second song tonight, "Forest of October" from the first album "Orchid", was one of the highlights of the show. And also all other songs of tonight`s 90 minutes set were performed to perfection, the powerful deathmetal pieces, the crystal clear beautiful accoustical parts, the guitarplay of Mikael Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren, and the many many breaks in the songs that were played so tight because of the solid drum and bass play by Martin Lopez and Martin Mendez.

The biggest part of the set consisted of material from the last two Opeth albums. In addition to the first song of the gig the band also played "Moonlapse Vertigo" and "Godhead`s Lament" from the "Still Life" album. "My Arms, Your Hearse" was also represented with three songs: "The Amen Corner", "Demon of the Fall" (the final song of the festival) and the absolutely amazing "Credence" which was simply breathtaking. The Progpower audience also had the privilege of hearing a brand-new song ("The Drapery Fall") of the upcoming album "Blackwater Park" and if the whole album sounds as good as this one song we can add yet another highlight to Opeth`s impressive catalogue. The set was completed with "Advent" from the "Morningrise" album.

I could go on for (p)ages more, but then I would only bore you to death. Without a doubt my concert of the year and probably the best I have ever seen. This Original band played their songs to Perfection, leaving the crowd in Ecstasy and after their Triumph tonight we can only Hope to see them again live very very soon!

"Farewell was the word, and the afterglow was the brave morning. Rising and telling everyone about the beauty of its prologue…"(Opeth - "My Arms Your Hearse"©). (MK)

(Review: Johan Godschalk
Pics: Marcia Gransbergen)