Prognosis was not a festival, but two tours clashing at Dynamo. So in advance I read many online comments on the short slots for the bands at a prog festival. I looked at it differently as I liked the idea of giving the first four bands (that I had not seen before) a 30 minute slot. Long enough for a good taster and short enough if not my thing. Probably on tour these bands also played around 30 minutes each. In the end only one band lost out by these crammed sets with me screaming for more. The two tours were headlined by Cynic and Persefone, both of which I would go and see individually as well. So down to Eindhoven it was. With no trains training to The Hague Central I was lucky that Ton felt like some Prognosis too and we drove up arriving just in time for the first band.
The opener of the day were Lampr3a from Spain. Complicated bandname suiting their complicated music. An intsrumental trio playing a sort of tech metal. What I liked was their domination of instruments and shreddiness. What I liked not so much were the tapes sometimes playing when all three band members were silent. Also a perfect example why the 30 minute slots were great, as this was interesting now. If headlining for 90 minutes keeping attention spanned will be a challenge to most I guess. Still a good opener.
Next on were Stellar Circuist from the USA. Outstanding most was the big(ish) vocalist who looked angry and shouted Open Up throughout the show to us. Later he took of his shirt (not very prog) and jumped into the audience to look angry at innocent bystanders. I could not really decide how much I liked this band. At times I really got drawn into their set to find later thoughts and attention drifting away. A decent set in the end, which did not make me run to their merch stand even if Ton said their last album is really good.
Next on were Cryptosis from The Netherlands. They are opener on the Cynic/Obscura tour this month and I hope they win over some fans this trip. I saw them a few times when still called Distillator pre corona. After the name change they are supposed to add some prog to their thrash metal. Well no worries as they mainly thrashed on still. And actually doing so very well. I missed them live until yesterday as I was not around when they came close to home last year. Their set turned out to become the first true highlight of the day, Finally I picked up Bionic Swarm and hope for a return to Musicon with an international band one day.
Hypno5e from France followed. I read some mixed reviews on past shows by them. Did not know one note by them, only the fact that they are described as cinematic. This was actually another positive surprise. Not to play daily at home maybe, but live I liked the synchronized slow banging of the audience over the postrockish sounds. I believe that with a screen and nice images they would justify the cinematic, but now just another fine band with beards (A beardless progband would be so refreshing after this day of facial hairfest again, but that is not to the point maybe).
Next on the first headliner of the day with Persefone. This is an older favorite from the heavier end of progmetal. They once headlined Porgpower and last year gave Ne Obliviscaris a run for their money in Nobel. Expectations were high on my side and luckily they managed to surpass them. I must admit not playing lots of Persefoen at home, but live they always deliver. Biggest difference to old fans is that Marc left and Daniel became their new vocalist. Well he has a great grunt scream and clean range which works very fine with the clean vocals coming from behind the keyboards. Small side note on Daniel. He also sings in Eternal Storm who released possibly the extreme prog album of the year, but that CD is still somewhere en route from India to me. The big question in advance was of course if Persefone and Paul Masvidal would perform together the song they recorded for Aathma. This seemed obvious, but how often do bands let the opportunity pass by to have a guest vocalist when playing together at the same festival. Luckily both agreed on a great encore and the highlight of the day was Living Waves with the intro sung by Paul. He remained at the corner of the stage watching the band close the song with a smile on his face. Probably reminding him on Cynic's heavines some 30 years ago. With all the reduced time slots Persefone turned out the loser of the day getting only 40 minutes, while headlining their tour. For me the winners of the day and not to me alone from what I heard.
With Obscura I have a difficult relation really. I have two or three of their albums and saw them live a few times before. First time was when they supported Atheist 15 years ago and they toured my favorite album Cosmogenesis. Later on I saw them headlining, but every time with supports that were just better on stage. Gorod, Spawn of Possession, Exivious, Beyound Creation, Revocation and Rivers of Niil all made it hard for them to convince after their slots. Last tour with Persefone and Disillusion in support would be the same story, but I was not there. To make matters worse for them Obsidious an Obscura offspin released one of the best progressive death metal albums of the last years. If than we add a by now full dynamo and the wish to rest before Cynic and small talk alike I never gave them a fair chance. Watching some three songs from the back was enough for me this time. And yes they can play very well, but I miss some soul in their live shows.
The day would be closed by Cynic the main reason for us to drive down to Eindhoven. Unfortunately it turned out not to be the epic high I hoped for in adbvance. Some technical issues seemed to bother their delayed start. I read in advance that this tour the full Focus album would be played and that is a genre defining highlight justifying alone the (fair) ticketpirce of the day. Paul Masvidal is nowadays Cynic after the sad loss of both Seans in 2020. His new band showed they can play too, but somehow it did not flow. When the set started with Veil of Maya it sounded a bit messy at times. The Focus songs never really blasted out the boxes and when the fourth song was How Could I we realized we would not get a full Focus today. I just checked and the night before they played 14 songs in Germany including full Focus. I don'know what it was technical issues, a mild response from a confused audience or just a bad day, but given one hour and only playing 8 songs in some 45 minutes did leave many wondering if they really finished when it was over. So a confusing end to a nice day in Dynamo. Hopefully next year gives us a true festival again with two halls in use. It was nice seeing many music friends this day, where some surprised coming from Musicon and Little Devil, while the Progpower contingent was much smaller than what I expected in advance. In the end a good day even if Cynic got many cynical in the end, they did show some pure class when sound was fine at their last two songs Adam's Murmur and Evolutionary Sleeper.
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