The first weekend of October means for many their annual pilgrimage or hadj to Baarlo. This not to celebrate a violent imaginary friend (guess who was proudly wearing his Atheist T-shirt this weekend, not talking about Rune here), but worshipping the beauty of progmetal in all it’s forms and shapes. This year for us would be differnet though as half of our Compostela de Santago or Mekka disapeared. Since the mid 2000’s we always stayed at the campsite de Berckt. Run by the dubiuos man who became a Dutch TV personality for reasons noone understands. It was always a joy to stay there in spite of the state of caravans and park. Some two months before PPE the news broke that the campsite was finally shut down by authorities. Now we have a tradion to keep, so taking part of it from us was not only disturbing but also resulted in a race to find a new placet o stay. Helden offered the best alternative, another campsite with caravans and bicycles to rent. We this year meant twelve of us, all from the beauty that is greater The Hague.
And the festival itself this year? Well I don’t recall any year with such a diverse program. 14 bands coming out of 13 countries and 5 continents truly made this a global edition. Only Italy had the right to send us two bands this year. Not a strange choice as you realize that with Ghost on Mars and The Moor two of the more surprising progmetal albums this year came out of that country too. Another standout point was that PPE never before had so many female vocalists in their program. For me this year’s line-up meant that Saturday and Sunday were filled with bands I know and like in the evenings and to me unknown bands that are getting a chance to impress or convince me in the afternoons . With 14 bands and a wide range of styles I guess noone would love all 14 bands.Before I get started on the bands one comment on te alternatives this weekend, as there were plenty. KIT Rising had a wonderful line-up again and the Britih Steel Fest in northern France had many of my old favorites billed. And than there is WTF Soen. After breaking through at Progpower, they now for the third time managed to plan their Dutch shows of a European tour during PPE weekend. This as if showing us all a giant finger. Well I guess I am not the only one who binned their CD’s and merch.Finally the sun was out and the bockbier got cold, so after our traditional opening dinner it was a now longer bicycle ride of 7km down to Sjiwa.
Friday
The opening band of the weekend were Maestrick from Brasil. Now Brasil is my second homecountry were as from 2025 I plan to spend several months per year. So extra attention was justified. Further those who remember the Thessera show on a Friday years ago (when the basement was still the Friday venue) knew that Brazilians can progmetal in style. Maestrick comes close to power metal with symphonic and progressive traces. It was soon clear that they all could play well and Fabio has a good voice. What struck a bit to me was that with this style of metal the sound should be fuller and louder than it was (or were those my earplugs) At times I could not hear all instruments or vocals all that loud. Yet in the end it was to me a satisfying opening as I stayed the full show and liked especially the song they announced as holding more Brazilian roots. That must have been the Carioca in me banging along. So we were warmed up fine and later when talking to the band I learned where I should go and see them again next year in Brasil.
Friday was headlined by the UK representation Pure Reason Revolution, one of those bands that divide opinions. For some too soft as progrock outfit on a metal weekend and to from what I saw most a welcome variation in styles. For me they had another mountain to climb as I saw them before live after they released their debut album. That night they had serious problems in following up after Polish Quidam, so I lasted only a few songs before hitting the bar. The problem is that in today’s endless stream of great releases worldwide, if this happens I stop following a band. So I never heard anything by them since, until they got booked for ProgPower Now I am a man of second chances and while listening to some clips of recent songs I would give them a fair -ish) chance to convince me. So was there improvement after 18 years? Yes to me some I guess, but not enough to last the full show. I could see that many people loved their set, so that was good, but I must admit that the older I get the heavier my musical taste gets. In progrock corners you really must be something special nowadays to keep me hooked for long (Anubis 20 October at Progfrog). Than after a few more drinks in the basement the worst was yet to come. My rental bike had no functioning lights. Still we decided to take the shortest route through the forests back to Helden. Well those 21 google maps minutes turned into an hour including getting lost, walks through sandy hills and a high fence we could not climb with bicycles. Well the traditional knakworst only tasted better when we finally made it to our trailers.
Saturday
Opening the party on Saturday were Enma from The Netherlands, not Seattle. Yet they brought the grunge into the prog. I saw them before at Prognosis, but liked them (even) better now on te smaller stage of Sjiwa. A lively presentation, drums a pounding bass deciding on rhythms, two good guitars and a vocalist with voice and presentation to match. This band opened the day well and the sound was loud and clear, giving us a nice and promising start of the Saturday.
No Terror in the Bang are from France and I never heard of them until they got announced for Progpower. Usually I let bands surprise me. I listened to one or two clips at the time of announcement and than stay away from them. From what I recalled expectations were pretty high as they are not shy of mixing the extreme with their prog. The band started and on came the vocalist Sofia with long hair extensions and lots of energy. What a powerful performer she turned out to be, swithching from clean Alannis Morriset or Amy Whinehous alike vocals down to extreme in the snap of your fingers. When halfway the set she decided to take of her coat, zipped her blouse open the male part in the audience was not complaining. Well PPE is all about the music and that was fine too. A good band, only missing a bass player and more important a keyboardist. This because keyboards or piano were pretty prominent in their sound, so I prefer live over tape. Later on I learned they do have two more band members covering these instrments who unfortunately could not make it, so fair play giving us this show. All-in all I loved this band and their set. Still this music for me falls in the category, great to see, but at home on CD I doubt it works for me.
After a French high the first Italians were coming on with Terra. Some of their dreadlocks outgrew the extensions of NTITB even, but it again is all about the music. Well that music had some starting up problems, so they kicked of 15 minutes late and gave us tribal drums. Fairly nice I thought they were, but at the end of the song they showed being annoyed with some technical issues. In good Exciter or Triumph fashion the vocals came from behind the drums. Unfortunately this voice was a bit light and not fully my taste. So when also the feel of needing a bite came up I left after some 25 minutes and later heard that people who stayed really loved their set. Well you can’t see them all-in full, at least I can’t.
After the official diner break
Apotheus would be on. Now here is where my first tiny influence on the PPE
program came along. Albano plays drums with Apotheus and has a friend called Felipa.
She also happens to be a friend of Josie (my lovely wife) as they worked
together in Portugal. So some two years ago I got an app from Albano as he
understood I was into progmetal and Apotheus wanted to look for options of
playing in The Netherlands. I put them on track of the PPE link to presenting
bands. Than I messaged PPE that it was a shame Portugal was a blank on the PPE
history (check Comendatio festival to
see lots of good progmetal from that country) and if ever a band deserved a
chance it would be Apotheus. This based upon their very strong Ergo Atlas album
from 2023. Glad it all worked out and here they were. I am glad to say that
when they came on I immediately loved their set. This was in reality the first
band playing proper progmetal as it was meant to be for me. Miguel had a good
voice and the band was tight and lively. They did put a right amount of
attention to stage and merch departments too. I liked their black shirts with
logo and the screens with lyrics or images passing by. Pleased that my minor
intervention resulted in a show this good .
Next band were Madder Mortem from
Norway. In the early years of Progpower you could fill in a form and supply bands
you liked to see the next year. I remember asking for Madder Mortem as I got into
them at the begin of this century. After not seeing them for many years I lost
track a bit until I finally saw them live with Soen some ten years ago. So I
like my Madder Mortem, but I am not up to date. So great was my joy when they
played Rust Cleansing early in the set. Agnete I found a great perfromer again
and the band was good. Still for me they
moved a bit too often to lower pace again. As they stated themselves
hard to pin, they played blues to thank their prog audience. It turned out that
for me 75 minutes was a bit much. Also my knee has not fully recovered yet and
standing all day told me that sitting down was maybe a good plan. Watching a
part from the bench at the side, did not help in getting involved in their set.
So resuming a good set, which for me could not keep the high of Rust Cleansing
throughout.
And than it was Sadist time. From
Italy not the UK as the huge banner said (thanks Matt). Where yesterday PRR
closed the day on the light side of prog, today Sadist came from the heaviest
end. I love me some Sadist and found out that we work in 8 year circles. In
2008 I went to Stonehenge festival mainly to see Sadist. In 2016 they came to
Progpower for a first time and now 8
years later they were back (as they sometimes do).Well they came to conquer
again. What a show we got with Trevor Nadir setting a new bar for off the wall
presentations by vocalists. I can’t imagine anyone watching and not having to
smile when he proudly showed his OSDM belly to the crowd. Meanwhile the band
gave us a masterclass in Techdeath with bongo’s. I do have many of their
albums, apart from the last two. Still I recognized most of the songs. Opener
was possibly my favorite song by them 1000 memories. After a highly succesfull
set, those not afraid of grunts wanted more, so they closed the set with 1000
memories again. I was overwhelmed by their performances and Sadist did prove
that adding one tech death band to the line-up does increase the level of the
overall festival.I am already looking forward to seeing them again in 2032 So a
pretty damn fine Saturday ended on a high and a pubquiz was waiting organized
by The Progspace. If we would have stayed at the campsite de Berckt, for sure I
would have attended. Now with a hellish bicycle ride through dark forests ahead
of us, I joined the others home. No mistakes this time made us find our bed
surprisingly early around 01:00.
Sunday
The first band ever to come out of
Czech Republic to Baarlo were Ions. I did not check them out beforehand, but
heard positive vibes from some who did. This band played some djenty progmetal,
where the vocalist dressed in white sang fairly high over. I was a bit on the
fence with them. Liked their sound, but could do with some more metal on the
vocal department. Still good enough to me to watch their full set and clap my
hands as sign of appreciation. No need for me to rush to the merch, but nice
enough they were indeed.
Ou translates in Dutch into Auw.
At least that is what I got from it. Yes it is nice to have a band from China
joining PPE history, but this was far too complicated for simple me. I entered
at the end of their first song and left soon after their second song started.
These vocals were just outside my comfort zone and the instruments built no
Chinese wall of sound either. In fairness a lot of people liked them and as I
stated before you can’t like them all. Time for an early bite for us it was, as
the best was yet to come.
Sunday night would bring me two
bands I was looking out for lots. First were The Anchoret from Canada. Last
year they released their album It All Began With Loneliness. It ranked #4 in my
end of year list and #1 as best debut album of the year (so the other The
Progspace voters got it all wrong). On vocals a ProgPower veteran with Heaven
Cry’s Sylvan Auclair. As Andy Tillison played on the album and that man plays
whatever, I thought it was him as lost UK cousin of Jonathan playing saxophone
and flute. Turned out it was a taller lookalike as Sylvan later told me. Anyway
the band played their full album minus Buried and showed that my high ranking
of that album was no mistake. What a joy to see this band having a go at it and
seemingly effortless went through their
varied album. Adding their very sympathetic presentation and a new highlight
was reached for me. Always nice when
high expectations are met.
And than the band came, where all
metalheads from the eighties were looking out for most: Crimson Glory. As nowadays
also people under 50 are allowed to enter Sjiwa a short history lesson first.
We talk the mid eighties and the term progmetal did not even exist. After the
birth of first NWOBHM and later thrah metal a new wave of bands came out of the
USA, whom we simply called US metal. Many of those bands released albums where
Heavy Metal got mixed with Power and Progressive tendencies. The stream of
classic debut albums was endless and Crimson Glory’s self titled debut was one
of them. Album of the month in Aardschok, they became huge in metal Holland and
Holland became huge to them. Just check their eighties shows on setlist.fm and
you find this was basically a Dutch and German affair those days. Starting of
fully masked they had at the time with Midnight one of the best vocalists
around. Transcendence their second album from 1989 was a bit proggier and at
leat as good as their debut. In the nineties they slightly changed style and
later line-up. Astronomica from 1999 would not maintain their crazy high level
from the eighties and the band split up. In 2012 they had a short revival with
Todd La Torre taking care of vocals. After a great show in de Boerderij my
hopes were for more new music, but than Queensryche called, even if I do not
know the impact of that nor the timing. So last year a return was announced and
new single Triskaideka was released with now Travis Wills on vocals. That
sounded promising and with Crimson Glory playing this same weekend at Keep It
True Rising I was more than a bit pleased when they also got confirmed to play
at Progpower. So you young readers, please realize that Crimson Gloryr were the
only band playing this weekend without whom a festival like ProgPower might
never even have existed.
Still being my favorite band of the weekend does not mean others need to like them too. Luckily by adding Crimson Glory to the bill lots of eighties metal lovers who never before found their way to Sjiwa, now appeared in Baarlo. I hope some of them might return after tasting the atmosphere, but I guess we need similar bands of the era to confirm those returns. The big question was of course how would Travis be live? Comments form their performance at KIT were going several directions. Christian already stated before that with Sjiwa being smaller and better sound equiped chances of a good show were huge. Luckily he was right. After a long soundcheck and drum preparation, kicking of with Valhalla it was there where the band took me and I did not leave for 75 minutes. This was for me sheer joy. Shouting along fist pumping in the air, banging and jumping to all those classic songs of their first two albums. The two new songs played made sure I will pick that album up upon release. And Will? Well he sounded damn fine to me. Midnight was a once in a lifetime high screamer, but coming this close was good enough for me. The band were firing on all cilinders and their set flew by. One special mention to new guitarist Mark Borgmeyer. His solos were fast and furious as they should be. The original band members Ben Jackson, Dana Burnell and Jeff Lords all played like 1989 was not all that long ago. One long trip of happiness with no complaints from my side. Only today I read that in Germany they also played Burning Bridges, which is among the best semi power ballads ever written. Well you can’t win them all. For me Crimson Glory were winners of PPE 2024 by a mile and than some, but new bands can never compete with this blend of class and nostalgia. Thank you Crimson Glory and ProgPower for making this possible.
And than it was up to Caligula’s Horse to close the festival. They deserved to close the festival as they probably represent the greatest common denominator among all PPE attendees. They have a range of albums, a good history and popularity to draw a crowd. Yet for me after the Crimson Glory hype timing was not good. First I already saw this tour earlier this year at de Boerderij. Second talking about time travelling all the way back to 2015, when I just spent 75 minutes in 1986 and 1989 means little of a trip to me. So yes they were probably nice and a good closer of the festival, but I had it and left Sjiwa. Actually our whole group thought among similar lines, which brings me tot he only personal downer of PPE 2024. Duet o staying too far away from the venue I did not feel much like making extra hours in the basement bar and than cycle home on dangerous roads for over 30 minutes in a state more drunk. So instead of my usual two afterparties I did not attend one this year. And no it was not because there was no Karaoke this year, even if rumours told me that such end was caused by my performances over the past editions. Another side effect I did bump into many people who I hardly shared more than two lines with over the weekend. New chances in 2025 when edition 25 shall be celebrated. Where can I leave some suggestions? So see you without talking again next year and leaving with the deserved huge thanks to organizers and volunteers. Progpower remains Progpower a secret only known to those who once attended.
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