ProgPower Europe celebrating it’s
25th edition was something not to miss. I was not the only one thinking so, as
a first gift back to organizers was the sign Sold Out at the poster. This year
the line-up was maybe the most diverse ever. PPE since long is not purely
focussed on Progmetal, but we also get the extreme metal blended in and the
(too?) soft prog rock. So in my ears noone attending this weekend could love
all 14 bands. At the same time there must be something for everyone. We this year meant the same of
group of 12 people as last year. Also since bold bastard Gilles still did not
manage to sell his campsite de Berckt, we moved out to Heldense Bossen again. A
nicer campsite as such, but a scary bicycle ride through dark forests home at
night. If we than add the weather
forecast for the weekend and we knew that excitement was coming our way on
different levels.
Arriving on time in Baarlo, meant
the usual get yourself a locker, a beer and say hello to many known faces
walking around. The real start this year came by Nospun. This being an American
band forced me to make some observations. We heard keyboards, but they were not
as such on stage, but coming from a laptop called the Anchoret. Further at
least two of their members are in trouble if their day-job happens to be
general in the US Army. Well they were
at Progpower now and noone cares what you look like as long as you play good
music. And playing good music is what they did. I never bought any of their
music, but listened in the past to their album and ep online. So I did not recgonize
any song or title, but liked their set and especially the two long
instrumentals were fine. This is strange when you consider that the vocalist
had a strong voice indeed. So while Sjiwa was getting very hot, I was getting
warmed up by the music on stage. A fine start we got, even if for me the guitar
and bass could have been a notch louder in the mix. In the mood I decided to
pick up the very nice festival-tee. This only to find out that my size was
already sold out. That can only mean that too many tiny people buy too large
sizes.
Extol were the headliners for the
Friday. This made me happy in various ways. First I do have three of their
albums and second I never saw them live, At the same time I realized this was a
bold move by PPE, as whatever you think about Extol, they are definitely not
for everyone. If than also the vocalist is a new guy from Denmark, who mainly
uses his screamo voice hurdles rose. So I was not surprised that after some 45
minutes half the room was empty and the other half enjoyed their weird extreme
blended masterclass. For me the start was not their best part, When guitarist Ole
started singing along with his clean vocals the overall mix improved for me.
That was when I remembered seeing him with Fleshkiller some years ago. Luckily
they did play the only song I immediately remember by them Gloriana. For me a
true highlight, even if my fellow campers all
11 went to the basement during their set. So I did get a Friday evening
worthy of a 25th edition. A few beers in the basement and an almost safe
bicycle trip home. Turns out that putting Amii’s chain back on your bicycle in
the dark results in black hands for Peter and Leah. But we survived, had a last
drink and tried to sleep through the storm.
Good morning campers! It is raining
cats, dogs and acorns. We had rain before at PPE, but these amounts got our
trailers leaking and our bospaths
muddier by the minute. In the end forecasts told us that around 12:00
matters would improve and they did. Just when we planned to leave in order to
arrive on time a terrible last attack meant we waited inside. Off we went and
the bicycle paths were surprisingly good on the way, only my rental bike was
hidden in mud now.
This did mean that entering Sjiwa
was only possible when the Cryptex were some 15 minutes in their set already.
They said they played de Boerderij before a semi-home venue to me, but I never
even heard of them. This trio consisted of on the left keyoards dressed up as a
piano and the vocalist. Centre stage behind it was a masked guitarist and on the
right we watched the drummer sideways. Musically I was pleasantly surprised as
they mixed bombast with prog and notches of metal at times. The vocalist was
quite the performer, but his jokes were at the edge of acceptable or boring to some.
I had a good opening band and Saturday was off to a good start. This was when I
realized I missed my after each two bands chat with Christian where we often
agree on the good and the bad. Wishing him a quick full recovery.
Next band would change the stage
setup again as now the drums got placed centre forward. This because the
drummer also sang and they were with three only. The other two members both
played guitar following the recent trends of bassists gone missing. The looks
of the band were not the most charismatic
of the weekend as the guy on the right looked like a Roumanian waiter, while
his friend on the left looked like an Irish darter who just did not qualify for
the World Cup. Trylion was their name and they came from Poland. Musically they
were heavy mixing mostly extreme vocals with some clean ones. I stayed half
their set as after a while I missed songs that stuck in my head.
Next on were Mayfire from Norway a
band that Hans tipped me on as a potential highlight. Let me first get the
elephant out of the room: fok facemasks. Hiding your face adds nothing for me
and their black scarves made me fear they were going to throw rocks at us any
time soon. Luckily musically they indeed were a highlight . The vocalist had a
strong voice and the band knew how to play well, packed in fine songs. As they
have one album only so far, that is what they played plus a new song. For me a
very enjoyable set and when it was over we were asked not to leave yet. Those
shouting for an encore got it wrong.
Martijn took the stage and
introduced to us the mayor of Peel and Maas. No political speeches luckily, but
he was here for a much nicer reason. Rene was presented a royal order and
became lid in de orde van Oranje Nassau. In the Netherlands our king can grant
such an award to people who got proposed mostly based upon their voluntary work
and service to the community. Well when the mayor read out the full lists of
voluntary positions, including organizing PPE, this seemed more than deserved.
A nice new highlight of the day it was
and Rene seemed speechless for a while.
The dinner break got shortened by
festivities so I stayed in waiting for the Dutch band of the weekend Elegy. Now
I am Dutch and I follow progmetal since it’s birth (no official date, but it must
be somewhere inbetween 2112 and Operation Mindcrime). Yet I never saw Elegy
performing live, nor did I ever buy an album by them. In hindsight a huge
mistake as they quickly turned out to bet he highlight of the day. We got a
band on stage playing what you heard, great instrumental bits and with Ian
Parry a great frontman. Now Ian I did see before, when he sang with Vengeance
(for PPE visitors not knowing them a certain Arjan Lucassen was in that band
too). Elegy was quite a bit heavier than that and while going through their
catalogue we got one winner after the other fired at us. This was a Prog Power
metal band in the true original sense and I loved it.
Next on were Major Parkinson.
After yesterday’s Extol another band that would split the audience I knew. Many
people seemed to love them and also many consider them just weird and at the
wrong festival. I tend to be in the second category, but decided to give them a
fairer chance this time after the three minutes I gave them some years ago. So
I first had a pizza and than entered Sjiwa twice to see what was going on for some
two songs both times. Well at least this time I understood why people do like
them. Still for me a bridge too far. Their vocalist reminded me of Fish in a
strange way, but than without the music of Fish unfortunately. Even within our
group reactions moved between “this was brilliant” till “can’t be arsed”.
Closing the day were Vandenplas.
They came in at a late moment when The Dear Hunter got cancelled. For me
initially a good move as I was afraid of two prog rock bands closing the day
would be a bit much for me. Vandenplas
plays progmetal from the nineties which was when the genre boomed. I
liked it that they opened with Push from
Colour Temple. That was the first tour I saw them playing live in
Blokhut Rotterdam. I did see them a few more times over the years, but stopped
buying their albums after their nineties albums. Now some factors that did not
help me getting really drawn in were: An old man like me gets tired after a
long day. The beers passed by too fast over the day especially during Mayfire
and Elegy when we all were in, after three songs we got a drum solo and finally the sound was a bit
muddy. So I stayed for a few songs, walked out in order to return for a few
more songs and than joined the gang cycling back home when Andy Kuntz was still
very German on stage.
Sunday started off better than
Saturday as the sun came through the clouds at time. So no delayed rides made
me arrive in time to see Traels kicking off their show. I had never heard of
this Belgian band before, but they started the day pretty fine. The drummer was
sitting sideways again and he also took care of vocals. A nice voice he had
which suited the music. The music did made me think of several other bands at
times. There was prog but also post metal and some groovy bass pumped songs.
The overall atmosphere was more depressevie in a Katatonia way. All dressed in
black apart from the guitarist on the left who brought the colour wearing dark
blue. Hans and Ton ran after a CD or LP, I did not go so far, but was pleased
with these openers.
This year in March there was
Marcelfest and I was not in the country. The hype I heard most mentioned
thereafter was Tiberius. They seemed to be good in creating a party. Well that
was no lie as these guys jumped around like it was 1983. Being it either on the stage
or in the venue they were wildly moving around. Than there was Duncan the skeleton
dressed in Tee who went crowdsurfing to the back of the hall and via the other
side back to the stage. Hereafter there were airy beach balls bouncing around in
the air and a circle pit had Connie joining in scootmobile. Now if you were not
there, you might think they are a gimmick band. That is when their songs and
instrumental domination kick in. I am now playing my newly purchased CD Singing
for Company and it works fine at home too. Thinking at times of Protest the Hero, while I also hear Ton’s
commented vocals like Myles Kennedy. Definetely a band I will travel for when
these Scots come back to The Netherlands.
As if Sunday afternoon was not
good enough yet, next on were Voidchaser from Montreal Canada. Their progmetal
is of the heavier kind with a fair bit of the vocals being extreme. So only
reading that chances of me liking them were huge. If you than add again a very
lively and loose presentation and we were in for another winner of the festval
for me. We can only hope that all those bands(No need to mention names here) where
members are not leaving their square meter were watching and learning too.
Their tech metal came over really well with most people and close to the end
they gave us an epic, that was epical indeed. I got their last two EP’s and now
we wait for a full album. As they are also involved with the new prog metal
festival Progstorm, I might have to start negotiations with Josie about a trip to Montreal next year. Finally I did not know what all these thumbs up were about, but anyone saying f"ck the hand hearts shown to the stage has my sympathy.
After such a good afternoon I
needed some time to catch my breath again. This over a few shrinkflation beers in
the hall still. So we missed the dinnerbreak and that would go at the cost of
Kyros. I saw the band twice before, when they were still called Synaesthesia.
That was at prog rock festivals and that is my point. Obviously nowadays most visitors do believe prog rock
bands do belong at Progpower. Just look at the success of Major Parkinson, Meer
and Kyros too as I read. In the hall a huge banner showed the history of 25
editions (apart from 2024’s Sunday missprint) In 2002 A.C.T. played and at the
time there were discussions if a band that light belonged at Progpower.
Nowadays a definite yes, in those days pretty questionable. Since I am old and
traditional to me all progrock bands can leave Sjiwa for good, while realizing
I am a minority here. So I plan my food breaks around those bands. Result of
this fairly long intro: I saw one song of very colourfull Kyros and left for
food in Baarlo.
Kingcrow were next and again I
need to explain something. Lots of the more recent progmetal bands do impress me
so I start buying their albums and live they seem as good. Than after three
albums I realize I never play their albums. I meanwhile saw them live mixing good
and not so good shows. So I stop buying their albums, but can still enjoy their
live shows. Examples plenty but looking at PPE: Leprous, Caligula’s Horse,
Vola, Voyager and Prehistorc Animals come to mind. Actually I only still buy anything
Haken from that generation. Kingcrow I discovered with Phlegethon and I bowed
out with Eidos. Yet live I never saw them disappoint. Tonight would not be much
different, but circumstances were far from ideal. After eating entering a hot
Sjiwa and watching more towards the back, meant my energy levels dropped dramatically
and after some 45 minutes I moved to the basement. Kingcrow meanwhile were being
Kingcrow and that means good. Maybe a bit more variation between light and
heavy would have given me another 15 minutes, but it was good.
Threshold headlined the first ever
ProgPower, so nothing more logical than inviting them back to close of the 25th
edition. Now with Threshold I have a longer history than any other band playing
this weekend. The year was 1993 and The Hague still had several CD stores
specialized in metal. So one day Kees from Kees CD told me “you are into this
progressive metal, try this band out”. That was Wounded Land, I listened and
the rest as they say, is history. In 1995 Threshold came to The Netherlands and
we attended their tour. This day at the
Merch stand they sold one longsleeve of that tour, which I still have in
T-shirt form. Peter bought it again due to a personal story, which involves the
birth of his oldest daughter Amii who was here the weekend with us too. Back to
Thereshold I saw them several times over the decades with all vocalists apart
from the Italian stand-in during their last tour. Now my energy levels were low
and I was doubting if I could make it till the end. So I already started saying
goodbye to Michel and Esther before the show and than the beauty of music hit
me. Threshold on stage were quickly provng I needed to see their full show.
With every song I got more energy and Glynn’s voice warmed up better too. This
was a beautiful show, build around the last two albums. Luckily with lots of trips
back in time too. Threshold are just a very solid band and what a great way to
close the festival for me this was.
So than it was over and we moved
back to the campsite. This year again had no karaoke, which was a pity as I was
prepared to entertain a packed basement with my tribute to Ozzy in what is his
year really. Finally this year I do not
only want to thank Organizers and all volunteers I also give them some free advice for an awesome 2026 edition. From the
USA the two best US progmetal bands of recent years, both releasing two amazing
albums this decade, Lunar and Imminent Sonic Destruction. From mainland Europe:
Eternal Storm, The Moor, Philosophobia and Pentesilea Road. From the UK:
Ophelion and Synaptik. Irish The Enigma Division and representing The
Netherlands August Life. From Brazil Papangu (more than one T-shirt spotted in
the crowd) and Jack the Joker. Than you only need three headliners which should
be Watchtower and Eldritch (both never before at PPE after 25 editions???) and finally
A-Z, Oceans of Slumber, Wolverine or In Mourning maybe. Seems a damn fine
line-up to me without too soft progrock acts to scare us away, nor too low
grunts for delicate ears. With the early bird tickets expiring today, I decided
to go crazy and buy a new ticket before the festival was over. Hope to see all
I met this year again and those whom I missed I might speak to in 2026 if my
above revelations did not scare or piss you off.
