Progpower is held every year in Baarlo, but the proper warm-up show was this year in Leiden. 1 October means that the city is building up for their annual 2/3 October party, when the city celebrates the liberation from Spain during the 80 year war. So arriving at Nobel by car or bus became a bit more challenging. Me coming by train, so arriving on time and during the supports you saw people slowly dropping in.
Two supports we had and they could not be more opposite of each other. First we got Tar Pond the band of former Coroner drummer Marky Edelmann. They play doom metal of the very slow and heavy kind. The vocals over this all have some gothic feel to them. Interesting it was, but 30 minutes was enough for me. Hereafter the Belgian Death/Thrash formation Schizophrenia hit the stage. Their music was fast and furious and they ran across the stage all the time. They did get several pits as a reward and went down pretty well with the crowd.
Looking at the many old Coroner T-shirts in tonight, the real headliner were Coroner. Their album Dissonance Theory was last year's comeback album of the year. After a hiatus of 32 (!) years, they pleasantly surprised fans old and new. In a way I am among the new fans. In the period 1987-1993 I did not get any of their five albums. I did see them live at the time, when in 1990 they opened for Watchtower, who just released one of my favourite albums Control and Resistence. I probably focussed too much on Watchtower that night, as I do like the style Coroner moves in Technical Thrash Metal. Ten years ago they released a DVD package with career overviews, live recordings and a story of disc. I was more up to date now and got the box and loved it. So when Coroner released a new album last year I did get it fast and it made my top ten of the year. So long intro short I was looking forward to an evening with Coroner. They opened the set with some new songs and thereafter they visited all their albums. The band was tight, the songs good and they even invited a keyboardist on stage whose role was limited. Another great evening in already fantastic gig year 2026. Before going to Leiden I received from several PPE fans the comment that Coroner should play ProgPower this year. Musically I do agree, even if the reactions tonight were far wilder than Progpower can bring. At the same time looking at their merch prices I can understand that they might be too expansive for the festival. Technical Thrash Metal does belong at Progpower, so if not Coroner I can recommend several other options from Europe.
