The 26th edition of Progpower was for me the most different ever. Never before did I know so few bands in advance. In order to give everyone an open chance I hardly prepared myself for the unknown names, so I had lots to discover over the weekend. What I can say is that hardly any band on this year's edition would fit well on the 1999 first line-up. At the time the festival was having proper 90's progmetal bands only and in 2026 they seemed to have disappeared from the bill alltogether. Well Progressive means the opposite of staying the same all the time. Nowadays we go either much heavier than 99, or much softer. Also post rock and alternative influences are welcomed at the moment. Actually at the first PPE I attended in 2000 Opeth already brought the grunts along. So I needed an open mind for this year's edition and moods of the day would decide for me, how well I would manage.
Staying over also became a bit more complicated the last three years, as the bold criminal, still did not get his act together and the campsite de Berckt remains closed until further notice. So back to de Heldense Bossen it was, with a healthy 7 km bicycle ride through dark forests as a bonus. This year some of us almost had deer collissions twice while cycling, so we were in open nature. Should I mean the bockbiers and knakworstjes again?, yes as in spite of the progressiveness of the festival, I do like some traditions to stay in place.
So Friday night arriving at Sjiwa and seeing all the same faces again I was excited. This mainly because the Reticent would open the festival and not all festivals have the guts to let the best band on the line-up open the three days. I go back with The Reticent some ten years when I discovered On the Eve of a Goodbye. I loved it, got the album, the Tee and the previous album as well. Ah those days when postage costs did not need to kill any orders from the USA. Now The Reticent are a heavy lot, not only musically, but lyrically even more so. With the last three albums dealing with suicide, alzheimer and depression we were not in for a happy metal show. But we were in for a set that I can only describe as astonishing. The band stood as a house and the msuic was all great. But what made the experience even more gripping were the images shown on the background. I guess anyone in can relate directly or via-via to any of the three topics mentioned above and seeing the lyrics come alive up close did make an impact.The hall understood the times when they needed to be silent too and we all entered a zone of discomfort, yet to our liking. They proved indeed why their bandcamp page calls them Prog's most emotionally gutwrenching band. Chris Hathcock showed that he can not only write gripping music, but also holds a very impressive voice, where he touched several styles appparently with ease. As this was the longest Reticent set ever, we were also treated on surprises like Opeth's Sorceress halfway. The closing song was also a cover, but as I have that on CD by them Losing My Religion was less of a surprise. It all ended when Chris spoke some truly heartfelt words to us, Anyone not feeling emotional at the end of this performance has long lost his/her soul, or maybe the Reticent was just not for them. I saw on and off the stage several people with tears in their eyes. Best PPE opener ever? probably a yes to me. I only had one wish at the end of the set. Alex on drums did a great job tonight, so let him come back next year with Lunar please.
The Friday headliners were Rendezvous Point, also playing their longest set in their careeer. Now my usual festival problem already kicked in at day one, band two. After an absolute highlight I have problems staying interested if the next band can not come near the band before them. Rendezvous Point I did see several times before already (at PPE and touring with both Vola and Temic once). What I remembered most was the long legged, short skirted female bassist being very prominent on stage. She was not here tonight (or turned into a bearded he meanwhile?) so now the attention was drawn by the white haired vocalist. Now Progpower is all about the music, so what about that. Well the previous times I saw them play I did not go out and buy their albums. I do like them enough, but 90 minutes is a bit too much for me. So somewhere halfway I went outside to catch up with some people I had not seen for a while. Friday ended well and with the bicycle ride waiting for us still I decided not to afterparty in the basement this evening.
Saturday kicked of with the traditional Dutch band. Hyla just recorded their first CD and do not have a lot of mileage on stage I guess. They did perform pretty well, but I preferred when the female vocalist was screaming at us over her singing to the masses. The style was djenty heavy and they went down ok with most.I did go outside after a while to enjoy the sun, knowing that in November they come to my home venue Musicon anyway supporting the Changeling and Obsidian Tide.
Playgrounded at a certain stage almost could be called a Dutch band too, but I believe they returned to Greece now. I have one EP by them and saw them earlier this year at Midjonno. That day they suffered to follow up on Exist Immortal’s high energy set. Today with me more open, their show did not fully land with me. At times they remind me of Wolverine with their slow moody progmetal. Unfortunately they do not have the great voice of Stefan Zell and the guitarist forgot to treat us on spicy melodic solos. So all played well, yet it passed for me a bit flat
I did say that this year’s line-up had no bands that would fir in the first edition in 1999, Well maybe Terravia could. They played progmetal of the more traditional sound. For this first show outside Norway they missed one of their guitarists, who just became father so due to a good reason. As a result I had the impression that the tall guitarist decided to overcompensate for this miss. That annoyed a few people as I heard, but the band themselves were rather entertaining. In order to make up for the showing off/ happy egg a bit, I did like his impression of Gary Moore during the instrumental opening of one of their songs. No need for me to get their CD, but keeping an eye on them for the future.
Those who decided to use the dinner break for a long dinner and arriving late back missed out. This as Hippotraktor were treating us on the most energetic set of the weekend. I saw them before and did like this set equally good again. A vocalist who shouts to his bandmates instead to us is funny to see. A welcome heavy set they gave us and their T-shirts sold well within our group. Not sure if this works at home for me, but on stage definitely worthwhile
Prehistoric Animals surprised me some editions of PPE back. Not hearing one note in advance at the time, they were an eye-opener. Thereafter I bought their first 3 CD’s through the years and stopped after that. Just like many of the modern progmetal bands three albums is enough for me. Live I can still enjoy their show and for me they were my favourite band of the Saturday. A sympathetic presentation with at times nice images on the background too. By now I know what I get from them, but when delivered this fine I have no issues with that.
Headliners of the day were The Dear Hunter, the band splitting most opinions this edition. I think everyone agreed they can play and sing very well. The question was do they belong at Progpower?. For me a definite no, but for half the audience a definte yes, so whom am I to judge or know better? I missed the power and the prog really, but with a diverse line-up like the 2026 edition you can’t expect all bands to be up your alley.
I had to stay till the end at The Dear Hunter as tonights after-party would hold the return of the karaoke. If Mr train exodus himself states that me singing would be the highlight of the festival I felt an obligation to perform again. Than finding out Marcel long left the building, so was he just taking the piss? Anyway a nice evening it was, with the annoying can I touch your tralala not leaving my head on the bicycle ride home.
Sunday opened with another sunny morning and Royal Sorrow on the stage. They are from Finland and looking by the tens of T-shirts showing Lonely Finn they seem to feel lonely even in large groups. Luckily the band did not to suffer from any introvert attitudes. I did grow up in metal during the eighties. In those days bands looked fierce, evil, demonic or simple (untill Hair Metal started). Today Royal Sorrow opted for apparent torn apart black dresses over orange shirts and mascare. Well I am getting old after all. Musically the first truly nice surprise. Another nice surprise was that Sounddog royalty Pim and Willeke came to attend the Sunday especially to see this band. A nice start of the final day.
Next band were Sister May who were a whole different breed. They have strong industrial and alternative influences in their rock. At the start I was a bit reminded of The Banishment the project with George Lynch (Dokken and many other bands) going industrial. After a few songs the tempo reduced further instead of increased. When the vocalist than asked in Dutch if we all wanted to step forward many people stepped outside. I stayed in throughout their set, as I quite liked it overall. I was part of a minority here. Is the progressive PPE audience not that open minded really?, or do industrial and alternative bands better stay far from Baarlo?
The next band were Quantum and they brought back the modern progmetal. I did like this band and all dressed in black, they showed more of thought through presentation than the musically not very dissimilar Terravia the day before. Maybe I compare these bands, since it seems that young Scandinavian progmetal bands do attend the same barber as the floffy hair was back too. A nice band they were, but I felt they do need a bit more touring before they can draw me to their merch stand.
I decided to skip a proper dinner and just went for a broodje kroket and a broodje gezond from the snackwall of death. This not because I could not afford to miss a single second from Fractal Sun, just I did not feel for long waiting times. Fractal Sun are from Costa Rica and that is their main selling point I guess. I saw them at Progstorm in August, and we got a similar yet slightly longer set. Point for me is that The Netherlands is the home of female fronted bands were operatic vocals spoil for me good music. So no Epica, Delain, After Forever or any of the sort in my collection. So neither Fractal Sun works for me, even if the band do play nice bordering tech prog metal at times. Finally a drum solo with camera man on stage? fok instagram said the old man..
It always is a surprise to me, when I never heard of any of the bands high on the line-up. So Esoterica got 75 minutes on the Sunday and I knew nothing of them in advance. A full stage in numbers, even if the vocalist left the same for quite a while too. Crawling on the floor, heading for the balcony, but also stopping next to the brancard with the last wish friend of all volunteers. A nice gesture that was. Musically the band were OK to me, but the vocals could not be heard all the time, the empty bottle could be seen though. A different band, whom I stayed on the fence with throughout. I liked bits and pieces, but not all.
And than it came to an end already when Einar Solberg hit the stage. A large crowd joined him with two cello's and one violin too. Starting off hooded in red, he quickly changed to vest and shirt.Now let me set my ballpark. I loved Bilateral days Leprous, still do like their shows who go for me from OK to very good depending on their and my form of the day. Einar solo I never listened to on album, so I was not sure what to expect. I needed the first few songs to get in the mood, but after half an hour or so I understood we were watching something special again. Switching from calm and beautiful to loud outbursts of rage was impressive. Einar was very open on his emotions and demons. Pity that not all understood that this reserved some respect. A very good show and it turned out that for me ProgPower 2026 was saved by the two bookend emotional shows on Friday first and Sunday last.
And than it was over and we all felt more like cycling home over staying in the basement. So I missed talking to many people again, but there were enough laughs and drinks to be had for another great weekend. This definitely was for me line-up wise not one of the best years ever, But I can understand the struggle. For next year I would suggest the return of one band blending the death metal with the prog and another on mixing up thrash and prog/tech. I did miss one more high energy truly metal show on both days. Still counting on organziers to know best, so a huge thank you going out to them again, together with the many volunteers making everything work so smooth for us.
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