Prog Power USA IV - September 5th, Day 2
Metal Reviews

Release year: 2003
Prog Power USA
Reviewed by Ben

Day two of the Prog Power IV experience and the first official day of the festival. After a groggy awakening Ed and I head out to the venue to pick up our Gold Badges. Following that a quick lunch at the local Subway sandwich shop hits the spot and as I’m wolfing my meal for the day down two really cool kids come up and sit with us as we eat. After the lunch me and these two dudes embark on an epic quest to obtain a Sharpie so they can get their booklets signed. Even though the way to the grocery store was long and many blisters came out of it, it was still cool to meet up with complete strangers that had the same love for Edguy and Sonata Arctica that I did. I come back to the venue just in time for Gold Badges to be let in so I proceed to hurry my ass in and begin shopping!!! Good god, cds and shirts…everywhere! Where do I begin? So I won’t bore you to death with my shopping escapades lets just skip over that with a summary of “A whole lotta cd’s and five shirts were purchased throughout the course of the weekend”. As my shopping finished I did the standard tradition of hauling ass back to the hotel to drop off my big bag o’ metal and sampled the cds I’d purchased really fast. While I was sampling my purchases I noticed these three guys that were in the lobby last night walking back to their room that was only two doors over. The “Room 236 Guys” as I called em came from California and were diehard Power Metal fans just like me. I stayed there for a bit talking about bands like Dragonland, Viper, Steel Attack, and Lost Horizon. With me as an honorary inductee into their ranks the four of us traveled back to the venue with about fifteen minutes before the first band begins. Ha, all this fun so far and I had yet to see the first official band of the event. The trip back to the venue was decidedly less rushed and about three minutes after arriving the two guys I had met up with at lunch and walked to the store with tell me there is a Nightwish signing session so we hopped in line. Thank god I met them when I did because literally within about thirty seconds of us securing our places a horde of people filed in and the line became massive. Even though I had already got 4 / 5 of Nightiwsh I still wanted, nay, needed Tarja's autograph just like I needed (and got) Tobias "I am a metal God" Sammet's last year. Mike and I were even devising inventive ways to get her to sign our cd's if all else failed, ha. I start looking at my watch and much to my dismay I realize that it is 5.30 and Redemption have hit the stage. Not being too familiar with their album I wasn’t that distressed but as time began to keep pushing on I was starting to get scared that there would be no Nightwish signing session much like the impromptu then cancelled Gamma Ray one last year. Well, just as soon as me and my new friends were about to start panicking the heroes of the hour strolled in. Now I had met the guys the night before and so I wasn’t too shocked by seeing them in person as I was the night before but Tarja, forget any picture you have seen of her in any video, magazine or whatever, because none of that holds a candle to what she is I real life. I mean I was literally dumbstruck by how gorgeous she was in person and was just like , “uh uh uh uh hey….” . I must also point out the little twleve year old boy inside became all giggly girly when being the only person with my particular Nightwish shirt on the whole weekend when she noticed it she smiled at it and me. Yea, yea, I know that's kinda sad, ah well. I get her to sign my sleeves and take some pictures with the band (that didn’t come out. If you’re wondering why I don’t have any pics yet it is because the camera my friend let me borrow was the biggest piece of cheap shit I have ever dealt with in my life so now I’m getting pics of the bands from my friends off the net but it’s not like they have the pics of me with Nightwish or me with Pagan’s Mind do they? Chalk this up to being the only truly shitty event of the weekend) and then hurried out to catch the last fifteen minutes of Redemption. Despite not being too familiar with their songs they had some good sounding stuff going on there but it was worth missing for the signing session though in my opinion. For die hard Redemption fans this was a real treat and a great experience because their creator, Nick van Dyk is an exec in Hollywood so it’s not like this band can get together that often to play.

Redemption set-list Nocturnal, Desperation part 3 / Something Wicked This Way Comes medley, Release (new song), Desperation part 2 (Featuring Ray Alder), Window to Space, Desperation part 1, Synchronicity II

Somewhere between Redemption and Mercenary I bought a Secret Sphere shirt and got a few posters as well so I had to make a second venture back to the hotel and because of this I missed all but the last three songs of Mercenary’s set. They only played six so it’s not like I missed out on all but the last five minutes. Now, before I had come to Prog Power I had heard NOTHING by this band. Nothing at all and when I walked through the doors and heard them punishing their instruments and saw them onstage my jaw smacked the floor and I was blown the hell away by them. They played with heart and balls all rolled together, Mikkel, the clean and high pitched screamer was impressive with his range and Kral, the bassist / growler was insane with his growls and headbanging. I think everyone there that heard the last song, Seize the Night went out and bought Everblack ASAP. I know I did. I would say that literally 80 –90% of the people that gave Mercenary a chance became converts. Watch these guys, their style of technical melodic death metal already kills In Flames and makes them sound like a bunch of wannabe mallcore homies that tell me to “Jump da fuck up” whereas Mercenary are true metallers to the core. I would recommend their album Everblack to anyone looking for a blast of melodic metal with a definite harsh biting edge to it.

Mercenary set-list: Everblack, Bloodrush, 11. Dreams (new song), Screaming From the Heavens / Dead.com, World Hate Center (new song… killer!!!), Seize the Night

I moved forward to catch the next act Vanden Plas and I also had an ulterior motive as well, getting the best possible view for Nightwish who were next. After the thirty minute wait and watching this cool Mexican dude I met up at the hotel do a bad ass karaoke of Brainstorm’s Highs Without Lows (the song was being played through the PA) with the crowd cheering him on the lights went down and Vanden Plas hit the stage. They opened up with I Can See one of the only songs that I was familiar with and I noticed that the sound was crystal clear. It was like listening to a really really loud version of the studio album or Spirit of Live. I really like Vanden Plas but after about forty minutes into their set I became restless for Nightwish. This in by no way means I am trying to take away from the band’s performance, they were flawless live and Andy Kuntz is a terrific frontman, but being unfamiliar with a band’s material is the quickest path to uneasy shifting and restlessness at a concert.

Vanden Plas set-list: I Can See, Into the Sun, Soul Survives, Nightwalker, Cold Wind, Healing Tree, Iodic Rain, Rainmaker

After the last strains of Rainmaker reverberated out of my ear I began the final push upwards to get as close as I possibly could for Nightwish. I managed fifth row which ain’t bad and could barely contain myself. When the lights went dark and the intro tape began to play the whole crowd went absolutely fucking crazy! Chants of Nightwish, Nightwish filled the hall and as soon as the band came out on stage and began with Bless the Child I and many other people were in ecstatic joy. The band were in fine, fine form. Empuu was giving his best “guitar faces” and posing the entire time whereas Marco was just smoking and seemed to just kinda be playing along like he was jamming in his friends garage back home. Tuomas was a smiling madman headbanging and looking at the crowd every five seconds and Tarja has improved so much as a frontman in the past few years. She was dressed all in white, including a matching white mic stand and once again was just breathtakingly beautiful. She and Marco played off each other and both spent much time headbanging and clapping and talking to the crowd. Tarja doesn’t stand still anymore and doesn’t seem confused as to what to do like she did on moments from the From Wishes to Eternity DVD, she’s always in motion and making sure the crowd is active as well. Throughout the show I kept wondering if they were gonna play Ever Dream and kept hearing Tuomas and Jukka saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO,” from the preparty in that haunting dreamlike way when all of a sudden Tarja begins with the familiar intro and I’m now jumping up and down screaming “Fuck Yea!!! Oh hell yes!!! YEAHHHH!!!!” and as they begin to play MY Nightwish song this asshole starts a failed mosh pit right next to me. I say failed because it was consisting of him and no one else but the bitch did manage to rip my Over the Hills and Far Away longsleeve but I didn’t notice it till later. Yea it was great having Nightwish play my favorite song of theirs just to have the experience almost ruined by this person. By the way, the band has NOT played Ever Dream since the 2002 Century Child Tour so to hear it in Atlanta was something truly special. Maybe all my begging and haranguing of the band at the preparty paid off! They also included a cover of Crazy Train which really didn’t get me excited cos I think Ozzy is about as overrated as overrated gets but what the hell I still cheered and whatnot. After the cover, highlights for me included, Deep Silent Complete, Wishmaster and Over the Hills and Far Away. Nightwish really were the stars of the weekend for me and I think even they were amazed at the crowd response that they received. I hope that they will come back again sometime to US soil.

Nightwish set-list: Bless the Child, End of All Hope, Come Cover Me, Kinslayer, Dead to the World, Ever Dream, Walking in the Air, Crazy Train, Deep Silent Complete, She is my Sin, Slaying the Dreamer,Wishmaster -Encore- Sleeping Sun and Over the Hills and Far Away

After the sheer awesomeness that was Nightwish I had to suck down a couple of bottles of water otherwise I’d pass out from dehydration. Around this time I also bumped into Troy Tiptun from Zero Hour. He actually remembered me from last year and we chatted about their "new" cd Metamorphosis and Towers of Avarice. He is one really cool and nice guy, I kept bumping into him throughout the weekend as well. I then retreated to the outside front steps to catch a breather and feel the cool night air on me for a few minutes and ran into Darrin out there as well. As usual we talked up a storm and unbeknownst to me a fellow metalreviews reader was sitting right in front of me. You should have said something man! Anyways, I headed back in and grabbed a seat (yes that’s right, I had to sit down, I’m so ashamed) for Symphony X. The first thing I noticed when they came on was that they were fucking LOUD. I mean I’m talking about Manowar loud here. There were several groups of people that left cos they thought it was too loud. For some reason I have all the Symphony X albums yet I don’t really listen to em that much. I was familiar enough with the material to enjoy it yet I wasn’t going balls to the wall crazy like I was during Nightwish. Since they were so loud there were a lot of sound problems with Symphony X’s set. The only drum sound I could hear was the snare, the toms were nonexistant, and the keys were all but drowned out by Michael Romeo’s guitar. Russel Allen while kicking ass and taking names as a singer had some problems with his mic cos it kept squealing all the time. Those matters aside I was once again shocked by the prowess of Russel as a singer. He sang perfectly. He hit all the notes and could change timbre and style at the drop of a hat, he was amazing. The setlist was a great one and to top it all off they played The Odyssey (the song) in its entirety. I know I’ll get shot for this but halfway through I decided to take off because my blisters began a popping and like I said earlier, not being familiar with a band’s songs is the fastest way to disinterest and I really didn’t know The Odyssey that much at all. What I saw impressed me and I have now dug out all my Symphony X cd’s to listen to again.

Symphony X set-list: Inferno, Wicked, Evolution, Communion, King of Terrors, Out of the Ashes, Accolade I / Accolade II, Smoke and Mirrors,Sea of Lies, Of Sins and Shadows -Encore- The Odyssey

Oh, a night of metal filled madness came to an end at the Earthlink but the party carried over to the hotel. The lobby filled with more long hairs than you could shake a stick at and once again it became the place to chill and hang out. After mingling with Vanden Plas, Secret Sphere for a few hours (Roberto and Aldo were cool guys and really appreciated every fan. Roberto even signed my A Time Never Come disc to me personally) and finding the guitarist from Pagan’s Mind drunk off his ass outside and after discussing life and its many fallacies with him, I called it a night and waited for the last day of the festival.

Killing Songs :
Ben quoted
Other albums by Prog Power USA IV that we have reviewed:
Prog Power USA IV - September 6th, Day 3 reviewed by Ben and quoted
Prog Power USA IV - September 4th, Day 1 - The Preparty reviewed by Ben and quoted
0 readers voted
Average:
 0
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are no replies yet to this review
Be the first one to post a reply!