Anyone else dissapointed?

its not bad. Its better than last year. I dont think anything will Match PP3 for me(it had too many first time seeing them live bands for me). I have already seen every band that I want to see at this years line-up. But it will be good to see Kamelot, Brainstorm, Tad Morose and Edguy (especially supporting the new one) again. Adagio is pretty cool also. So it will be a good show.
 
1metal1 said:
Constructively:

It seems to me that you took the Power element of 2 years ago and rolled 2 Prog heavy festivals out of it. The excitement that was stirred over Prog 3 was credited by yourself as being a "once in a lifetime lineup" but I think it's that there was, in fact, less of a Prog element overall. Since then, Power fans have had very little to jump up and down about aside from Nightwish. I remember asking you about sponsoring Running Wild or Pretty Maids some years ago and you said, and I quote: "The fan base for those bands is primarily overseas and they would be very little of a draw in the USA". Well I ask you: Where is Adagio, Wuthering Heights, or Into Eternity's fan base? I don't see one at all.

I think that everyone appreciates the job you do, no doubt in the world. Your festival is one of a kind. However, there is still competition for the dollar and I think you could do better for fans of Power metal. I know you said Sonata wasn't available but how about (and these aren't even my favorites, just examples): Rhapsody, Labyrinth, Running Wild, Metalium, Axel Rudi Pell, Dream Evil, Freak Kitchen, Poisonblack or the like?

Honestly, Cleveland is breathing down ProgPower's neck and aside from overall atmosphere, may actually be the festival to see the last 2 years. I'm just saying....
I could not disagree with you more. This festival is called Prog Power for a reason. Glenn tries to give the fans a pretty good mix of each. Some years it may be power heavy while others it may be prog heavy. For the Power fans, you have Edguy, Kamelot, Tad Morose, Brainstorm, Sava (1/2 and 1/2), Adagio (1/2 and 1/2), etc... And the prog fans have PoS, Dreamscape, Wuthering heights to a certain extent, etc..

And as for Cleveland being the fest to see for the past 2 years? What the hell do you base that on? While I hate to compare festivals, Cthat fest had nothing on PP and still doesn't. No other festival in the world gives the fans a great mixture of strictly prog and power metal. If you want predominantly prog or predominantly power, then find another festival. It will never be an even mixture of 5 power bands and 5 prog bands as I am sure it is extremely difficult to book bands in the first place (schedules, availability, pricing, demands, etc...)

How could he possibly do better for power fans? Don't get me wrong, I would love to see Vision Divine, Labyrinth, Helloween, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Skylark, Arwen, etc.., but you act like Glenn hasn't brought any power metal bands here. For god's sake, he had Edguy, Gamma Ray, Angra, Rage, and many more power metal bands over the course 4 years.

I could very easily attend both festivals, but BW & BK did absolutely nothing for me aside from Elegy (who I would have loved to see). I just don't see how these past 2 festivals are prog heavy. Many bands, imo, developed a great mixture of prog and power elements within their sound. I don't think you can solely classify many of these bands as strictly prog, or strictly power. As long as they have elements of both, I feel they are a perfect fit for this festival.
 
1metal1 said:
Constructively:

It seems to me that you took the Power element of 2 years ago and rolled 2 Prog heavy festivals out of it. The excitement that was stirred over Prog 3 was credited by yourself as being a "once in a lifetime lineup" but I think it's that there was, in fact, less of a Prog element overall. Since then, Power fans have had very little to jump up and down about aside from Nightwish. I remember asking you about sponsoring Running Wild or Pretty Maids some years ago and you said, and I quote: "The fan base for those bands is primarily overseas and they would be very little of a draw in the USA". Well I ask you: Where is Adagio, Wuthering Heights, or Into Eternity's fan base? I don't see one at all.

I think that everyone appreciates the job you do, no doubt in the world. Your festival is one of a kind. However, there is still competition for the dollar and I think you could do better for fans of Power metal. I know you said Sonata wasn't available but how about (and these aren't even my favorites, just examples): Rhapsody, Labyrinth, Running Wild, Metalium, Axel Rudi Pell, Dream Evil, Freak Kitchen, Poisonblack or the like?

Honestly, Cleveland is breathing down ProgPower's neck and aside from overall atmosphere, may actually be the festival to see the last 2 years. I'm just saying....
Dude, seriously, what are you smoking?

Kamelot. Savatage. Brainstorm. Edguy. Tad Morose. There's plenty of "power" in the lineup. Just as there is plenty of "prog." This is possibly the MOST balanced lineup of the 5 lineups thus far.

And as for BW&BK being the superior festival, um, LOFL. Sure thing. Hey, I attended last year, and it was a lot of fun, but come on. This shouldn't be about competition. There's lots of room for both, and more even.
 
For the record, I did very much enjoy watching Gamma Ray perform at PPIII and I even drove 2 hours to see Helloween in Chicago last fall. These bands are legends in metal world, and even though I own very few of their albums, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching them jam (and watching them whip the crowd into a frenzy). Both bands have great powerful, melodic songs which I really enjoy. They have a number of songs I don't care for, but that goes for any band I like regardless of the genre.

There is always something magical about watching passionate, dedicated, and talented musicians perform, whatever the genre (classical, folk, blues, jazz). You can feel their energy and it is inspiring. These are the types of bands Glenn has been constantly pursuing for his yearly roster - not one of which I've been unhappy with. :)
 
I think this kind of a line up is very smart on Glenn's behalf. And it's very difficult to book "any one" of these bands,..just try it. Some bands like Savatage are living legends and don't tour regularly but still play some of the best progpower metal ever, and they the biggest events like "Wacken" "Gods Of Metal" "Dynamo" "Band Your Head" as a headliner. Having Zak Stevens play with them is pure genius and even more rare.

Edguy is the next most likely to succeed band in europe, and has one of the biggest most antisapated tours of 2004.

Kamelot, is becoming a huge draw all over the world, and will be headlining festivals sooner than later. I remember just a few years ago when Iced Earth was in the same situation, then they exploded.

I could go on about each one of these bands, and mention how they are special and very hard to see especially here in the US.

Most of these bands make their debut here in the mighty USA at this event.

I'm proud of Glenn and all of his efforts, ..Good Job and Good metal..

\m/ (.=.) \m/
 
I think this kind of a line up is very smart on Glenn's behalf. And it's very difficult to book "any one" of these bands,..just try it. Some bands like Savatage are living legends and don't tour regularly but still play some of the best progpower metal ever, and they play the biggest events like "Wacken" "Gods Of Metal" "Dynamo" "Band Your Head" as a headliner. Having Zak Stevens play with them is pure genius and even more rare.

Edguy is the next most likely to succeed band in europe, and has one of the biggest most antisapated tours of 2004.

Kamelot, is becoming a huge draw all over the world, and will be headlining festivals sooner than later. I remember just a few years ago when Iced Earth was in the same situation, then they exploded.

I could go on about each one of these bands, and mention how they are special and very hard to see especially here in the US.

Most of these bands make their debut here in the mighty USA at this event.

I'm proud of Glenn and all of his efforts, ..Good Job and Good metal..

\m/ (.=.) \m/
 
there are two reasons why some ppl are disappointed about the line up is first ProgPower is the only festival in US that we get to see good power/progressive bands so that reason by itself make makes us have very high expectetions about the line up, second reason is the line up from ProgPower 3 but again i do believe that we can get a similar line up in a soon future.
 
I have to agree that this is a balanced lineup, especially in terms of the power bands in that both the uptempo (Edguy), bomastic (Wuthering Heights), and heavier (Tad Morose) sides of the genres are represented, likewise the prog bands don't bear too much resemblance to one another, there's neoclassical (Adagio), progressive death (Into Eternity), eclectic (POS), etc.
 
Amen, Demonspell...as usual, you've got the words of wisdom spoken in the "25 words or less" variety.

Said everything I wanted to say...just did it in one sentence.

You da man!

Rock on!
 
It greatly amuses me to see how many of these bands this year have been called "prog" in one person's post on this thread and "power" in someone else's. Honestly (several of these unfortunately based only on the PP sample songs due to unfamiliarity), I think the only band on this roster that can be called strictly prog is Pain of Salvation, and likewise the only one that can be called strictly power is Edguy. and they both are playing for the same amount of time. so quitcha bitchin'.

I have been a gold badge holder for going on 4 festivals now, and at this point, my opinion is fuck the lineup. honestly. I'm going no matter what.

Glenn has never failed to give us a good show and experience, and i think the overall consistency of the bands has been on an upswing every year. I had only heard material by half the lineup this time (Savatage, Kamelot, Edguy, PoS, and Into Eternity) but to my surprise i was not disappointed by a single one of the other acts, making PoS the only band i'm not too gung ho about seeing. That's 1 out of TEN, people, and a ton of people think the band that's my one gripe are absolute gods, so i think it fairly apparent that we've got a good thing going here. Maybe I'm just easy to please, but it feels like people need to just relax and enjoy the experience of this festival, because there's absolutely nothing like it.

That's my rant. and rest assured the waiting list isn't getting my gold badge until they pry it from my cold, dead hands...

Ryan
 
1metal1 said:
Constructively:

Since then, Power fans have had very little to jump up and down about aside from Nightwish.
I don't agree with this. Last year had RAGE!!! It seems like all the power metal fans here are interested in the festival mostly like this new school of power metal, with all this extra symphonic stuff (sonata arctica, stratovarius, rhapsody, etc) or just a fairly weaker, more modern type power metal sound (edguy, angra). i like edguy and all, but my fav power metal is stuff like gamma ray, primal fear, old helloween, mystic prophecy, brainstorm, grave digger...you know, guitar driven stuff. non power metal fans seem to throw everything in the same boat and say any festival with a few "power metal" bands is power heavy. let me ask you, where is the metal or the power in sonta arctica? because i don't really hear it too well! the term "power metal" has taken on a life of its own and seems that it can be used to describe any band with a clean mid to high range singer and is not technical enough to be prog. i don't even know what i'm getting at anymore...but anyway, at last year's fest, i think that rage was definately the most power metal sounding band, and even though i like nightwish a little better, i think they have a much more diverse sound which leaves the power metal genre fairly often. this year i don't think we have and bands like rage, gamma ray, blind guardian, etc. this is OK because there are still some good bands to be found, but i don't think it is some power heavy or power based show.
 
I dunno why everyone is so uppity about the PP3 lineup. I think the PP4 lineup was better. Nightwish, Mercenary, Rage, Everygrey, SymX .. Some of the best live performers I've ever seen. I saw BG and SymX live during their subsequent tour which rocked the hell out of me, but missed Gamma Ray. Other than that, I think the only band I'd have wanted to see from PP3 was Iron Savior. (were they there for PP3?)

*Shrug*... It's all subjective as it is, no use screaming at people how awesome these bands are and how amazing this lineup is. If someone simply does not like it, they won't change their mind based on how hard it was to get them all together. I think the lineup is less progressive heavy than people are saying, but the Power portion just isn't very recognisable to us .. hmm.. less familiar? .. in the world of 'underground' metal.

Though, because of the PP4 lineup, I was introduced to Mercenary, so hopefully I'll pick up another gem out of this unknown to me lineup, ey?
 
having gone to pp3 and pp4 i was totally stoked by another chance to go to1 hotlanta rock out to some great bands.

and here is the but, but, there is no one on this years line up that is worth 95$ to me. matter of fact there are two bands on the lineup that i wouldnt piss on if they were on fire, pain of salvation and that travesty of music, into eternity. so that leaves me with only 8 bands for 95$. 8 bands that are quite good at what they do and very enjoyable to hear, but do not interest me. so there will two tickets available this year that were not last year.

i will miss the scene though. and i will miss my fav part of last years of pp, vendors. the fact that he mentions that there might be more vendors this year only compounds my sadness of not going. i cannot justify paying a 95$ cover to JUST buy cds and chum up with the guys(and girls heather) that i shared time with last year and the year before.

sorry glen, you got a great lineup this year that should please many people, just sad that i am not one of them. i suppose i will just wait for pp6 and enjoy wacken all the more since it will be the best show of the year this year unlike last year.

one quick question though, is rhapsody too expensive to enlist in progpower?
 
Se7enChurches said:
It greatly amuses me to see how many of these bands this year have been called "prog" in one person's post on this thread and "power" in someone else's. Honestly (several of these unfortunately based only on the PP sample songs due to unfamiliarity), I think the only band on this roster that can be called strictly prog is Pain of Salvation, and likewise the only one that can be called strictly power is Edguy.
I think this is pretty true, at least for the bands I have heard.
 
nailz said:
Though, because of the PP4 lineup, I was introduced to Mercenary, so hopefully I'll pick up another gem out of this unknown to me lineup, ey?

ditto brother. that band kicked ass and now i own two of their cds.

DrBell said:
I don't agree with this. Last year had RAGE!!!

yeah but they were SOOOOOOO fucking LOUD!
 
DrBell said:
were you wearing earplugs?

oh yeah i was and they were loud in the lobby. if someone came out the area doors i was blown back by the sound waves. it was like that old maxel comercial with the guy in the chair and his hair and shit blowing back.

loud as they were, they shredded and i was quite impressed. i am not a big rage fan so that is saying a lot.

the only other loud thing i can remember was the music playing durring the intermissions on the first days was way too loud as well.

symp x was great, didnt notice them being loud though.
 
I didn't think any of the bands were too loud, but I was definately wearing earplugs as well. i actually forgot mine, so i had to ask around for some and finally leave to find some at a cvs. screw all the people i asked that made fun of me for wanting earplugs, i enjoy being able to hear, thanks!

and even though I don't remember it being excessively loud, I probably agree about the between band music. I hate it when the between band music is so loud you still have to shout to hope that anyone can hear you. also, usually between band music is TOTAL SHIT. at least it's pretty decent at progpower.
 
markgugs said:
Dude, seriously, what are you smoking?

Kamelot. Savatage. Brainstorm. Edguy. Tad Morose. There's plenty of "power" in the lineup. Just as there is plenty of "prog." This is possibly the MOST balanced lineup of the 5 lineups thus far.

And as for BW&BK being the superior festival, um, LOFL. Sure thing. Hey, I attended last year, and it was a lot of fun, but come on. This shouldn't be about competition. There's lots of room for both, and more even.

I agree with Mark, this is not a competition between the two festivals, they are both great and serve their purpose. Next order of buisness is for one of them to bring over Running Wild, and of course Stratovarius(with a sane Timo Tolkki and the classic lineup).
Cant wait for BWBK fest, GRAVE DIGGER!