All my friends can tell you how excited I was to see Dream Evil this year. I've always been a fan of 70s & 80s classic hard rock and heavy metal. So much so that when the 90s came and that style of music disappeared from the airwaves it felt like I lost my best friend.
Around 2001 or so a local classic rock station had a free meet & greet with Sammy Hagar. While waiting in line I see a guy wearing a Manowar t-shirt. I couldn't believe there was someone else in the area that heard of them, let alone liked them enough to wear a t-shirt so I had to go up and say "Hi, like your shirt." Turned out he owned a CD shop and said he carried a lot of metal. When I got to his store I was impressed! Not only did he know his stuff but he had stuff on CD I'd been looking for for years and was beginning to think didn't exist. Plus he was playing killer NEW music from bands I'd never heard before. Stratovarius, Primal Fear, HammerFall, Lost Horizon. I bought a bunch of CDs and he gave me a free sampler called Now That's What I Call Metal. It had Iced Earth, Savatage, Primal Fear, HammerFall, Jag Panzer, Steel Prophet and a bunch of cool bands. One track in particular really blew me away, "Losing You" by Dream Evil. It was a big 80's style power ballad like I hadn't heard in years. I had to have that album Dragonslayer. It quickly became my favorite CD and rarely ever left my CD player. My best friend was back and we had some catching up to do!
Fast Forward a few years and I'm working for a local rock magazine that lets me cover the music I love. Gus G., the incredibly talented guitarist from the first few Dream Evil albums was actually going to be in the US, playing Ozzfest with Arch Enemy. I got to interview him after the show and asked him why he left Dream Evil. Gus said he loved being in that band but he was much younger than the other guys. He said they all had families and real jobs that (rightfully) came first before the band. Dream Evil was more like a hobby to them. They were happy to do a few live shows (mainly festivals) a year, but Gus was young and wanted to get out and tour the world. Between hearing that, and reading rumors on the forum that Glenn was not a fan I was positive this was one favorite band I'd never get to see live.
(Still reading? Good cuz here comes the payoff!) So there I am at ProgPower last year watching the announcement for this year's roster. I'm a bit let down so far as other than Mob Rules, I don't have any idea who most of these bands are. Then the impossible dream comes true and Dream Evil is announced! Suddenly I don't care who else is playing, I'm gonna see Dream Evil! The rest is just gravy. Then I get the news today that they have to cancel. Worse yet it's their own damn fault for not making the effort to get their visas done on their end until the last minute! And worse still, by burning this bridge with Glenn it guarantees I'll never get to see them live. That dream has officially died. So from here on out I say that much like we refer to Nevermore as "Neveragain" we should just start refering to Dream Evil as Dream Killers. That's what they are.
And by the way, I still fully intend to go and enjoy the fest anyway with my ProgPower family.
Around 2001 or so a local classic rock station had a free meet & greet with Sammy Hagar. While waiting in line I see a guy wearing a Manowar t-shirt. I couldn't believe there was someone else in the area that heard of them, let alone liked them enough to wear a t-shirt so I had to go up and say "Hi, like your shirt." Turned out he owned a CD shop and said he carried a lot of metal. When I got to his store I was impressed! Not only did he know his stuff but he had stuff on CD I'd been looking for for years and was beginning to think didn't exist. Plus he was playing killer NEW music from bands I'd never heard before. Stratovarius, Primal Fear, HammerFall, Lost Horizon. I bought a bunch of CDs and he gave me a free sampler called Now That's What I Call Metal. It had Iced Earth, Savatage, Primal Fear, HammerFall, Jag Panzer, Steel Prophet and a bunch of cool bands. One track in particular really blew me away, "Losing You" by Dream Evil. It was a big 80's style power ballad like I hadn't heard in years. I had to have that album Dragonslayer. It quickly became my favorite CD and rarely ever left my CD player. My best friend was back and we had some catching up to do!
Fast Forward a few years and I'm working for a local rock magazine that lets me cover the music I love. Gus G., the incredibly talented guitarist from the first few Dream Evil albums was actually going to be in the US, playing Ozzfest with Arch Enemy. I got to interview him after the show and asked him why he left Dream Evil. Gus said he loved being in that band but he was much younger than the other guys. He said they all had families and real jobs that (rightfully) came first before the band. Dream Evil was more like a hobby to them. They were happy to do a few live shows (mainly festivals) a year, but Gus was young and wanted to get out and tour the world. Between hearing that, and reading rumors on the forum that Glenn was not a fan I was positive this was one favorite band I'd never get to see live.
(Still reading? Good cuz here comes the payoff!) So there I am at ProgPower last year watching the announcement for this year's roster. I'm a bit let down so far as other than Mob Rules, I don't have any idea who most of these bands are. Then the impossible dream comes true and Dream Evil is announced! Suddenly I don't care who else is playing, I'm gonna see Dream Evil! The rest is just gravy. Then I get the news today that they have to cancel. Worse yet it's their own damn fault for not making the effort to get their visas done on their end until the last minute! And worse still, by burning this bridge with Glenn it guarantees I'll never get to see them live. That dream has officially died. So from here on out I say that much like we refer to Nevermore as "Neveragain" we should just start refering to Dream Evil as Dream Killers. That's what they are.
And by the way, I still fully intend to go and enjoy the fest anyway with my ProgPower family.
