Oh man, such a hard post. To be clear, i'm ranking every band that I saw (missed Helker, the acoustic sets, and all of Wednesday) - and EVERY band I enjoyed, with the exception of Soto and Angra - who both still had some enjoyable parts.
1. Falconer (perfect sound, perfect playing and singing, and EVERYONE in the front was singing and jamming out. Perfection.)
2. Riverside (one of my favorite bands, AMAZING playing and some of the best mixing i've ever heard - set was too short tho and not enough of my faves, but that's why i'm going to NYC to see them headline on Friday!)
3. Anathema (was only an average level fan, but holy crap, they blew my mind live. Seriously beautiful and intense music)
4. Dragonland (both sets, although I preferred the first set - mainly because the crowd had way more energy and whatnot, but I can't fault the band for that. Also because The Never Ending Story <3 )
5. Voyager (Do I even need to say? IRON DREAM)
6. Armored Saint (John Bush is the only instance I can think of someone who is totally grunge in near every way, but decided to front a 100% metal band instead. Great set, great stage presence. Joey Vera's bassplaying is also immense)
7. Native Construct (super rad Boston dudes who I can't believe that I, someone from Massachusetts, only saw for the first time in Atlanta. I hung out with Max and their vocalist a bit, but probably creeped them out with my drunkenness. Sorry!)
8. Unleash the Archers (missed parts of their set due to meeting Riverside, but what I heard was immense and Brit is an AMAZING vocalist)
9. Royal Hunt (wasn't a big fan of DCC's stage presence - but his vocals were still spot on; Paradox is a great album; and their keyboardist is a boss. Although, they had a bunch of mics on stage - why did they need to do backtracks for what could've easily been sung by them? I don't get it. haha)
10. Saxon (This is a band who has a lot of songs that I adore, and a lot of songs that I can't stand. They played a solid mixture of both and their singer's rambles are impossible to understand, but that's exactly what I needed to wind down Thursday night!)
11. Almah (great band, but was a bit disappointed with all the tech problems and the greatly shortened set. And was kind of disappointed they wasted their time playing Angra covers when Angra was on the fest. BUT Edu sounds so fucking good and the backing band are rad, so whatever - still had fun!)
12. Angra (Riddle me this - if you're going to do an album in entirety on a world tour or whatever, and that album has keys/piano in every song and it's usually the lead melody... why the hell wouldn't you hire a live keyboardist, just for the tour at least? I don't get it, this bothered me throughout their whole set to the point where it was distracting. I also generally think Holy Land is much better on CD than in a live environment. But Felipe's bassplaying and Fabio's everything are as enjoyable as ever, so whateves)
13. Soto (played some rad covers, and had a few songs - I think Tailsman ones? - that I greatly enjoyed. But the majority of the set was very blah to me, but he's definitely a great vocalist)
I fucking love this fest. 2016 will most likely be my third year in a row. (but next time i'm considering flying for a change) Thank you ProgPower
