Powermad?

Soundscape

Soundscape

Member
Sep 16, 2002
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Maplewood, MN
allmediareviews.blogspot.com
I'm just wondering if anyone here knows anything about this festival beyond what I have read on some online archived reviews.

It took place from 1997-2000 I'm pretty sure. Soundscape played 3 straight years. Pain of Salvation was invited but turned it down I heard for the way it was organized. However, it had a lot of the best independent progressive metal bands at the time. I know it was poorly run and often booked too many bands for the alotted time and schedule.

But mainly what I am wondering is, for those who attended it, what were your fondest memories, might there be any pictures or even live recordings of it. Now, it's entirely possible that stuff exists just that those who have it do not read this forum.

I wish I could go back in time and attend 1, or atleast hear about or even hear something from this festival.

Kyle
 
I went to 00 and 01, which was the last one held; I believe the promoter had health problems that were the primary reason it's not on anymore. It had its issues, but I enjoyed going, and it was LOCAL besides! There's a huge clot of metalheads in the mid-Atlantic region, and it was nice to have something right in the area.
 
I attended from 1998 on...and RZ played in 98 and 2000 if my memory still serves me...those weekends were full of beer and Jager. ;) But I enjoyed this festival as I know plenty other attendee's did. Although the organizational aspects were lacking in a few area's it did improve from year to year from both a fans and bands point of view. Just not enough to keep it running, imo. It did however spawn many friendships, provide networkign opportunities for bands, labels, magazines, fanzines, etc...and of course the ProgPower USA festival was born from those experiences. Lots of bands, actually the bands made up half the audience in some circumstances ;) But overall a fun environment. Many great vendors to give all your cash to. Te venue left a little to be desired but thats sometimes what you have to deal with in order to put on these types of events. It was pretty wild having pictures of 80 year old men staring at you from their lofty positions behind the stage...but it was all for the sake of metal...so it worked.
The first time I saw Evergrey there was cool...it was cool finally seeing Digital Ruin play after being booked every year but able to perform...the boys in Division always put on a great show...SOundscape took so long to set up that i missed their sets mostly...as well as pushed other bands time slots back...Event were great...it was cool seeing Hades play as well. Too many bands to remember...too many beers...but always a good time.
 
It was usually just short of a disaster of cosmic proportions, but at the time, there was NOTHING else like Powermad! A goofy location, cool CD vendors, a pretty cool (if small) crowd, tons of bands (at least 30 or so over three days), and generally a fun time...and don't forget the GODLY BBQ place in the parking lot!!!

So many memories...the first US appearance of Evergrey, who were followed up by Mayadome, and everyone was saying "no way will they be as good". Hahahaha...the most amazing 1-2 punch of bands at a festival I've ever seen! Lethal also played that night...among the other cool bands were Division, Reading Zero, Soundscape, Joe Stump, Twisted Tower Dire, Scott McGill, Marcel Cohen (I think I spelled that right!), October Thorns (God I miss that band!), Mystic Force (Keith, the guy that organized the show, was/is the bass player), Ion Vein, Antithesis, Tiles...tons more I can't think of at the moment. Sure there were sucky bands, and the sound system left a lot to be desired, but the good memories outweigh the bad.

I met so many people that I'm still friends with at these shows (though I'm not sure they're glad they met me!), and got to talk to a lot of cool musicians. I know I wrote reviews of the 98 and 99 show for Pixel Planet (my old website that I'm sure none of you remember), and I know the 99 show had pictures of every band, among other stuff. I'll have to poke around, but if I find it, I'll put it up on my new domain that currently has nothing and post a link here.

Oh, and it may take awhile, but there WILL be a metal-related music fest in Baltimore again. I promise...:)

dt
 
I know Rob, that used to play for the band Soundscape, he lives near where I live, pretty good band! (Is it the same soundscape?) LOL
 
No one mentioned Quiet Room who I thought were incredible! Introspect was/is an incredible album, and it was a pleasure to see them live at PowerMad. As others have said, the festival itself was poorly run, but I give Keith Menser credit for trying nevertheless.
 
AngraRULES said:
I know Rob, that used to play for the band Soundscape, he lives near where I live, pretty good band! (Is it the same soundscape?) LOL
Click to expand...
yep. Rob Volpintesta and Soundscape were based out of CT. If you talk to him sometime soon, please tell him I said hello. I know he recently had a baby and has been busy, but I am still optimistic to hear about either a Soundscape reunion and/or his solo work coming out when he has the time and $.

My biggest curiosity about PM, was how so many bands play at 1 festival. Did some of them play simultaneously?..did some bail when they not given a time slot off the bat?..I heard Keith booked like 15 or 20 bands 1 year. Guess multiple stages is not unheard of, but it might have been sad if 2 of the bands you wanted to see played at the same time. I also wonder if any of the bands ever joined up on stage to play some covers.

The bands I read about being there I would have really liked seeing were Soundscape of course, Without Warning, The Quiet Room, Ice Age, Tiles, and I'm unsure but did Psychotc Waltz ever play?..Eternity X? It seems like the late 90's were the Golden Age of Progmetal. There were so many smaller independent label Progmetal bands who formed and sadly had to split up. A lot of the Magna Carta acts...I wish I had known about PM back then. The 1st I heard of it was in 2000 when i met Bill Berends from Mastermind at NEARFest and I did not have the $ to try and attend 2 festivals in 1 summer.

anyway thanks for the recollections, I still wonder if any bootlegs exist and if anyone does have links to reviews, I'd love to read them.

Kyle
 
The closest that Eternity X ever came to performing was when Keith Sudano got up on stage and lip synched to a EX tune that was being played over the PA between sets.

Glenn H.
 
The Quiet Room ruled! I guess they are done now but man, they had some serious talent....Introspect and Reconeive are both killer albums with 2, totally different singers.....Wonder what happened to them?
 
I was there for the 2001 show, and it was the first metal festival I had attended. My dad and I both went, and I'm pretty sure I was the youngest guy there that year (15 years old ). I wasn't familiar with any of the bands when going in except for Steel Prophet who seemed to be at the height of their populatity at the time. They themselves put on a great show, doing "When 6 Was 9", "Ides Of March", as well as a cover of Sabbath's "Neon Knights" which I remember as being really good.
The true highlight of the festival for me was the band Breaker from Cleveland. Everything about them screemed professionalism, and their style of classic metal stood out amongst the backdrop of other bands with more prog tendencies. Several weeks after the show I picked up their "Get Tough!" cd have been a big fan ever since.
I wa also really impressed by Joe Stump's Reign Of Terror. I'm not much for his solo work, but the band was really tight. I distinctly remember Mike Vescera's (or was it Mark Boals'?) fanatical spinning of the mic stand.
I did have two disappointments in one night though. Manilla Road was scheduled to perform, but had to bail out for some reason or another. Also, Helstar played the final act of the first night, but I was so tired that I skipped them and left! I found out later from purchasing these cds how big these disappointments really were.

In regards to the question about video footage existing, I myself had taped some of Reign of Terror and Steel Prophet, but the footage wasn't that spectacular and so I scrapped it. However, there was some guy with a pretty tricked out looking camera filming the entire festival from the back of the venue. Big guy with glasses. I would like to come across some of that footage myself.
 
Bryan316 said:
I've got both those Quiet Room albums, and I thought I was the only one who knew about them!!!

I'ma do some searching to see why they even broke up, if they did in fact break up.



Bryan, I was fortunate enough to have emailed jason boudreau, the guitaritst from TQR years back when their 3rd album was supposed to come out...It never did though and they had a 3rd singer for their 3rd ablum at that time lined up...After that, his email dropped and never heard again from the band.. I wish they came out with something else per their talent level was awesome.. A band to watch out for years back...Too bad they had soooo many personnel changes..
Click to expand...
 
Harvester said:
The closest that Eternity X ever came to performing was when Keith Sudano got up on stage and lip synched to a EX tune that was being played over the PA between sets.

Glenn H.
Click to expand...

I remember that; I wish I had the opportunity to see them perform The Edge live; one of my all time favorite albums.

To those mentioning The Quiet Room; I enjoyed their set more than any other band at that festival. Absolutely love the album Introspect and it was great seeing them live.
 
DigitalMan said:
Hey Jax, it tells me your domain expired on 4/17 and is up for renewal. I need to go find my pictures too.

Guy
Click to expand...

You do realize that post is something like 7 years old, do you? Does not surprise me those links are probably dead by now.

To bad I never found out about Powermad until after the fact (especially since it was just there in Baltimore). It was about that time when I 'discovered' this whole underground power/prog metal scene (as I was getting soooo tired of the crap that was on the radio).
 
Meteornotes said:
It was usually just short of a disaster of cosmic proportions, but at the time, there was NOTHING else like Powermad! A goofy location, cool CD vendors, a pretty cool (if small) crowd, tons of bands (at least 30 or so over three days), and generally a fun time...and don't forget the GODLY BBQ place in the parking lot!!!

So many memories...the first US appearance of Evergrey, who were followed up by Mayadome, and everyone was saying "no way will they be as good". Hahahaha...the most amazing 1-2 punch of bands at a festival I've ever seen! Lethal also played that night...among the other cool bands were Division, Reading Zero, Soundscape, Joe Stump, Twisted Tower Dire, Scott McGill, Marcel Cohen (I think I spelled that right!), October Thorns (God I miss that band!), Mystic Force (Keith, the guy that organized the show, was/is the bass player), Ion Vein, Antithesis, Tiles...tons more I can't think of at the moment. Sure there were sucky bands, and the sound system left a lot to be desired, but the good memories outweigh the bad.

I met so many people that I'm still friends with at these shows (though I'm not sure they're glad they met me!), and got to talk to a lot of cool musicians. I know I wrote reviews of the 98 and 99 show for Pixel Planet (my old website that I'm sure none of you remember), and I know the 99 show had pictures of every band, among other stuff. I'll have to poke around, but if I find it, I'll put it up on my new domain that currently has nothing and post a link here.

Oh, and it may take awhile, but there WILL be a metal-related music fest in Baltimore again. I promise...:)

dt
Click to expand...

Perhaps you are not aware of this? :)
http://www.marylanddeathfest.com

Also, cool that you're the guy behind Pixel Planet... I remember it from back in the day!
 
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