ProgPower USA XVIII Days 1 & 2: First Band Announced!

From ProgPower USA Facebook:

"ProgPower USA is incredibly excited to welcome BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME to Day 2 of ProgPower USA XVIII, to be held September 6-7, 2017.

Often regarded as one of the most important progressive metal bands to appear in the last 20 years, Between the Buried and Me’s diversity and appeal transcends genre boundaries like few bands that have performed at ProgPower USA.

The promoters of the festival commented, “We are very proud of this booking. BTBAM is an established headliner who will truly put the prog in ProgPower USA. It's not often we get a chance to book a band that has graced the stage at Bonnaroo."

Ticket information for the first two days of the festival will be announced in the coming weeks. Days 3 and 4 are already sold out."

 
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Haken headlines on Wed. Metal Church headlines on Thurs.

Sometimes the actual business side of things throws you a curveball. BTBAM *want* to play the festival regardless of available slot. My respect for them is off the chart.

There is always a method to the madness. You may not agree with it, but you are only looking at a tiny slice of the big picture.
 
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Haken headlines on Wed. Metal Church headlines on Thurs.

Sometimes the actual business side of things throws you a curveball. BTBAM *want* to play the festival regardless of available slot. My respect for them is off the chart.

There is always a method to the madness. You may not agree with it, but you are only looking at a tiny slice of the big picture.
That's awesome! One of the biggest prog bands this side of Dream Theater wants to play and is willing to do it in a non-headlining spot. I can't wait to heap appreciations on them for coming to crush Center Stage for us.
 
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Yeah that is awesome. BTBAM are really cool, down to earth dudes so I'm not surprised at all.
 
Haken headlines on Wed. Metal Church headlines on Thurs.

Sometimes the actual business side of things throws you a curveball. BTBAM *want* to play the festival regardless of available slot. My respect for them is off the chart.

There is always a method to the madness. You may not agree with it, but you are only looking at a tiny slice of the big picture.

I've always wondered what bands like BTBAM think of the festival, so that's pretty bad ass.

If the facebook comments are any indication, this looks to be really mutually beneficial. No doubt they'll sell tickets and it already seems like a lot of prog fans that wrote them off are giving them another chance.
 
BTBAM are, to me, a surprise. One one hand its good to see Glenn Nathan and Milton expanding the type of bands that play ProgPower and in turn keeping this festival alive by bringing in a younger audience. On the other hand, the festival lineup, which used to be one straight shot of great bands after the next have become peppered with newer bands that don't excite me as much. If you stop and take a look at the bands that have been here and the amount of repeats, you can understand the need to broaden the base of bands.

I've always said that, on a personal level, when the level of excitement that ProgPower generates is lower than the concern that I'm spending far too much money to do this every year, I'll stop, give up my Gold badge and move along. It's been a great 12 year run for me and there is still a high level of excitement with next years lineup, but I'm starting to see the end coming up in the rear view mirror. Hopefully it's still a long way off because I love this damn festival! The atmosphere that surrounds Atlanta in September every year is an amazing experience in itself, and call me selfish, but I don't want to give it up so somebody else discovers what we all know...
 
In terms of where you say BTBAM is a surprise, I can't say I really get where you are coming from. BTBAM are one of the biggest bands in prog metal, so them playing on a prog metal festival is just common sense. If anything the thing that's a surprise is that its taken this long for them to appear. And they aren't really a 'newer' band anymore, their debut album was released in 2002. You can ask a wide variety of prog metal bands, from Haken to Ne Obliviscaris and they will all tell how much of an influence BTBAM has been.
 
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BTBAM is not your typical progressive metal band. They come from a new generation which started with that progressive screamo crap. They have advanced well beyond their earlier style, but when you compare them with the other type of bands that have appeared on the ProgPower stage, they in fact, are a surprise.
Regardless, they will bring a different group of fans
 
BTBAM is not your typical progressive metal band. They come from a new generation which started with that progressive screamo crap. They have advanced well beyond their earlier style, but when you compare them with the other type of bands that have appeared on the ProgPower stage, they in fact, are a surprise.
Regardless, they will bring a different group of fans

The whole point of progressive metal is to not be typical, that's why its called prog in the first place. And its so much so that there is no such thing as typical prog metal. So I still don't see how it can be viewed as a surprise. You had native construct on the line-up a couple years ago, heavily influenced by BTBAM. Then you've had other prog on the extreme side of the spectrum like Ihsahn and Orphaned Land. There's been non metal prog rock bands like Spock's Beard and Anathema. And how about all those countless oddball bands that fall neither in the prog or power camps, like Primordial, Scar Symmetry and as we will see next year with Pain.

Also they aren't screamo. Screamo is a specific genre, one which BTBAM has zero to do with. The whole labelling as an insult of anything that has harsh vocals as screamo is what I usually expect from non metal people who don't know any better, but that's pretty mind blowing to hear it from an actual metalhead.
 
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