Well as I have said for years now some people have no idea what "progressive" means. What you are doing here Glenn with such a diverse line-up fits the name of this festival more than ever. Not saying it is the best or worse line-up, but it is certainly a step away from what I personally saw as becoming formula which is NOT "progressive" (to those of you who are unaware of the word's meaning is).
This line up is finally what I hoped this festival would become and that is diversity. Believe it or not some of us are quite open to a wide range of metal and not just narrowed down to the cookie cutter (so called) progressive bands and Disney metal. So Sir I do applaud you for this move and your choices in this case.
I do see While Heaven Wept as an odd choice to test the doom waters, think you might have looked towards a stronger hitter (SOLITUDE AETURNUS
), still I understand a lot more reasoning went behind this choice and believe it will be just fine.
Last year and this coming year will give me a chance to see two of my all time favorite metal bands, Crimson Glory and Sanctuary. I never thought I would ever see either so never even imaged it. And all though I had mixed feelings about the Crimson Glory performance and Midnight (R.I.P.) was not fronting the band it was still Crimson Glory playing those songs and they were amazing. That helped a little when trying to look over the fact that some of the singers seemed to have no idea what they were singing and were only there to be looked at, but that is another issue. Sanctuary however; well I can say that I have never been floored after hearing that I might have the chance to see a band like I was when I heard that Sanctuary was headlining. I still am choking up when I think about the fact that I will see this band.
As for the "regulars" well I can say this about what I noticed from being a vendor this year; there is a percentage of people who make up that festival though perhaps small, who are not being recognized. There are a lot of folks there who just like pure heavy metal. And as I watched bands like Sanctuary being pulled from my boxes hand over fist it kind of gave the impression that some the ProgPower audience might want some heavy metal without all of the prefixes.
If ProgPower is to be "progressive" itself it needs to change and not have formula. If Progpower is to stay the premier heavy metal festival in America then it should diverse.
Glenn I raise my glass to you. And for the naysayers well
ok Ill leave that alone or you will have to remove this like you removed them before when I have addressed just those folks.