The Best of the Best?

[1metal1]

You know what has shocked me this year more than anything? The number of people who don't have cds or haven't heard much from these bands. Not Stride or Manticora necessarily, but I've seen MANY people talking about not knowing much Stratovarius or Therion or Pink Cream 69. My question is this: Isn't this crowd supposed to be the "best of the best" in terms of knowledge about metal? It's never been said and maybe I just took that for granted considering the higher ticket price and all, but my jaw drops every time someone says "I don't know PC69" or "I only have 1 Strat. cd".

Now before I get flamed here, let me acknowledge: I know we don't all have the $$ to buy everything. I know we don't "just buy stuff to have it". But that being said, we're talking about 3 stalworts of metal here! How can a ProgPower fan of all people only have (or have heard) 1 Stratovarius cd out of 20???? Or how can someone NOT know PC69 who's been around since 1989 and their old singer now sings for one of the gods of metal, Helloween? Wouldn't you, at the point of hearing Andi Deris's name for the first time, naturally go back and hear where he came from prior to Helloween?

I guess I"m just shocked and my expectations for this crowd was that we all had (or had knowledge of) everything that Glenn could announce. It's not like we're talking about regional bar bands here guys....

 

[Bear]

Therion is a stalwort of metal? Ok thats news to me. Not really sure where your line of thinking is going with this but PPUSA is a diverse event, so your not always going to see people that are into every single band. Also I am sure that each band has many fans that just don't find their way onto this MB. Out of the 3 I am most happy to finally be seeing PC69.

Bear

 

[Nightmare1z]

I don't think we've ever been labeled the 'best of the best' in terms of knowledge of metal.

 

[Daybreaker]

One thing I've noticed about this lineup thats a bit odd is that two of the bands dont have cds out before the announcement and one of em wont have the cd out til that weekend. But hey, that means they have to fight that much harder to win me over and if they do then more power to them.

Ben

 

[Bryant]

You know what has shocked me this year more than anything? The number of people who don't have cds or haven't heard much from these bands. Not Stride or Manticora necessarily, but I've seen MANY people talking about not knowing much Stratovarius or Therion or Pink Cream 69. My question is this: Isn't this crowd supposed to be the "best of the best" in terms of knowledge about metal?

I will tell you my excuse or reason actually..... I have a slow ear. I am about as diversified as anyone and love all forms of metal and have for the past twenty years, but my IQ is about 80 when it comes to bands "sinking in." I am an elitist to a certain degree in that I am a fan of a few bands that actually are indies and am "common" enough that I bought the last Metal Church release.
My problem is that I burn out on music slower than most. When I find something I "really dig" I can play it (not exclusively but very often) for a month, but I know every inflection of the vocalist's delivery, every drumroll, every guitar fill, every bass fill, every keyboard riff and every backing vocal harmony as well as every guitar solo.
I am not saying I can facsimilate a;; or any of those to an instrument, but I know it in my mind. If there is a band and a release I really get into, then I want to know every nuance of the release. I am still a decent consumer of metal products considering that factor, but it does limit the number of bands I am able to really check out, which includes some of the bigger bands.


Bryant

 

[Bryant]

I don't think we've ever been labeled the 'best of the best' in terms of knowledge of metal.

Hell no !! You are from Georgia !! Ha ha ha freaking redneck. You should live in a real metal state like where I am from....... ALABAMA !!! Ha ha ha. Talk about refined. My next-door neighbors have 75% of their teeth and only three old pick-up trucks on blocks between them. Just kidding of course.


Bryant

 

[King Lek]

Well...as much as I would like to listen to music 10 hours a day...I do not. Not possible for me...hell...if I am lucky I am able to average between 1-2 CD's a day for a year (does not help that i have no cd player in the work truck...can you say NPR...lol.

Let's do some math...........

10 hours a day.....60 minutes per CD = 10 per day x 365 = 3650 CD's
Take into account you listen to a cd about 15 times on average.
= 243 different cd's per year.
Take that by 75% (the percentage of my metal listening lately and say that ios average for most) - And that leaves 182 cd's per year.
Cut that in half.....which would be closer if still not higher than the average listener per day (5 hrs)....and that is 91 CD's per year.
Take into account that would total about $1,183.00 per year @ $13.00 per CD......
Now I know I do not have that as a music buying budget...probably half.
Let's say $550.00....at $13.00 per CD = let's round up to 43.
That is 43 hours of music..... x 15 plays each = 645 hours \ 52 weeks = 12 hours a week.

Not sure I could possibly hear it all let alone the time factored in to know it all.


That....is why you are all here........TO HELP!!!!!!!...................lol.

 

[DeathDevil]

I think most of the people who attend ProgPower, prefer & listen to traditional Heavy Metal to which Therion & Pink Cream 69 does not fall into that category.
I think everybody should at least "heard of" Strat

 

[Kenneth R.]

I guess I"m just shocked and my expectations for this crowd was that we all had (or had knowledge of) everything that Glenn could announce. It's not like we're talking about regional bar bands here guys....

i really wouldn't say these are universally known bands. i've known of them (except stride, orphaned land) before.

what i've been saying elsewhere in this forum is those 2 bands and others i had not previously heard have impressed me, while the ones i was already aware of (like stratovarius) aren't that interesting.

 

[angra150]

im with you 1metal1, I am from El Salvador, and i am a fan from stratovarius since 7 years and although I dont know what pink cream 69, (its kind of old metal to me) I hell know what therion is. The thing is the US is not a metal country, common look at the reality.... in the radio it is a miracle if you hear "fear of the dark" one of the most commercial song in metal... in el salvador you hear it like every day!

That is why it is really hard to get into metal in the US, because you have to listen to the song over and over to like it (specially in progmetal).

For the prog bands, it is normal people dont know about it... their metal is progressive, so not common... bands like orphaned land, stride in my case, and circus maximus its ok if you dont know them, but stratovarius is just really sad...

 

[mtlheart]

I think most of the people who attend ProgPower, prefer & listen to traditional Heavy Metal to which Therion & Pink Cream 69 does not fall into that category.
I think everybody should at least "heard of" Strat

I think Devil has the gist of it. I think many (don't read that as all) people who attend ProgPower are more into Thrash and Death. That's because Prog and Power are absent from the U.S. airways, which means you have to go looking for music in these genres.

Not everyone has the time or money to search out and buy CD's from mostly unheard of bands on the off chance you may find a good one. Power Metal in particular is a vastly over crowded genre, with A LOT of mediocre bands. Double basing and high-pitched singing doesn’t automatically mean it’s good by any means.

Neither does name recognition, as 1metal1 suggested, necessarily mean a good new Power Metal band. Helloween for example has spawned 2 great new projects, Gamma Ray and Master Plan. But Kiske’s project, Supared, is a far cry from metal, be it Power or otherwise.

Even though all the bands at ProgPower don’t strictly fall into the Progressive or Power genres, Glenn seems to have a knack for weeding out the fodder and finding some great talent. His headliners (top 4) in particular are always spectacular examples of Prog and Power IMHO. If nothing else they at lease introduce people to some of the top bands in their genre.

 

[Kenneth R.]

im with you 1metal1, I am from El Salvador, and i am a fan from stratovarius since 7 years and although I dont know what pink cream 69, (its kind of old metal to me) I hell know what therion is. The thing is the US is not a metal country, common look at the reality.... in the radio it is a miracle if you hear "fear of the dark" one of the most commercial song in metal... in el salvador you hear it like every day!

That is why it is really hard to get into metal in the US, because you have to listen to the song over and over to like it (specially in progmetal).

For the prog bands, it is normal people dont know about it... their metal is progressive, so not common... bands like orphaned land, stride in my case, and circus maximus its ok if you dont know them, but stratovarius is just really sad...

i disagree.

i'm american, and i have heard of 6 of the 8 bands so far announced. whether i like them or not is a seperate issue. i happen to like 7 of 8 after hearing what each had available. the one i dislike is stratovarius. its not that i don't know them. its that i don't like them. thats why i don't own their cds.

 

[Ruthven]

I don't own any Stratovarius CDs either. I am hoping that they put on a good performance this September, but I am more of a Orphaned Land kind of guy.

 

[longshot9]

I think it's fairly simple actually. Stratovarius is a power metal band, and I'm sure most here know of them and have an album, but fans of the band will have more and people that aren't won't, or people that are more into prog stuff won't have them or know much about them. PC69 is the most obvious to me, I found out about them the exact way you mention, when Deris joined Helloween my friend was talking to someone at Impulse and mentioned he loved the new Helloween (at the time it was Master of the Rings), and they immediately said "have you heard PC69, Deris' old band?", i've been a fan ever since. I like them more with Readman though. But what IMO really hurts them is the stupid name. Most prog, and hell most power metal fans, are going to immediately associate that name with an 80's hair metal band or a glam band and thus wouldn't give them the time of day. Only those that did as you said and looked into Deris' past, or were a fan of the 80's hair/glam stuff would check them out. As for Therion, me personally, I never got into them cause of the impression I got from a few songs off an older song, i'm not into that whole Gothic/Doom/Symphonic/Operatic-Female type stuff. I do like Nightwish a lot, but to me, musically speaking, NW writes a totally different style of music that's much more upbeat and catchy, that's what I like.

 

[wayland smithers]

I think most who post on this forum and attend ProgPower own at least a disc or two from the bigger bands of this genre. Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Stratovarius, Edguy, Running Wild, Angra, Gamma Ray, and of course Helloween, they invented Power Metal. Some maybe unfamiliar with the more Prog related bands, not a Symphony X say, but some of the other bands who have played the festival.
Anyone curious as to what album they should pick up from one of these bands, among every other type of band in Metal, check out http://www.thatssometal.com/essential/. It is like a reference page as to great albums from great bands.
I'm curious to see peoples choices that belong on that page. Maybe a choice for Pink Cream 69, Therion?

 

[MetalRose]

I'm similar to Bryant in this one. I'm more of a diverse metalhead... Everything from Industrial to Goth to Black to Death to Prog metal is in my book. Last year I had heard TWO bands, (deeply HATED one of those two) and knew of 3 others. This year I know of a couple of the bands.

Call me a moron, but I'd rather be diverse than a snob who can't see the shit on the end of his/her nose. Besides a lot of times it's much more fun to discover new bands. To put in in perpective I own about 500 cd's: Of those 500 I have: Andromeda, Brainstorm, Dragon Force(2), Dream Theater(3), Gracepoint, Savatage(5) and Tad Morose(3). That's it. That's all the Prog/Power I have. That's about 3% of my music collection. According to my calculations, if I know more than 2 bands on the bill, I'm doing allright.

I think mtlheart hit the nail on the head as well.

It's not that the US metal isn't big. It is, but it is underground. I admit it's not as metal as other countries... but with acts like Biteme Spears and Rubien Stupid shoved in our faces, it's hard to see other musical acts past that.

-Metal

 

[1metal1]

I guess, too, it may be the way we discover stuff. Therion seems to have been on every Nuclear Blast compilation since they started so having heard those, and heard them with each mix cd they released, I was exposed to Therion. To me, they ARE a stalwort of metal if only in the fact that they have some degree of longevity. They aren't a "just formed yesterday" band. On top of that, I am very diverse in that I'll listen to everything from Poison to Pink Cream 69 to Poisonblack to Mystic Circle. I'll try anything in the hard music genre once and overdo the stuff I like (which is most of it, genre-wise).

I guess I just hold you all in such high esteem! I expect nothing less from you all than to thoroughly know everything!

 

[junnie from the east]

i'm off to work so i don't really have time to think over this so excuse me if i don't make sense. but i wanted to say this;
we are lucky to have more info/merch route living here, of course nothing better than living in europe, but still i consider it as lucky, being able to see so many great bands and collect CDs.
But we don't have festivals like this here, and that's why i fly all the way, over 14 hours!
you still have several months to catch up with the band songs. you can buy CDs if you want to sing along with them. so, nothing wrong with not having their all CDs at the moment, and if someone got interested in their "unknown" band and buy their CD it's a good thing i believe?

so what is the best of the best.. you have such an oppotunity as ProgPowerUSA to meet the new thing, music or people and find it great. and for the genre of this kind music, it would be always good to "cultivate the new field"... sorry this term came up to my mind when i read Bryant's witty remarks, hehe...

ok have to run now! ciao!

 

[aztattooedsean]

I only over 1000 cds. I am more of a more brutal metal fan but for some reason, I really like prog metal. I am more of a heavier power metal fan(brainstorm for example.) I will admit to not having alot of power metal like stratovarius in my collection.

I think it is good that Glenn continues to be able to find bands that so many people haven't heard yet. It continues to proove to me that there are still tons of good bands I have yet to find despite having so many cds in my collection. :Spin:

 

[Yngvai X]

It's not that the US metal isn't big. It is, but it is underground. I admit it's not as metal as other countries... but with acts like Biteme Spears and Rubien Stupid shoved in our faces, it's hard to see other musical acts past that.

Compared to Europe, the scene in the US is almost non-existent. Its really pitiful actually. Its not that its really underground in Europe either. I mean it is, but not in the way we'd think of it here. Hell, they advertised Jon Oliva's Pain and Iron Savior in music store windows. Almost every metalhead I met not only knew who Rage was, but had seen them multiple times "at festivals." And Nightwish is as big there as Evenescence is here.

So we have an extremely long way to go yet before we're even close to how it is in Europe.