WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:05.140 Metalhead Podcast, Metalhead Podcast, go! 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:27.860 You must listen. 00:00:28.900 --> 00:00:30.060 You must listen. 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:32.460 You must listen. 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:40.400 Now, here is the podcast, Metalheads Podcast Go. 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:45.800 It is Tuesday. It is one day post Labor Day. It can only mean one thing. 00:00:46.540 --> 00:00:48.060 It is time for Prog Power USA. 00:00:48.940 --> 00:00:50.540 This is John. Who am I with? 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:52.540 This is TR, the Metalheads Butler. 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:54.820 This is our third attempt at doing this. 00:00:54.940 --> 00:01:24.900 We're having problems with the Cougar Bush. We got it right this time. Hold on, let me check. Yeah, it's recording. Cool. All right. So what we thought we'd do while we start our coverage for Prog Power USA is we would talk about a few things beforehand, pre-fest, before we start our coverage tomorrow. So let's talk about some of the bands we want to see this year at Prog Power. Before we do that, I want to find out what TR's drinking. Well, right now, I'm drinking an Imperial Stout called Him of 00:01:24.940 --> 00:01:52.240 of the Serpent and it's quite tasty. Excellent. Have you had other beers that you like here? As a matter of fact, I have. This flight that I'm working my way through is started with the Sideways English Mild Ale and the Cocobolo Brown Ale, which is quite tasty. And in fact, I kind of like the Cocobolo better than the Hymn so far. Excellent. 00:01:54.940 --> 00:02:24.900 So far I have only had the Scythe Rye IPA which I thought was pretty good. I'm drinking something now called Thresher Coffee Saison. I don't drink many Saisons. They're a little too earthy for me but this is a decent. So anyway so this first thing we'd like to do is like I mentioned we want to talk about some bands we really want to see at this year's Prague Power. Tiara tell me who you want to see this year. Well I'm looking forward to Psychotic Waltz because I kind of had no idea about them previously and I 00:02:24.940 --> 00:02:54.900 just discovered that the guy from Psychotic Waltz is the same guy as the one from Dead Soul Tribe. So I'm pretty excited about that. Yeah, he's Devin Graves in Dead Soul Tribe, but he's Buddy Lackey in Psychotic Waltz. Right. Maybe the name change there threw me off. I don't know. But I was very psyched because I knew about Dead Soul Tribe. I did not know about Psychotic Waltz. And so I'm looking forward to checking them out and hearing them. In addition, While Heaven Wept, I feel like I'm kind of coming late to that party, but at least 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:23.300 I'll get to see them live. Evergrey, Seventh Wonder, and Sorcerer. And in addition, Threshold, I've liked that band for a long time. I have some of their stuff, so I'm looking forward to hearing them live. And then Tomorrow's Eve and Barren Earth, both I'm interested in them. And then Demons and Wizards, of course, just because of the Blind Guardian connection there, I'm kind of interested to hear what they sound like. 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:53.760 and then Collegia's Horse, I'm kind of interested to hear what they do. Cool. So that's like half of the band to the fest. Pretty much. Actually, in the past when I've gone to Prog Power, there's always been one big hook for me. One year it was Fate's Warning and one year it was Symphony X. So for me, this year, there's really no big hook. There was no particular band where I was like, oh man, this is why I'm here. But I'm pleasantly surprised 00:03:54.200 --> 00:04:00.880 at the number of bands that I feel like I will probably enjoy. So I'm good with that. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:02.000 That's good to hear. 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:23.740 Yeah, okay, so here's my list of five bands. I mean, I'll watch, I'll try to watch everyone. I may not stick around with too much of the Power Metal. Sorry, it's just not my thing. But I'll watch a few. I definitely will watch Demons and Wizards just because of the Blind Guardian and Eyster connection on the two bands. But my top five starting out would be Sorcerer. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:53.720 them. They're a little bit of an outlier at this fest. They're a doom band that's kind of doomy progressive. They have two official releases. They had a whole bunch of EPs 20-some years ago, but I really like their last, and their only two albums. I think they're both excellent. Big fan of those guys. I would love to see Tomorrow's Eve. Been following them since their first release in 2000. They're a prog metal band from Germany. They're not breaking any new grounds, but I just think they're excellent. 00:04:53.840 --> 00:05:22.300 and what they do. Love to see Barren Earth. I've been a big fan since the first one came out. Love the connection that used to have with Swallow the Sun and Amorphous. Since then it's now a connection with Amorphous and I think the band's name is Ham Firth. I always get it wrong but they're a band from the Faroe Islands which if anyone knows where that is. North of Finland I believe. North of Norway. It's in the ocean somewhere. 00:05:23.780 --> 00:05:24.780 in the geography lesson. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.900 Well, I'm in the right area. I just...whatever. 00:05:29.280 --> 00:05:34.660 And then definitely big to see Psychotic Waltz. They're one of the early progressive metal bands from the early 90s. 00:05:35.070 --> 00:05:45.780 One of the first that didn't rely heavily on keyboards. I'm glad we're getting a chance to see them. Kind of nice. And then definitely interested in seeing Threshold. 00:05:46.640 --> 00:05:50.480 I've seen them twice already at Prog Power. Both times they had different singers in the band. 00:05:51.240 --> 00:06:20.740 Bands had three total singers. So I'd seen two of them and out of nowhere they announced a couple years ago that they brought back the second in the sequential order of singers, Glenn Morgan, and he actually is my favorite of the three. He only did one album with them but he's back in the band so I'm gonna get a chance to see them with all three singers and three separate prog powers. So that's kind of exciting. I should say also that I'm really looking forward to seeing Wild Heaven Wept, they're a local band from Northern Virginia 00:06:20.820 --> 00:06:50.099 their last-minute addition to the F.S. because at the last minute two bands had to cancel out because of visa issues and I for the life oh it was ancient bards and secret sphere universe I couldn't remember the second one we were talking about it a few minutes ago I unfortunately had to back out because of visa issues so Glenn I actually I believe it was the other two promoters of the F.S. were able to bring in theocracy and while having wept at the last second 00:06:51.159 --> 00:07:20.080 I'm really happy that they could do that, but I'm also happy that while heaven wept is one of the bands. I'm a fan of theirs. Have been for a while. Saw them the one time they played at Prog Power. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what they could do. They literally are putting this together on the spur of the moment. They, for all intents and purposes, had called it quits back in, I guess, last summer, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe not. That's what I thought. And here they are. They're playing again eight or nine months. Maybe it was 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:49.840 The Fall, last year they called it quits. If you're not familiar with Wild Heaven Weft, they started as a straight Doom band and kind of morphed it into kind of Doomy Prague. So I'm looking forward to that. Of course, I watch all the other bands, but those are the ones I'm the most interested in. When it comes to Prague power, I'm Prague all the way. I like a few power bands. If Blind Guardian was playing, I'd be all down with that. I'm about them. I think you, me and George saw them a few years ago and they were outstanding. They played Imaginations from the other side. It was great. 00:07:50.759 --> 00:08:20.060 That's the kind of power metal I like. If Ice Earth had played, I'd want to watch them. I like that kind of stuff, too. So for now, that's it. We're going to drink some more beers. Maybe we'll come back with another pre-show segment. Maybe we'll end up at another brewery. But for now, I think that's what we'll do. Anything else, TR? Nope. I'm going to get into this next beer. Until then. It is Wednesday and day one of Prague Power USA. This is John. This is TR, the metal that's about. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:49.720 We're gonna try this again. We keep having technical difficulties. So day one starts. We have four bands playing today. Two of which are replacement bands for the bands Ancient Bards and Secret Sphere which had to cancel at the last second because of the visa issue. Problem that seems to creep out all the time at all these fests all around the country. So two new bands today starting at four. While Heaven Wept from Northern Virginia and following them from 530 to 630. 00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:54.340 Then from 7 to 8.30 Sanctuary. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:57.120 And then from 9.15 to close Insomnium. 00:08:57.900 --> 00:09:03.840 So Insomnium, I guess, moved to that slot when another band had to cancel. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.380 And for the life of me, I cannot think of who it is now. 00:09:08.420 --> 00:09:12.860 But Day 1 has had a lot of problems in terms of the scheduling. 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:14.900 So that's what we have so far. 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:17.820 I personally am looking forward to Insomnium. 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:47.460 I want to see if they play anything from Winter's Gate, their last album. I'm a big fan of that album. And I'm definitely looking forward to While Heaven Wept. Sanctuary will be kind of interesting because, you know, War Old Dane will not be with them since he passed away, but I wouldn't mind seeing what they're doing. And I've seen Theocracy before. I'm not a big fan, but I'll watch them a little bit. So we'll see how that goes. T.R., what are you looking for today? Definitely While Heaven Wept. So I'm looking forward to that. And pretty much I look forward to checking out all the bands just because, 00:09:47.860 --> 00:10:17.840 I'm really not familiar with any of them to any real serious degree so I'm just looking forward to hearing what they're about. Yeah we we listened to a little of Winter's Gate from Insomnium on the way down today on the drive and I think you were liking some of that weren't you? Oh yeah yeah no definitely I'm I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy all of this stuff I'm again not super familiar with everything but I've heard a little bit of each band and so yeah it should be good. Cool so today is just day one and it's 00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:47.840 of the day one day two package which are four bands each day. It's starting a little earlier it seems this year I guess ending also a little earlier and then the full fest not the full fest but the expanded lineup starts on Friday you know where we go all day basically when the doors open at one o'clock and it goes all the way past you know to midnight or whatever it's a full day so that's what we got coming up. We were hoping to do some more recording yesterday on some of we have these little 00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:49.980 We wanted to talk about that were related to the 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.180 Prog Power Fest over the years. 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.060 We did one yesterday, which were what bands 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:57.780 we were interested in seeing overall 00:10:57.840 --> 00:10:58.620 for the whole festival. 00:11:00.280 --> 00:11:02.020 So I think we'll do another one right now, 00:11:02.300 --> 00:11:04.740 just real quick, which are our top bands 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:07.380 from the previous Prog Powers that we've attended. 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:11.100 Just a fun little thing to see what we liked 00:11:12.180 --> 00:11:13.160 from previous fests. 00:11:13.180 --> 00:11:15.500 Now I've been to all of them except one, 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:43.960 So my list will be a little longer than TRs. But how many have you been to TR? I've been to three at this point. So I can't imagine. It was somewhat difficult for me to come up with a whole bunch. So I can't imagine what you went through to come up with your list because you've been to all of them almost. So that's a ridiculous number of bands to sort through. But that had to be a challenge. Truth be told, I can't remember most of the shows. So. All right. 00:11:45.720 --> 00:12:15.260 you enjoyed in the past that stand out to you the most. All right. Well, obviously for me, Fate's Warning with John Arch was a couple of years ago, I guess, was a high point. That was outstanding, amazing show where they did Night on Brock in its entirety. You want to repeat that again? What did they actually play in its entirety? Night on Brock. All right. We'll stop you there. That's your first epic fail of the fact. All right. 00:12:15.780 --> 00:12:45.360 It was Awaken the Guardian and it's full. That's right. Come on. All right. Continue. All right. Yeah. So I'll stick to serving beers. All right. So then another show that I enjoyed was, of course, Symphony X. They're kind of stalwarts of the Prague Power USA Festival. So I've been lucky enough to see them, which they're always great. I saw with you, I've been really all of these. I've been with you at each of these shows. 00:12:45.720 --> 00:13:15.700 Leprous was amazing when they played, I guess it was four years ago maybe now. And that was a tremendous show where they were chanting holy shit at the end of the show because everybody was just blown away. Yeah, but I agree with you. It was a great show. And wouldn't you say that that was a different Leprous than what we have now? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. We're both being sacrilegious by saying that we're not as fond of them as we were early on. Yeah, that's... 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:45.140 That's a little disappointing, but I'll move on. Another big one was Pagan's Mind. A few years ago, they did Celestial Entrance in its entirety, which was really cool. It was a fucking great show. Yeah, that was terrific. And of course, they released the live album that was recorded at that show, which Fate's Warning also did, which was really cool. And I enjoyed that Italian band DGM. They were great. I enjoyed that. What was your favorite part of DGM? 00:13:45.960 --> 00:14:15.700 I think just like first of all I love that guy's voice and you know he just sounded great the whole band sounded really good so I enjoyed just their whole performance the fact that they were able to just. Tierra's betting a thousand epic fields your favorite moment with DGM was riding the Marta with them after we were drinking at Wild Heaven. Yeah sure that was pretty cool meeting them on the Marta and just being like dudes what's up. So yeah I thought you meant like actual performance. Yeah so you couldn't remember we we went to Wild Heaven 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:45.660 Brewery, Brewing, can't remember. And we thought that we would just have a few drinks there. And then by the time we left, and it was hot as balls down here, and we were just enjoying the ride to its fullest. And lo and behold, standing right next to us was DGM. We had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, we figured it out and we were like, hey, what's going on? And then we were talking with them and they were super cool, nice guys. And so they were having fun because they were getting to do some shopping over here, which, you know, I guess, you know, they were able to find some stuff. 00:14:45.740 --> 00:15:15.680 stuff that they wouldn't get in Italy. So they were pretty stoked to, you know, go around and shop for stuff. And, you know, jeans and stuff are like enormously expensive over there and like pretty cheap over here. You can get a pair of Levi's. That's a big deal, you know. So you can get that like for 30 bucks over here. And over there, it's like, you know, 200 euro or whatever. So and then just a couple more. Devin Townsend a couple of years ago and then General Storm also during that year were both. 00:15:16.420 --> 00:15:45.700 Outstanding Performances and you know Devin Townsend is just he's enormously entertaining and so I enjoyed those those are some of my top bands oh and Blind Guardian was really cool I enjoyed them yeah that was a great show too those are some uh some good selections I believe I saw all those shows too yes okay so mine uh I'll just start from the very beginning meaning uh from when I first saw them and lead up so one that stands out to me is when Devin Townsend played in 2002 00:15:46.520 --> 00:15:47.840 Progpower USA 3. 00:15:48.660 --> 00:15:50.100 And he had the full skullet going. 00:15:50.880 --> 00:15:52.580 And it was a pretty intense show. 00:15:52.760 --> 00:15:55.080 And he was kind of the oddball that year. 00:15:55.100 --> 00:15:57.600 He even mentioned that he was kind of out of place there. 00:15:57.900 --> 00:15:59.440 And just he destroyed the place. 00:15:59.450 --> 00:15:59.940 It was great. 00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:03.460 I believe my favorite part of the whole thing is that Danny said, 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:04.180 thank you very much. 00:16:04.760 --> 00:16:05.140 Fuck off. 00:16:05.230 --> 00:16:06.340 And he just walked off the stage. 00:16:06.350 --> 00:16:07.300 And people were shocked. 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:10.760 And I was just down on the floor just screaming, cheering. 00:16:10.900 --> 00:16:11.340 Oh, it was great. 00:16:12.760 --> 00:16:14.560 So that was definitely one that stood out. 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:43.280 I mean, there's so many, but that one stood out from the early years. 2005, at Fest No. 6, was the band Conception. They're a prog metal band from Norway. I didn't think I'd ever get to see them because they hadn't been playing. You know, they had kind of all gone their own ways. The guitarists had went and formed the band Ark, who I actually saw in Prog Power 2. They were awesome. And then Roy Kahn, the singer, went on to be the singer for Camelot. So I didn't think that they'd ever get back together. 00:16:44.620 --> 00:17:14.120 They played and it was a great show. Now they're back together again. I don't know. Maybe they'll play next year. Maybe we'll talk about that at another point during the fest. My third one is from Prog Power USA 12 in 2011. That's Eson when he played. Unreal how good he was. His backing band actually was leprous for that and just destroyed the place. A lot of people didn't know what to expect. I was already a fan of his solo work. 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:44.140 I had all his stuff up to that point. And I obviously knew him from Emperor. He was great. And he was there replacing Arctis, who backed out at the last second. So that was quite a special treat. I actually, for years, have hated Arctis after liking him because of that. But now I think I liked him more for giving me Eson. You know, I'll take that any day of the week. So I don't think he's ever played the States on his own again. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think so. And then my next two are from the project. 00:17:44.200 --> 00:18:12.260 in 2016, which would have been number 17. Fate's warning, Awaken the Guardian, not Night on Brocken. I would try to attribute that to actually beer drinking, but I haven't even had enough today to even give myself that excuse. This is true. I watched T.R. Milk of Beer for a while while I drank a few. As we watched TV at Vortex, which is always fun to go to when you're in Atlanta. 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:43.740 Great Show. Couldn't have asked for anything more. They could have played a few more songs, but I'm not complaining they didn't. Yeah, you said it. They released a huge DVD, live CD, vinyl package. And you can almost see us in the picture. Well, you can see us, but you just have to concentrate to look real hard. There's four people sitting there looking like they're dead, which was kind of cool. So that was us. And in my final, that really stood out was The Gentle Storm. Not so much because I like The Gentle Storm, the band, 00:18:43.780 --> 00:19:13.540 but because it was Annika's first appearance, Annika Van Giersbergen, formerly of The Gathering, her first appearance at Prague Power. She's since been three more shows since then. It was outstanding. It was a whole collection of all stuff from throughout her career, including stuff from The Gathering, stuff she played when she sang on the Arian albums. It was cool. And you also saw her do an acoustic set, is that right? This is correct. I saw her the next, no, that was, yeah, it was the next morning I saw her do the acoustic set. 00:19:13.800 --> 00:19:43.660 And then that night she played with Devin Townsend, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was quite a weekend. Was that also when her microphone went out or the sound had a problem? Was that the same show? His sound. I had a real hard time hearing him during that set. We could actually hear her without amplification, which was, I was blown away by that. Yeah, and we weren't sitting that far up. I mean, we were probably, what, I don't know, 100 feet away? I don't know, not even that. But you could hear her throughout the whole venue. 00:19:44.800 --> 00:20:13.760 You could hear her completely singing without the mic. Yeah, I was that blew me away. I mean, they were having some sound problems during that set, which they eventually rectified. But I just remember thinking to myself, that is incredible. Like she just was you could hear her and and it was clear, like just her voice was really something. That would have been my number one had the sound not sucked as bad. But we were given two things from that show that really 00:20:13.820 --> 00:20:43.040 stood out, which was, I'd rather be a pussy than a fucking, what was it? No. Yeah, I'd rather. Yeah, I can't remember now. What was it? Or I'd rather be a prog nerd than a pussy. Yeah. Something like that. I can't remember. From Devin Townsend pre-show. And then he, with all the technical difficulties, at one point, he just fell down on the ground and he did some, like, snow angel that went in a circle around her while she was singing and she cracked up laughing during the set and everything. It was fun, so. Anyway, those are, 00:20:43.780 --> 00:21:13.660 are some of our favorite moments from previous Prog Powers. We are going to get ready and head up and get started. And next time you hear from us, we'll be talking about what happened tonight that's coming up and discussing tomorrow's set. Until then, later. We're up. Day one at Prog Power USA is complete. We're going to wrap up what happened last night, all the bands we saw, and we'll talk about the bands coming up today. So for day one, kicked off, 00:21:13.780 --> 00:21:41.680 with Wild Heaven Wept, which was here to fill in for one of the many bands that unfortunately had to cancel out on Wednesday. They are from Northern Virginia. They're kind of a proggy, doomy band a little bit. Early history was very doom. They've kind of morphed into like a prog metal band with doom influence sound to them. It was probably their last show ever, we think, because they did not exist as a band a couple weeks ago because they had kind of hung it up after a long career. 00:21:42.700 --> 00:22:12.600 And they decided to fill in with help when they were asked for this slot. And I think it was only about two weeks ago this whole thing started. So they started things off. It was, I think, a little, I wouldn't say it was shaky. It just they needed to kind of warm into it a little bit because they haven't played that much. They had one new guy helping out because they couldn't get everyone there due to commitments. But I thought they put on a great set. The more they played, the better it got. It started out with the main guy, Tom. 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:41.860 on guitar, just kind of strumming and leading in. And they did, if I remember correctly, four songs off the last album. And then they did kind of a set of a suite of like, I don't know, three or four songs from the album. Was it Vash Osten's Lacrimose, I think is how you say it. And it was great. It just, it seemed like the fans were really getting into it then because the band as a whole started to really gel well together. And then they kind of kicked it off with a song. 00:22:42.520 --> 00:23:11.920 from their Empire's Forlorn album to finish off the set. So they did a nice, I'd say about what, 50 to 55 minute set. They were great. They seemed like they were having more fun as the set went on, but it definitely felt like a band I hadn't played in a while. It just took them a few to get going, and I thought it was a great way to kick it off. Their alumnus of the fest, they played, I guess, I want to say they played back in like 2011 or 12, I can't remember the first time. 00:23:13.100 --> 00:23:42.480 Good way to start, I thought. It seemed like they had some fans. What did you think, T.R.? Yeah, I would agree with everything you said. I mean, I felt like it did take them a little bit of time to get warmed up, but once they did, they sounded good. And I think the sound levels kind of had to get kind of worked out too a little bit at first, but overall, I thought they sounded good. Everybody seemed to enjoy what they were doing. And yeah, I enjoyed it. And I felt like it was a good way to 00:23:42.500 --> 00:23:43.480 get things kicked off. 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.260 Yeah, they, for whatever reasons, they had some technical problems last night. 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.860 It seemed like the vocals were hard to hear. 00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:54.560 I don't know if he was trying to sing that way to keep it. 00:23:54.870 --> 00:23:58.180 It was very atmospheric, those moments at the early part of the set. 00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:04.520 And it seemed like he was singing kind of full capacity, but we couldn't really hear him too well. 00:24:04.530 --> 00:24:08.680 And there were some problems hearing the side guitar from us on the opposite side of the stage. 00:24:08.860 --> 00:24:37.320 And that seemed to be a common theme a little bit here and there throughout the night. But overall, good way to start. Not sure how the rest of the fest felt, you know, because, you know, those power metal fans, they get all bent out of shape if it's a boring prog band. But they were nicely rewarded afterwards, I think, with the band Theocracy, who stepped in for another one of the bands that had to back out. I don't, I'm not a power metal guy. 00:24:37.380 --> 00:25:07.240 As I've said many times, Blind Guardian, Ice Earth, Angra, that's about my max. Wasn't my thing, but they put on a great show as a band. They all just cranked out every song they possibly could. Their singer, I hope I don't get his name wrong. I think it's Matt Smith. I could be wrong about that. Has an amazing voice. Has, you know, an incredible stage presence. Unfortunately for me, all power metal bands have to script it, you know. We're going to do this part. We're going to do the, hey, 00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:36.320 Hey, you know, and then they're going to have the crowd share one side, then the middle, then the left. And they all kind of do the uniform posing on the stage with their foot up on the amp. But they did a great job for filling in also tons of energy. They sounded actually very good, I thought. They didn't seem to have many sound issues at all. So, TR? Yeah, no, I would agree with all that. First of all, the singer's voice was amazing. I was really blown away by that. 00:25:36.400 --> 00:26:06.220 because I didn't know them very well. So, you know, to me, and I told you this when we were sitting there, I think in a lot of ways he kind of, I'm sure this is blasphemy, but he kind of reminded me a little of Rick Emmett from Triumph, like that high range that he has. And there were aspects of his voice and the tonality of his voice that kind of reminded me of that. Yeah, I think some of his inflections kind of had that. I don't know if he necessarily sounded like him. No, like just, 00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:33.520 But that range, that same range, and some of the ways that he... Because, yeah, it's just that kind of vocal range that seemed to be similar. And that's what kind of... It was reminiscent for me of... They sound nothing like Triumph, don't get me wrong. But, you know, that's like, as a vocalist, when I was listening to him, I was like, this guy reminds me of somebody. Who is it? And then that's when it dawned on me, yeah, okay, he kind of has that same vocal range as Rick Emmett. 00:26:35.320 --> 00:26:40.980 Now the band was tight. They sounded really good. They sounded definitely a lot more practice than 00:26:41.220 --> 00:26:45.740 while heaven wept did. Although nothing against while heaven wept. I thought they were good, but 00:26:46.180 --> 00:27:05.260 they were definitely tight. A lot more energy. They were running around, jumping around. The lead singer, of course, had a ton of energy. And so, yeah, I thought that that kind of ramped it up one more step, you know, as a second band. Okay. Yeah. It's picking up steam now. And this is really, you know, day one. Yeah. It's here. It's kicking. 00:27:06.620 --> 00:27:34.580 Yeah, I would agree. I mean, again, not my music style, but I watched their set, and it got things going. The third band was Sanctuary, which now only has two original members still in it. The one guitarist, I can't think of their names. I think Jeff Rutledge, I think. Yeah, and then the drummer, and that's it. And I didn't realize Jim Shepard actually wasn't in the band anymore. The bassist, they have a new bassist for about three years, but he's actually a band member. The other two members, 00:27:34.660 --> 00:28:04.580 the other guitarists and the lead singer are just touring members. They're not actual members of the band. I know there's going to be some World Dane fans out there that's like, you know, fuck, they shouldn't be playing. That's bullshit. I would love to have seen World wet them again, but man, they fucking crushed it. They sounded great. They had just unbelievable amounts of energy. The singer was a very good singer. He's not my style. 00:28:34.660 --> 00:29:04.340 an amazing talent. In his absence, it's like, how can you possibly think of putting somebody in there? This guy was amazing. I think his name is Michael Joseph or something. Unbelievable. He had every shriek, every, and on tone, on note. I mean, and not only that, but there was an intensity to his performance that was really compelling and captivating that, 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:33.560 You can tell that he really wanted to honor World Dane and Sanctuary because I think it was really important to him to do it right. And I will tell you, having sung, what he was doing is not easy. Like the range that World Dane had and the way that he sings, this guy was able to capture a lot of that almost, I mean, really, really well. 00:29:33.580 --> 00:30:03.560 I was blown away because I thought how are you going to find somebody that's going to be able to do this and they did I mean he really was really talented and the rest of the band you know I'm not I haven't even mentioned the rest of the guys who were also amazing and really tight they sounded very well you know like obviously they've been touring recently so you know they are all they were all on point everything sounded really good the I felt like the sound levels everything was there was a it was a 00:30:03.600 --> 00:30:33.560 very good mix yeah they were they were tremendous I really enjoyed that set yeah I did too the thing that was special about their set was again they also were called in when pretty maids the headline had to cancel out sanctuary was called in and they were put in the third slot and they moved insomnium to the headline coming they decided to do a special set which was they played all of refuge denied which was cool so yeah they 00:30:33.600 --> 00:31:02.620 They cranked it out. And I think most of the people watching, whether they were fans or not, enjoyed their set just because of all the energy they put into it. So we get to our final band, which when this was first announced last year, they were the third band on the list. And they ended up headlining, and that was Insomnium. So I'm not a super fan. I'm a big fan of the album Winter's Gate, which I know is kind of a departure from their traditional melodic death metal sound, which I'm not a big fan of overall. 00:31:03.600 --> 00:31:33.260 Not them, I mean in general, the genre of it. Or subgenre, whatever you want to call it. But I was looking forward to at least seeing a few songs from Winter's Gate. And they proceeded to not play one song from Winter's Gate. Even though they were repeatedly asked for it the whole night, it seemed like. And to the point where they commented and said, no, we're not playing Winter's Gate this tour. But they gave us 15 songs there, I guess. They played a show in Mexico City, and it was the same show. And they put on a great show. 00:31:33.340 --> 00:32:03.300 I'm not big on the styles much for them. And I like some of the songs. And I like their performance. The sound sucked in terms of I could not hear the one guitarist almost the whole night. It wasn't coming through and I don't know what the deal was. So we were getting pretty much just guitar, bass and drums, not two guitars. And there's a lot of twin lead stuff going on. You did kind of get it a little later on. It seemed like maybe halfway through the show, they finally dialed that 00:32:03.340 --> 00:32:33.300 and then you could hear some of the twin leads or when he was soloing and the other guy was just playing rhythm. So at that point it was like, oh, okay, you know, here's the rest of the picture, you know. But what sucked about it is that they didn't turn down then the other guitarist who was way up in the mix. Yeah, right. So we kind of still lost the second guitarist a little bit. He was still coming in stronger than the other guy, but you could finally hear the other guy. So, yeah. But they put on a great set. I mean, again, great performance. And a lot of people seem to really be into them. Yeah, the crowd was 00:32:33.360 --> 00:33:03.260 to it. I mean, they seem to be pretty excited about it. I was at that point halfway through like, I'm not going to get Winter's Gate. And I know I was being selfish about that, but I was like, I'm getting tired. Because it was a lot of fast paced, a lot of melodic twin leads, you know, and next song, fast paced. They also seem to have a bunch of like recorded intro type stuff that they did a couple times. A little bit, yeah. And I think if I'm not mistaken, were they also tracking in some backing vocals? 00:33:03.560 --> 00:33:32.140 a little bit for the clean vocals. Yeah, a little bit. Because there seemed to be some harmonies, and there was only one mic up there, other than the guy that was doing the growl stuff. Yeah, that's what I thought, too. And actually, the guy who does the clean vocals has a really good voice. Oh, yeah. I just think he had some piped-in chorus stuff. Yeah, there seemed to be a little extra there. That's fine. I mean, you can't only have so many people on stage. He was actually singing, so that's it for day one. I thought it was a pretty good day, considering it was a malign day to start with. 00:33:35.160 --> 00:34:02.120 They did about as good of a job as they possibly could to get this thing fixed. And I wish they would have been rewarded a little better with a sellout for the show. That was a little disappointing. I would say it was about 80% full. But for the amount of work they put into it, I feel like they deserve a little more. So hopefully it'll be better for next year for that. The tradition would be for them to show the video for day one and two of next year. 00:34:02.220 --> 00:34:28.120 They did not do that this year. They're holding back on that. So we're not sure what's going to happen. I haven't paid attention to anything recently, so maybe there was an announcement made about days one and two, but hopefully there's no issues on those days going forward and those guys can get some good bands to come in for next year. So let's quickly mention who we're going to see today and then we'll go find some drinks. 00:34:32.220 --> 00:35:00.300 Prog Power USA 20. Starts off with Tomorrow's Eve. They're a German progressive metal band. They've been around since 2000. I've been a fan since the very first album. They kind of disappeared for 10 years and came back with a new album last year. I actually didn't have any high expectations and I love it. I think it's great. Includes our good friend Mike LaPond from Symphony X who seems to be playing with everybody right now. Last year he was playing with Ross the Boss. 00:35:02.220 --> 00:35:32.180 He's filling in for a lot of people right now and he seems to be a prog power almost every single year the last few years. I'm looking forward to them. I like them a lot. They're more of a 90s type progressive metal late 90s early 2000s which is more in my line. The next band to follow is Mayan. They are I don't know how to describe them. I think they kind of fall into that kind of gothic beauty and the beast type 00:35:32.200 --> 00:35:37.040 sound with the female male vocals but harsh vocals uh they're probably more 00:35:37.620 --> 00:35:43.060 metal ish than a lot of those other bands and so they're not as much symphonic if i remember 00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:49.040 correctly i believe there is a tie to after forever with them if i'm not mistaken i could be 00:35:49.060 --> 00:35:57.460 wrong we'd have to ask our friends julian lance who are fans of the podcast uh i know lance wants to 00:35:57.420 --> 00:36:27.000 see them really bad tonight. So we'll probably watch them. Next, TR, you want to take a stab at pronouncing this band's name? I will say Galnerius, maybe? Galnerius? I don't know. We're both probably half of one, six of another, and still wrong. They are a Japanese, I believe, power metal band. And I, like I said, I don't like power metal. I think I'll watch them because I don't think I've ever seen a band from Japan. I was going to say from Japanese. 00:36:29.680 --> 00:36:56.440 We're still tired. I've never seen a band here from the Fest from Japan, so I think I would like to see them. I know this, from the bands I've seen from Japan, they bring it every time. They're always going to be a lot of fun to watch, so I'll watch some of this. Yeah, I mean, anytime you get a band like that, like you say, I remember at Near Fest, there was a band from Japan that came and they totally killed it. I mean, it wasn't Galnerius, of course, but I mean, you know, 00:36:56.700 --> 00:37:26.440 that same kind of situation where you've got a festival situation with a band that would probably never ever come over here or you know at the level they are now to play in the United States and of course they will I'm sure take full advantage of trying to do the best they can to win over a U.S. crowd. I don't think they're gonna have any problem doing that tonight. It sounds like a lot of people want to see them. Yeah I saw Kenso once at Nierfest. We're talking deep Prague. I'm sure Will just turned off this episode just now. 00:37:28.020 --> 00:37:56.300 Yeah, and they were great. And I was a prog band, and they still... I'm talking straight prog. Stuff that kids say, call dad rock. It's not yacht rock. Don't ask us to bring up the yacht rock conversation we've had this weekend. Anyway, I expect good things from them, even though that's not my cup of tea. And then the headliner for tonight is what's becoming... What's not becoming it is, pretty much the house band for prog powers. 00:37:58.820 --> 00:38:26.420 I've mentioned this before. I really like the first four to five Evergrey albums, especially their third one. What's it called? In Search of Truth, I think it's called. I might have that wrong too. But I like that a lot. But the last half of their output, I'm not a big fan of as much. They will have a ton of people there to see them. Tom, the main guy from the band, is a 00:38:27.619 --> 00:38:56.420 Permanent Fixture at the Fest almost every year. He's always here. He's got a lot of friends here. So I expected that will be one of the big draws of the four days. So. Yeah, I don't have any comments on that. I'm, you know, I'm looking forward to checking out at least a little bit of every one of these bands today and, and, you know, enjoy it. Cool. Any other thoughts about today or is that it? No, that's it. I'm again, you know, I'm not real familiar with any of these bands, but I'll, you know, I've, I enjoyed yesterday's 00:38:56.440 --> 00:39:26.420 and I think I'm going to enjoy today as well. So I've just been having a good time at this fest. Cool. All right. Well, the next time you hear from us, we'll give a recap on day two and then we'll get ready for the big main two days, days three and four, which kick off early tomorrow. We got boatloads of bands. So until then. Day two is in the books for Prague Power USA. We had Thursday night, the second night. So let's talk about what we thought. It was a very 00:39:26.460 --> 00:39:56.120 Very good night, I think overall for the Fest. I think a lot of people were happy with the bands that played. It seemed to go off pretty well. This was the evening that did not have any changes, if I remember correctly. So let's just get right into it. So we headed over, got there early. I was able to get in a little early with my gold badge pass, but it didn't really make much of a difference because there wasn't too much of a line outside and TR came in literally, what, 10 minutes after I got in? Yeah, like the... We met at the seats, like, pretty much, 00:39:56.440 --> 00:39:57.320 at the same time. 00:39:58.010 --> 00:40:02.580 So yeah, I was standing in line to get a shirt for Baron Earth and it actually was looking for Tomorrow's 00:40:02.680 --> 00:40:03.980 Eve stuff and it went pretty quick. 00:40:04.550 --> 00:40:06.120 So anyway, let's recap. 00:40:06.460 --> 00:40:09.300 So to kick off the evening was the band Tomorrow's Eve from Germany. 00:40:09.510 --> 00:40:10.740 They're a progressive metal band. 00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:13.120 I've been a big fan since 2000. 00:40:13.310 --> 00:40:14.580 I really liked them a lot. 00:40:14.930 --> 00:40:19.280 I think you liked them, but you weren't sold on jumping on the ship and riding it, 00:40:19.560 --> 00:40:20.940 you know, to the ends of the earth, which is cool. 00:40:21.620 --> 00:40:23.180 Even though I told you you were a tough nut to crack. 00:40:23.290 --> 00:40:25.820 I thought that was kind of funny that I was like, I don't know why I'm, 00:40:26.060 --> 00:40:55.980 I'm hounding them about this, maybe because I liked it so much is what it was, but I thought their set was good. They had some weird lighting issues to start their set. You couldn't see like half the band because they couldn't get the lighting right, and the sound was a little off at first. Took about two songs, and then it just, it kind of went in, and it started to just all be there all of a sudden. They were supposed to play back in 2007, and it didn't work out, so they finally got a chance to come back. I thought Mike LaPond from Symphony X was going to be playing bass for them. 00:40:56.480 --> 00:41:25.960 That was my first epic fail of the fest. I got that completely wrong. He's on the album, but they have, I guess, a band of members that are all from Germany. So I thought it was a good set. I think they got a decent reception. At first, we were worried that there wasn't enough people in there, but it seemed like it filled in nicely considering it was not sold out. But probably the least amount of people in there to start, I think, for the night. Because it was building up to something special for a lot of people anyway. So that's my take. I enjoyed their set. 00:41:26.859 --> 00:41:55.500 But I'm a prog metal fan. They play a more traditional late 90s, early 2000s prog metal that I like still. Which I'm sure, like all three people in the podcast, like, yeah, I know what that is. So anyway, give us some of your thoughts, TR. I know, again, you weren't super on them, but you did enjoy at least the set you thought it was decent. Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I liked them. It just was, I wasn't as over the moon, I guess, as you were about them. And again, nothing wrong with them. 00:41:56.060 --> 00:42:25.940 They were actually really good and I liked the music that they were playing. The guys' vocals were pretty good. Yeah, just overall. And is that the band where the drummer was like, he looked really young? Yeah, he looked like he had to go to school tomorrow. Yeah, exactly. I was like, man, that kid, he's young. But I mean, they were all very good. I mean, every player was good on their instrument. And, you know, overall, I thought they sounded good together and you're right. 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:55.920 After they kind of worked out some of the sound things, it smoothed out and sounded really good. Yeah, and I think people expected the common complaint from the power metal fans is, oh, it's going to be boring prog metal, which I hear all the time from, it seems like everybody I know. However, he had a really good pace and a really good heaviness to his guitar playing, and the drumming wasn't just your four or four type stuff. He was doing a lot of intricate double bass stuff, and it was fast. So I thought that was a little surprising to some people. 00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:21.440 Yeah, they mixed it up. I felt like, you know, it was a pretty good variety and just pace and different tempos, different kinds of atmospheres and sounds. Yeah, I thought it was a good mix. And they win humanitarian band. Not humanitarian band. They win cool band of the fest so far. All their merch got stuck in customs. 00:43:25.980 --> 00:43:55.960 that if you went on their Facebook page and wrote something really nice about their performance or what you like about the band, they'd send you a shirt for free, which I thought was very cool. But apparently they had a couple shirts. And the guitarist threw a few shirts out into the audience. And most people, other than, say, George on the podcast, aren't familiar with the setup of Center Stage. And they have a little side section for wheelchairs. And the guitarist made a point of throwing two shirts out to the two people sitting in wheelchairs. And he just threw 00:43:55.980 --> 00:44:25.960 spirals right into their chest. It was awesome. I thought that was a very cool thing to do. I've only seen twice since I've been coming where they recognize them. They'll point to them, but twice where there's been complete interaction. Once is when John Bush jumped off the stage with Armored Saint and went over and sang with them. I thought that was very cool. I'm sure it's happened before and I haven't seen it, but the two times I've seen it was that and then the shirts getting thrown out. Yeah, I thought it was a nice move and very classy on their part. It's a bummer that their stuff got hung up because I'm sure 00:44:25.980 --> 00:44:55.900 there were people that wanted to buy it, but that was cool of them to, you know, I'm sure that it's like a sunk cost now. So yeah. Yeah. Cause they're gonna have to ship all this stuff from Germany. So, uh, if you leave a, and the funny moment for me at the fest is if you leave a negative comment on their Facebook page, you'll get pants instead. Yeah. That's right. All right. So the second band, um, which I, TR had to remind me, we saw them back in 2013 or 14, whenever it was. They had like a few less singers back then. It was a band Mayan, which is, 00:44:55.980 --> 00:45:25.900 a Dutch, I guess, international band on top of that. It's Dutch, but they have a lot of international performers because they basically had a football team on the stage. And it would be either American or world football because there was like 10 people on stage at any given time. There were at least five vocalists. There were five vocalists, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've never seen a band with that many vocalists in my life. I don't think. I can't think of any band that has that many vocalists. 00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:55.700 Sorry, I keep pulling the mic from here because he is still saying, I just can't believe it. We literally for about an hour just kept saying, what did we just see? How many people are in this band? And you were making a comment about how it was like Grand Central Station on that stage with everybody moving around and walking. We couldn't believe that they weren't running into each other. Yeah, not one person bumped into each other or had to duck from a bass neck swinging over their head. 00:45:56.080 --> 00:46:25.920 But tomorrow's eve plays on stage and literally the singer walks by the basses and trips on his bass chord and almost falls. Mayan gets out there and there's about 20 people on stage and nobody runs into anybody. I was like, what, two guitars, a bass, keyboards, drums, and then five other vocalists. Yeah, five other vocalists. So if you're not familiar with Mayan, they're kind of a symphonic, not symphonic death metal, but they're death metal symphonic gods. 00:46:26.340 --> 00:46:55.460 a little bit. Operatic. I hate to use the word death metal, but they do have some death metal parts, traditional death metal parts in there, but it's all intertwined with the symphonics. The first couple of songs were cool, and then one song with operatic sing is okay, and then it's like another song, and then another. I'm sure our friends Julie and Lance, who are friends of the podcast, are going to hunt me down and strangle me for this, because I know that Lance really wanted to see them. 00:46:55.500 --> 00:47:25.200 and likes them and has been trying to get me into them. And I tried. We watched half the set. And then I was like, I got to go do something. So. Yeah, it was. And, you know, I'm not trying to bust on anybody because this, you know, everybody different strokes for everybody. Right. But this was not my cup of tea. It was just I mean, it was an oral onslaught because it was just a whole bunch of stuff going on musically where it's just like. And then everybody like singing. 00:47:25.520 --> 00:47:55.160 and grunting and whatever else was going on over top of it. It just seemed like there was so much going on. I get it. Some people really like the density of it and all the intricacies and everything. I'm sure if you were into this, there'd be a lot to digest there because you've got all kinds of instrumentation going on where the guitarist and everybody was super talented. No doubt about all that, but it was just too much for me. It was just a wall of sound. 00:47:55.660 --> 00:48:25.480 and then all these people running around on stage and I don't know it's just a little too much for me no doubt though some of these vocalists were pretty amazing the one operatic singer I mean she sounded like she could be at the Met I mean she was really really a talented vocalist I was really amazed by I mean you could see that it was effortless what she was doing but she had very good control of her voice and to be able to do those 00:48:25.520 --> 00:48:55.220 those operatic-type vocals, you could tell that she was trained in that. She didn't just put this on later to be part of this band. She was really an opera singer. Yeah, all the credit goes to them for musicianship and performance. If you were there just to watch a show, they put on a great show. And they sounded actually very good. And the crowd were bananas for them. Yeah, crowd loved them. Considering all the sound issues going on, and I'm not taking jabs at that crew, 00:48:55.500 --> 00:49:25.160 their ass off to do everything for these bands. They just seem to, I'm guessing they're just a well-oiled machine when they tour. And they know what they want. And it's nothing against the other bands. They had that going for them. So great that everyone got to enjoy them. I'm glad I watched them again. Let's go on to the next band. Okay. All right, I'm going to try to pronounce this properly. I can't do it for some reason. Galneris. Galnerius. Galnerius. Whatever. It seems like there's an extra vowel in there. It's a consonant. 00:49:26.860 --> 00:49:53.760 Anyway, Japanese power metal band. So I watched probably about 35% of this. I had to leave during their set and come back. I had to take care of something. And I said to TR when I got back, I think they're still playing the same song when I left. And I was gone for about a half an hour. They had an hour and a half set. Unbelievable musicians. They're just all just incredibly talented people. 00:49:54.760 --> 00:50:24.720 I think what proved that to me was in the third song something happened with the keyboards either her right I don't think she was patching anything and I think she's she was doing everything but something happened with their connection they lost power and she didn't play on half of one song and the band just kept playing but you could sense something was missing as soon as she got power back she literally on no she didn't miss a step was right in the song and it was it actually she came in in the middle of her solo right and I at that 00:50:24.740 --> 00:50:54.620 So I'll watch a little longer. This is pretty badass. But musically, it's just not my thing. I mean, I'm just not big on the power metal chanting. We have a joke. We always joke that they're sailing on a sea of cheese, you know, which is obviously a reference to Primus. Yeah. But they always sing these like really cheesy lyrics and all these symphonics. But they're all incredible, incredible players. And it's the first Japanese band ever here at Prog Power. Yeah. And lots of energy. The crowd was really excited about. 00:50:54.760 --> 00:51:01.080 them and I you know I enjoyed the musicianship the guitar player was ridiculous 00:51:01.660 --> 00:51:08.180 the the keyboard player again like you're right she didn't miss a note like the minute that the power was back on man 00:51:08.300 --> 00:51:13.980 it was like she was right on it and she was very impressive because she first of all she 00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:21.840 she was keeping up like the guitarist they were interlocked on a number of different passages where they were playing like 00:51:21.860 --> 00:51:51.440 either the same thing or harmonized bits of the same stuff at like super rapid pace. And it was very impressive. The drummer, that guy was, he was insane. He was going off back there and just, he was really something. And then the singer, kind of a one trick pony there. Cause it seemed like he had like that one note that that was his range. And that's what we got the whole night. But, 00:51:51.860 --> 00:52:21.820 They all seemed like super nice and really stoked to be playing in the US and not a lot like their English wasn't that great. I could tell that they really didn't you know they had a few things that they knew how to say which was fine. But everybody was really very accepting and very you know definitely you knew the crowd was really pulling for them because when the when the keyboards went out and she came back and they got it figured out and they plugged her back in everybody was like yeah you know like they were really glad to that you know 00:52:21.860 --> 00:52:51.820 Because obviously they come all the way over here and then they have this problem in their set. I'm sure that that was, you know, they were really probably just felt gutted during that period. But then it was very triumphant at the end for them, I think. Yeah, so and from all accounts, it seems like they're the best favorite so far for everyone else but TR and John. So anyway, so let's get to the final band. The final band, which I won't say too much about because they're, it seemed like they 00:52:51.840 --> 00:53:20.580 always play Prog Power. Which is funny because I've been, this is my 19th out of 20 that I've attended. I've had tickets, or I've had a gold badge for all 20, just one I couldn't make. And I think they played at this one that I missed. Ever Gray was the final headline, and it was their ninth appearance at Prog Power, which seems like an awful lot. But they've played all different variants of the fest and all different venue settings of the fest itself. 00:53:21.860 --> 00:53:51.780 It adds up after a while. They always put on a good show in terms of performance. There's tons of energy. They're flawless on their playing. I'm just not a fan of the newer stuff. And I haven't been for five albums, although I keep hearing that their last album was pretty good. I'm a big fan of the early stuff. I like In Search of Truth and Recreation Day from the early 2000s. Inner Circle was pretty good, too. And I kind of check out after that. Some of the songs that were newer were pretty good, but I just, 00:53:51.840 --> 00:54:21.820 I just don't see myself really venturing much into it. This is a band that I was, I liked them, but eh. And you were big on this as your favorite band of the day. Yeah, I would agree that they were, yeah, they were definitely my favorite band of the day. Not really familiar with them, but I really liked, first of all, I really liked the guy's voice. Like, I really felt like it was more soulful. And I felt like, the only thing that I've 00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:50.720 What I felt like they maybe did a little too much of was they had a little more backing tracks than I would have wanted to hear because it seemed like there were some backing vocals. I mean, I know the guys were singing, but it just sounded too clean. Like there were certain things about certain parts of these songs where I thought, no, that's got to be piped in. But other than that, I really, I liked them a lot. I thought they were, you know, pretty melodic, but then they could get really heavy. 00:54:51.540 --> 00:55:21.520 And each guy was really, really good. The keyboard player, I thought, was really tasteful. And the rest of the band played well. I thought the vocalist and the other main guitar player did some trading of riffs and harmonized riffs and things that I thought were really good. I was really impressed with the vocalist's guitar playing skills. I mean, here he's the main lead vocalist, but he was certainly 00:55:21.540 --> 00:55:51.520 as good as any lead guitarist out there. Yeah, and they're not a shredder type prog metal band. They do a lot of soloing, but it's more in line with the song as opposed to just solo. Like when we watch... Galnerius? Thank you. He just shredded the shred. Oh, yeah. And that was, yeah, a little... It was almost, you know, like in Mozart, right? Too many notes, sire. I mean, it was... At times, it was like, okay, I don't know how many more you could... 00:55:54.119 --> 00:55:57.980 It was like, okay, we have no doubt as to your ability here. 00:55:58.400 --> 00:56:01.120 Yeah, it's like, how many more necks do you need in your guitar? Add one more. 00:56:01.340 --> 00:56:02.080 Yeah, put another one on. 00:56:02.659 --> 00:56:12.440 But these guys, actually, I was thinking during one of these songs that they had a very Pink Floyd kind of sound because it was very kind of laid back. 00:56:12.660 --> 00:56:42.620 some of the soloing that this guy was doing was more kind of atmospheric and, you know, I don't know, it just had a Pink Floyd vibe to it. One of the tunes, I can't remember. Without sounding like Pink Floyd, it sounded nothing like that. Right, no, but I mean the style of the manner in which they were playing and the atmospheric kind of vibe to it was kind of like that for me during that period of time. It was kind of an instrumental section of like where they were just kind of jamming or kind of 00:56:42.680 --> 00:57:11.340 Oh, was this the keyboard guitar thing in the encore? Yeah, right. And clearly it was kind of like a solo time, but to me it kind of had that feel where it was like, okay, this is a laid back kind of a thing where this festival is probably not known for any laid back, really laid back sections, but this I thought was really cool and it kind of was nice dimension. That's the section where somebody's got to go to the bathroom. Probably, but not you this time. No. Yeah. 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:41.340 Yeah. Apparently, I had to go to the bathroom during a set. I wasn't Jay-like, but I took a little walk. Anyway, so day two, good day, I thought. It seems like this was a very good day for a lot of people on the power side mainly, but fair enough, man. We all have our likes. So let's run down the list for today and won't spend too much time on it. And then we have a little bit we're going to do. 00:57:41.400 --> 00:58:11.380 here, a little extra segment that we'll get going, so we'll run through this pretty quickly. So today is day three, which kicks off the traditional main part of the fest that is longer. This is all day. There's six bands today. It starts at two, and it'll run until midnight or something like that. So the first band is a band filling in for, I believe it was Windrose. Was that the name of the band before? Oh. That first band. Yeah, yeah. I can't remember what the name was. I think it was Windrose, and they're being 00:58:11.420 --> 00:58:39.160 replaced by Paladin. So they're a local band. I think they're showing up at my band camp feed all the time now. But they're in replacing them to start things off. They're, I think, a power metal band. They're going to be followed by Sub Signal, which is kind of a progressive metal rock band. I've tried getting into these guys, and it's been a little bit of a struggle for me. So we'll see how I last with them. 00:58:41.420 --> 00:59:11.200 "Mare and Earth," which is a prog metal band. They've got the "Swallow the Sun" for the first couple albums of them. They have that connection. They have an amorphous connection. So I'm looking forward to seeing them. The fourth band of the night is going to be "Psychotic Waltz," which I never thought I'd get to see them live, but they're one of the early, early prog metal bands from the first album coming out in '90. They were one of the first prog metal bands that just relied on guitars, not keyboards, which is some of the stuff I like more. 00:59:12.520 --> 00:59:41.240 That's Buddy Lackey, who is also known as Devin Graves when he was in Dead Soul Tribe, his other band. So then comes, and we were working on this name, Orden Ogin. Yeah. So, or Ogon or Ogin. We've seen them before, and they're pretty good, but this might be a break for us because at some point we have to eat. After them, they're a power metal band. I think they're from Germany, if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong about that. 00:59:41.560 --> 01:00:09.380 After Them is going to be the announcement for Days 3 and 4 for next year, which we'll get back to in a second. And then the follow-up closing band is 7th Wonder, who's a prog metal band from Sweden, who's played a couple times at the Fest. People are probably going to be really down for them. We'll see how much I watch them. I've tried so hard to like them, and I can't get into them. That's about it. I mean, for me, it's Barren Earth and Psychotic Waltz today, and that's all I'll say about the rest of the day. You got any comments for today? 01:00:10.440 --> 01:00:40.360 Just not for today so much, but I did want to circle back on the announcement yesterday if you wanted to talk a little bit about that. That's a good point. Yeah, so there was no video for day one and two to let us know what's going to happen, and they've made some changes for next year. I'm glad you mentioned that. What they're going to do is they're going to move day one to this thing called The Loft, which is center stage has three venues in it. There's the main stage. There's the thing called The Loft, which is an upstairs, like kind of an industrial setting bar. 01:00:40.440 --> 01:01:10.340 It's actually very cool. It's small. It only holds, I think, maximum 700 if you jam it. That doesn't sound small, but if you walked in, you'd think it was small the way it's set up. And there's a thing called vinyl, which is a small bar setting. They used to do the Midweek Mayhem up there for a few years. Now they're going to move day one back up there because sales have been a little tough, and they've taken an absolute beating this year for getting bands here. So that'll be day one next year. Day two will be back in the main venue, but they're kind of leaving it open-ended to try some different things. 01:01:10.460 --> 01:01:40.420 So that makes me think they might kind of branch out on some of the bands that they're bringing in. No announcements other than on day one PowerQuest is playing. I am not a PowerQuest fan. Don't know much about them. I just know that they're going to be playing an exclusive show only that only Prog Power beginning. No one else will be getting this show. Which I believe the album is called Magic Never Dies. So if you know me and how I feel about power metal you know exactly where I'm going with this. But I'm going to watch because 01:01:40.460 --> 01:01:41.180 Magic Never Dies. 01:01:41.440 --> 01:01:41.720 That's right. 01:01:41.980 --> 01:01:45.620 Anyway, so that's good to hear that they're coming and doing an exclusive for Prog Power. 01:01:46.570 --> 01:01:52.180 Okay, so tonight they're going to be making the announcement for days three and four next year. 01:01:52.540 --> 01:01:58.340 So what I have been doing is trying to predict every year who's going to play, 01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:00.740 and I think I've gotten one band so far since I've done this. 01:02:01.680 --> 01:02:05.400 So, TR, if you have a list, it doesn't matter how many you have, just give me your list, 01:02:05.720 --> 01:02:06.940 and we'll just go through them real quick. 01:02:07.460 --> 01:02:37.420 about them. I'll just kind of say why we hope they come and then let's see how wrong we are about this. Yeah, so I really don't have much here because I, you know, since I'm not, I mean, I know some bands and I follow some of the bands that might have something to do with this festival, but really the only things I was thinking would be really cool or I'm hopeful that would play here next year would be Archmotheos. You've just maybe taken that first epic fail off of your 01:02:38.660 --> 01:02:39.320 Good pick. 01:02:40.940 --> 01:02:42.720 It'll haunt me for the rest of my life. 01:02:43.900 --> 01:02:45.320 No, I would love to see them. 01:02:45.600 --> 01:02:50.160 And it would be a perfect opportunity just because, you know, it's kind of a one-off thing. 01:02:50.360 --> 01:02:53.240 They'd be able to kind of put something together and just do it for this. 01:02:54.040 --> 01:02:57.280 And so that's why I'm kind of hopeful that they might be able to do that, 01:02:58.120 --> 01:03:01.320 especially considering they did do the Awaken the Guardian show. 01:03:01.760 --> 01:03:02.960 I'm correcting myself now. 01:03:04.160 --> 01:03:04.860 You know, that time. 01:03:04.900 --> 01:03:34.860 So I think it's highly possible, but don't know. The other band that I would really like to see is Symphony X or Michael Romeo solo, just because I liked his solo album and thought, you know, that would be kind of a cool deal to see him do some stuff. And then they could maybe also play some Symphony X. Because I don't know that we're ever really going to hear a lot of that solo album stuff. I don't know if Symphony X would play that or not. I don't know. But either of those, I'd be happy with. 01:03:34.920 --> 01:04:04.820 with. So that's really all I came up with. I'm sure there's plenty more out there that I haven't thought of, but those were the main ones that I would really be excited about. All right, good list. All right, I'll do mine real quick, and then we'll be out of here. So I would like these five bands, and I just put them in alphabetical order, but it'd be kind of cool to see all of them. First off, I would have liked to see the one band that rules all. I would love to see Alkaloid come. They're not coming. I'm just throwing it out there because I want them to come. 01:04:06.160 --> 01:04:34.880 And I'll throw it out there just because they were played on the speakers. The house music had them last year. So I'm like, I'm hoping it's not going to happen, but I'll put it on there. The second is Archmotheos. I think that's a given. I'd love to see them play. Most likely we're going to have to go to Connecticut to see them again, but I wouldn't mind seeing In Morning come since they've been branching out some of these bands. It'd be kind of cool to see them. They had Insomnium this year. I would think In Morning might be kind of 01:04:34.920 --> 01:05:04.840 a decent choice to bring in. I'm going to say that hopefully I'm right about this. I'm thinking King Crow might come back because they had to cancel a couple years ago. And they had the new album that came out. And I'm thinking maybe they're going to finally get them back. That might be, if I'm right about anything, that'd be the only one I'm right about. If I am right, which I'm doubting I'm right. And I'm going to say Symphony X2 for a reason. I would like to see them come back since the Adrenaline Mob RV crash, you know, on the side of the road. 01:05:04.920 --> 01:05:34.700 where their van got hit and Russell Allen was put in the hospital, you remember, and they lost the one guy in the band. I think the manager got killed, too. It was back in 2017. I think they were in Florida when that happened. So I would love to see them come back now that they're touring again and Russell Allen's back on his feet and everything. It would be kind of cool to get him back up there. Yeah, they played like four or five times at the fest, but I want to see that. My wild card is also what you mentioned. I would love to see Mike Romeo play. 01:05:35.700 --> 01:06:03.100 Either one of them would be fine, but I wouldn't mind seeing Mike Romy do a solo album if his second solo album, War of the Worlds Part 2, was out. So that's what I got. I probably won't get any. If they were cool, they would bring all six of them in, but that's not going to happen because I'm not cool. So anyway, that's it for today. We rambled for a lot, but we'll be back tomorrow with our recap of Day 3, our bands for Day 4, which will be the final day, and then who's also playing for next year. 01:06:04.380 --> 01:06:31.340 So day three has been completed. It's hard to believe that the festival is coming to an end today. So let's talk about what we saw yesterday, which was a full day. We put it to the grindstone. We went for some beers at a local beer store, and we kind of came to the conclusion we had to get back to the venue because they have like a little swag bag, which over the years has had a lot more. 01:06:31.440 --> 01:06:59.380 It's down to a program and a sampler CD, which as far as I'm concerned, that's all I need from my swag bag. But we got the impression they were going to run out of them. So we got back to the venue early for the first band, Paladin, which we did not watch, actually. We went back to our room. So unfortunately, we have nothing to say about them. They're a replacement band to start. So our day started off with the band Sub-Signal, which is a German kind of progressive rock with some progressive metal. 01:07:01.440 --> 01:07:30.820 from the band Sieges Even, if that's how you say it, which is an old prog metal band from the early 90s. So we saw, I would say, three quarters of their set, roughly, maybe. And yeah, just because I'm the prog guy doesn't mean I like all prog. They were classy in their sound and their approach. Their guitarist looked like Luke Skywalker. And I'm not kidding about that. He really looked like Mark Hamill in the last couple of films. 01:07:30.900 --> 01:08:00.880 Star Wars films. The last two. And I shit you not, everybody felt that way. Everyone thought it. Because I meant to say something to T.R. about it and he beat me to it. We started talking and Lance and Julie, who I think were sitting with us, were they? And they said the same thing. And the guy in front of us says, you know, I thought the same thing, but I didn't want to say anything. So it was pretty funny about that. So I thought they were 01:08:00.920 --> 01:08:29.920 were okay. I'm not going to go out and buy anything. They probably were the slowest, least metal band up to this point, I would say. What do you think? Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, I felt the same way. I'm not going to be running out and getting their stuff or anything. They were okay to listen to. They did a nice show, but I wasn't blown away or anything. I'm the same way. There were moments I liked a lot, but it wasn't enough to me. 01:08:30.779 --> 01:09:00.620 want me to seek them out anymore. But, you know, can't be disappointed with a band that puts in 110% and the fans that they had there seemed to enjoy it and they seemed to appreciate being there. So that was cool. So the next band, which is one of the bands I wanted to see, was Barren Earth. And I thought they were great. They were heavy as anything. They were actually kind of loud, too. And the singers' vocals, which I know there might be a few people on the podcast who aren't big, 01:09:00.740 --> 01:09:30.720 his vocals were brutal. They were awesome, I thought. And you can understand what he was saying to some degree. So I actually enjoyed their set a lot. They didn't play a lot of songs I thought they would, which was kind of cool. They played a lot of songs from the first, or played at least a few songs from the first two albums, which had the singer from Swallow the Sun originally on them. I enjoyed the set a lot. It was up to that point one of my favorite, I thought, just because it was much heavier than what's on the albums. They put on a pretty good set, and I guess that was the first time in the 01:09:30.759 --> 01:10:00.700 the States for him, the singer, but the first time as a band to be in the States. Yeah, and not really knowing them, it was interesting to me because the singer, he didn't look like what I expected him to look like. He had a very different look from what I expected in terms of what was coming out of him. And I don't know, I thought they were very good. You're right, he had everything pretty much. 01:10:00.760 --> 01:10:30.700 I thought his clean vocals were really good too. And he switched like on a dime. Like it was pretty seamless. It seemed it seemed pretty effortless for him to do his growling too. He didn't seem to be digging deep. And if you're not familiar with Baron Earth, they're a I guess I'd say a progressive metal band. They have death vocals. The closest I would say is they're more like amorphous than they would be like Swallow the Sun. They're from amorphous and Swallow the Sun. You know when they originate it's the bass player. Original bass player. 01:10:30.760 --> 01:11:00.700 from Amorphous formed them with the group. And now he's actually back in Amorphous. He wasn't here because he's touring with Amorphous right now. But I would say they're closer to probably the rejuvenated Amorphous starting with Eclipse in 2006. They're more in that style of Amorphous, but I think even heavier. More metal than folky. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't have... I mean, they were somewhat melodic, but not that melodic. I mean, like when you think about new Amorphous, 01:11:01.660 --> 01:11:29.980 It's a little more melodic. Agreed. And they were actually a little doomier in spots, I thought. A little slower paced. But I enjoyed the set. For you to say you liked it, not knowing them and those kind of vocals, which you're not always big on, that's good. Yeah, I mean, again, I'm not a big harsh vocals fan, but I thought his were pretty decent. And overall, they had a good mix. For me, it's like you've got to kind of have a little bit of both for me. And they did. So, yeah, it was good. 01:11:30.500 --> 01:12:00.480 Cool. Next band is a band I never thought I'd see, not just at Prog Power, but in general. And that's Psychotic Waltz, which is one of the very early, going way back in the time machine, which is only to 1990, prog metal bands. And if you're familiar with them, that's the band that has the lead singer Buddy Lackey, who when Psychotic Waltz called it quits in the late 90s, he became Devin Graves and moved to Austria and formed Dead Soul Tribe, which is a kind of 01:12:01.120 --> 01:12:29.960 I would say that I wouldn't call them a Tool clone, but they're very influenced by Tool. And since they're, what, five albums they've released? Six? Roughly? They kind of called it quits, and Psychotic Waltz is kind of raised from the ashes again. I thought they were great. They look like they were the old farts of the fest, because they look like, except for Devin, or Buddy, he looked great for his age. Because I think he's roughly our age, if not a little older. 01:12:31.680 --> 01:12:58.980 You know, they played everything from all four albums. Not big on Mosquito, but I do like A Social Grace a lot. Into the Even Flow, I think is the one. Those first two are great. He is kind of like the metal version of Ian Anderson on stage. He was doing all kinds of weird gyrations and leg movements and hand movements. He plays a flute on stage. And it did remind me of Ian Anderson in his prime where he would just do these amazing weird leg stretches. 01:12:59.600 --> 01:13:01.540 and hand movements. 01:13:02.700 --> 01:13:04.920 They're pretty much in their own space when they're playing. 01:13:05.820 --> 01:13:09.760 The rest of the band sort of didn't look like you would picture them in a band, 01:13:09.980 --> 01:13:13.020 especially the guitarist, who I thought was really good. 01:13:13.300 --> 01:13:18.900 He had just a unique style of playing and a unique way of creating a heavy kind of riff chug. 01:13:20.440 --> 01:13:23.460 And he sounded super, you know, solos and everything. 01:13:24.200 --> 01:13:28.840 So it was a good set of old prog metal that wasn't necessarily dominated by keyboards. 01:13:29.020 --> 01:13:58.880 and more dominated by guitar, which is my preference, actually, and overall when it comes to this stuff. Yeah, and these guys, so I knew Dead Soul Tribe first. I mean, in fact, I have a number of their albums and really like them and was surprised when I found out, oh, yeah, it's these guys, you know, Dead Soul Tribe came from these guys. So, yeah, there was an intensity to this guy's performance that there weren't, 01:13:58.940 --> 01:14:28.120 too many people that we've seen during this fest that had that same kind of intensity. I mean, it was pretty impressive. And his vocals were amazing. Like, just, I mean, he was really, you want to talk about the difference. Some of the, so his stuff didn't look effortless. It looked like he was putting a lot into it. Yeah, I agree. But he was still, you know, hitting it all. Now, when he first came out and the first song, 01:14:28.500 --> 01:14:58.360 The vocals kind of seemed like he was still warming up because he didn't really hit his stride till like maybe the second or third song and then it was like okay this sounds like the guy like I couldn't believe during the first song that it was the same guy as the Dead Soul Tribe band you know and then as he kind of warmed up it was like oh yeah there's the there's the familiar vocal and you can see you know if you if you only know Dead Soul Tribe and then you listen to this it's like okay I see where they came from you know you can see where the beginnings were 01:14:58.360 --> 01:15:28.140 and what this band was about. So, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, it was good. It was nice to bring an older band that was actually really heavy. Just no super blast beats, you know, and no soaring vocals about sailing on seas of cheese. So, which we're getting to next. However, I was on record, I think, last time we saw these guys. I actually like them. I don't know if I'll buy anything from them, but I'll watch them. And that's the band. 01:15:29.140 --> 01:15:58.220 Orden Ogen. First try. Not bad. I always want to say Ogden, I guess, because I've been out to Utah a number of times. They are a German power metal band, but while they have some gang singing choruses, it's not as much like that in a sense, although they do have a song called The Pirate Song, which we'll get to in a second. They brought it. They were awesome. I enjoyed. 01:15:58.260 --> 01:16:04.900 that set, if that's the kind of power metal they'll bring, I'll watch that, to be honest with you, because it's very guitar-driven. 01:16:05.320 --> 01:16:06.720 Yeah, and entertaining. 01:16:07.300 --> 01:16:25.140 I mean, the lead guy, he doesn't do a lot that's crazy or anything, but just his style and the way he talks to the audience, and he looks like he's having fun, and the whole band really gets into it. 01:16:25.260 --> 01:16:51.680 And I was really surprised when he said that, because one of the things he was talking about was the fact that he had broken his thumb last year and then they switched so that he was just singing and not playing guitar. But tonight, or last night when they played, he was like, well, I'm going to play guitar. And we kind of shifted some stuff around and we made the bass player the other guitarist. And then we brought some lighting guy to be the bass player. 01:16:55.260 --> 01:17:21.840 the bass player and he's ripping it up on guitar like this. That blew me away, first of all. I actually didn't believe it. Maybe that's a joke. I don't know. Apparently it's true. He was shredding. He was amazing. Yeah, I was like, okay, it's not every day. It's one thing to play a little bit of both instruments, but this guy was really good on guitar. You don't just step out of bass and become the lead guitar player. 01:17:25.260 --> 01:17:54.720 because there was no way you just leap into that. Yeah, so what had happened was their guitarist could not make it for the show. And I couldn't gather if they just went to one guitar now live so that the main guy didn't play anymore on guitar. And apparently he claims that's his last show ever playing guitar. And it was only because it was prog power that he wanted to do that. Again, on the record, I don't know how many times I'm not a power metal fan. 01:17:55.260 --> 01:18:25.060 But I did enjoy their set. And I enjoyed it the first time we saw them. And the crowd loved them to the point where they did something that, you know, I'm just not going to sit on a floor that for three days has had beer and spit and sweat and garbage and all kinds of shit all over it, no matter how good the crew does cleaning up afterwards. That floor is fucking disgusting. Tara, why don't you tell everyone what they did? 01:18:25.260 --> 01:18:27.420 So I gotta say, 01:18:27.720 --> 01:18:29.420 this whole thing was really, 01:18:30.300 --> 01:18:32.480 so one of the things about Prague Power, 01:18:32.900 --> 01:18:33.820 and I've only been here, 01:18:34.160 --> 01:18:35.160 this is my fourth time, 01:18:36.020 --> 01:18:37.480 it is a family atmosphere, 01:18:37.780 --> 01:18:39.660 like in terms of the people that get together, 01:18:39.900 --> 01:18:41.340 you can tell that they all, 01:18:42.060 --> 01:18:42.240 you know, 01:18:42.500 --> 01:18:42.960 they may not, 01:18:43.060 --> 01:18:44.460 they may have just met each other, 01:18:44.740 --> 01:18:46.680 and they all get along and have a good time, 01:18:47.400 --> 01:18:49.560 and there was a group of people on the floor 01:18:49.820 --> 01:18:51.400 that were mixing it up, 01:18:51.560 --> 01:18:51.720 you know, 01:18:51.760 --> 01:18:53.420 they were doing some moshing, 01:18:54.160 --> 01:19:21.700 But then they started doing some goofy, really funny stuff. So at one point during the Pirate Song, they all get on the floor and start rowing like they're in a Viking ship. So they're all sitting down on their butts, like rowing basically. In unison. In unison, yeah. Like a bunch of them all together, like as if they're on a Viking ship. And this is going on. 01:19:23.900 --> 01:19:52.140 up because it's just hilarious to watch these people do this. Not to mention the guy that actually dressed up as a pirate that was in the front of the place. People dress up. It's kind of a funny and fun atmosphere at Prague Power. He wasn't necessarily a pirate. He was Captain Morgan, I think. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's true. And it was actually a pretty authentic looking outfit. I wanted him to just put his foot up on something. 01:19:52.280 --> 01:19:52.540 Yeah. 01:19:53.660 --> 01:19:53.960 Anyway. 01:19:54.490 --> 01:19:54.760 So yeah. 01:19:56.360 --> 01:19:56.540 I. 01:19:57.020 --> 01:19:58.100 When I saw the list I was like. 01:19:58.780 --> 01:19:59.240 I don't know. 01:19:59.250 --> 01:20:00.260 I got to eat at some point. 01:20:00.380 --> 01:20:00.640 Because our. 01:20:01.320 --> 01:20:02.540 We've spent so much time at Divinity. 01:20:02.640 --> 01:20:03.500 It's been tough getting food. 01:20:05.120 --> 01:20:05.420 But they. 01:20:05.670 --> 01:20:06.120 They were great. 01:20:06.380 --> 01:20:06.860 I enjoyed it. 01:20:07.200 --> 01:20:07.400 So. 01:20:08.000 --> 01:20:08.140 Again. 01:20:08.260 --> 01:20:09.200 I'm not going to go out and buy anything. 01:20:09.380 --> 01:20:10.720 But if they're playing I'll watch them. 01:20:11.540 --> 01:20:12.400 So the headliner. 01:20:13.240 --> 01:20:14.240 Was Seventh Wonder. 01:20:14.460 --> 01:20:16.040 They're a progressive middle band from Sweden. 01:20:17.080 --> 01:20:17.440 And. 01:20:18.860 --> 01:20:19.040 Again. 01:20:19.300 --> 01:20:19.560 I'm like. 01:20:19.840 --> 01:20:20.900 Maybe one of three people. 01:20:21.220 --> 01:20:51.200 that comes to prog power that there's a band I'm just not big on. And everyone looks at me like I have five heads, which is par for the course every day. But I just can't get into them. I try so hard. And everyone's like, you don't like these guys, but you like prog. I'm like, no. I just, I try great musicians, a lot of stage presence, but it's just like, it's like this emotional prog, you know, they're, I don't know. And they have 01:20:52.880 --> 01:21:20.060 I wouldn't call them gang singing but they're definitely sing-along and they want the crowd to sing along but what kind of irked me is that they were piping in backing vocals it's not that they were adding it when he was singing I get that bands want to have that full effect of the vocals because not everyone sings in the band but they were piping in backing vocals and he wasn't singing during parts and it just looked kind of weird that no one else was singing and I guess I'm just nitpicking 01:21:21.240 --> 01:21:49.720 I'm nitpicking. Yeah, and that might be because we're drinking. Oh, yeah. We'll get to that in a second. So we left, I think, after, what, 35 minutes? I wanted to see at least some other set. People were going crazy for them, and the crowd was singing, actually, to the point where if he would stop singing, there'd be no chorus piped in, and the whole audience was singing it. And I'm just like, okay, cool. I mean, if you guys like him, that's great, but I'm going to bed. 01:21:50.160 --> 01:22:17.580 Yeah, I was getting pretty wiped out too. I kind of feel the same way. This band, obviously very talented. The vocalist is really good. All of the people in the band are good, but the style and the music just really wasn't my thing. They were worth watching. They were very professional. The crowd loved them, but I just was like, eh, it really didn't do much for me. 01:22:17.640 --> 01:22:47.620 Yeah. And we'll leave it there because we want to move on. But again, a good day, I thought, overall. It's been a good fest. So day four, final day. Hard to believe it's here. I'm going to run through these real quick, and then we'll get on to what's announced for next year. Starting off at 2 p.m. today is epic doom metal with some progressive overtones from Sweet and Sorcerer. I'm really psyched to see these guys. Big fan of their albums. They're two actual official 01:22:47.680 --> 01:23:15.860 releases. That's going to be fun. Old metal band going way back. Jag Panzer is returning. They were at the first Prog Power, which is the first time I ever saw them, and they're coming to the 20th, so that should be interesting. And they're, I believe, a U.S. band, obviously, which is kind of hard to say at these fests now because there's not very many U.S. bands at play. The third band from Australia, progressive metal, progressive rock, whatever, Caligula's Horse. 01:23:17.180 --> 01:23:20.100 I've tried to get in these guys and I'm again I'm going to be one of those three 01:23:20.260 --> 01:23:24.300 people that doesn't get into them but I'm sure they're going to draw a lot of people in 01:23:25.060 --> 01:23:32.380 the fourth band which for me will be dinner and nothing personal I just I can't get into this stuff it's 01:23:32.500 --> 01:23:46.580 poets of the fall and I have a feeling that that's going to be the best favorite overall because so many people are talking about poets of the fall I don't know anything about them whatever hopefully those people enjoy that 01:23:46.600 --> 01:24:14.620 which there'll be two less seats in there, I'm guessing. Somebody get out of our seats. The fifth band is a band I'm definitely looking forward to. It's Band Threshold, progressive metal band from England. They're one of the early ones that started in the early 90s. They've played Prog Power twice with two different singers. They've had three singers in their long career that they've had as band members. I've seen them with two. One has unfortunately passed away. 01:24:16.200 --> 01:24:45.660 So they had one singer who was on one album, Glenn Morgan, and he's actually back in the band. So he and he's also playing guitar. So they're down on guitar. So they added him also to play guitar with them. So I'm looking forward to it. He's actually my favorite singer, which is funny because I was talking with our friend Lance from the podcast and he was saying that that was his least favorite of the three and it's my favorite. So it's an interesting dynamic in the band to have these different singers, different periods. I'm looking forward to him because I've always liked the rest of the time. 01:24:45.720 --> 01:24:52.460 I enjoy their stuff. Should be fun. And the final band. The Blind Guardian 01:24:52.880 --> 01:24:56.220 slash Ice Earth collaboration of Demons and Wizards 01:24:57.220 --> 01:25:00.120 with John Schaefer and Hansi from Blind Guardian. 01:25:01.060 --> 01:25:03.260 I'm looking forward to seeing some of this. I don't know how long I'll make it. 01:25:04.320 --> 01:25:08.140 Not a big fan or anything, but two iconic bands in metal. 01:25:08.300 --> 01:25:09.960 I do want to see what they have to bring. 01:25:11.260 --> 01:25:14.680 Probably two of the power metal bands that I actually like. 01:25:15.440 --> 01:25:45.040 You know, I started in blind guardian. So I want to see what demons and wizards brings. So any comments about today before we head into the lineup for next year? Nope. It should be a pretty full day. But I'm looking forward to at least certainly for at least four of these bands for sure. Cool. All right. So they made an announcement last night for days three and four. They have not announced day one or two yet. The bands other than I think we talked about power quest. Magic never does. 01:25:45.420 --> 01:26:14.840 That's what they're going to be playing, PowerQuest. I still don't know what that is. But anyway, so let me run through the list real quick. I will say I'm a little eh about the lineup. It doesn't mean I'm not going to go. I'm definitely going to go. But I have some work to do to see if I'm interested in some of these bands. So starting off day three, from Ireland but now located in the United Kingdom, Shattered Skies. They're, I guess, they call themselves like a progressive groove metal band. They sound gent-y to me. 01:26:18.300 --> 01:26:20.860 I'll probably watch them just because I gotta watch somebody on Saturday. 01:26:21.980 --> 01:26:22.380 Or Friday. 01:26:22.860 --> 01:26:23.640 Or Friday, excuse me. 01:26:24.900 --> 01:26:27.400 Well, yeah, that would include Saturday too, actually, on that. 01:26:28.660 --> 01:26:30.420 So that's not a hint, unfortunately. 01:26:31.080 --> 01:26:31.420 Yes, it is. 01:26:32.340 --> 01:26:34.100 The next band is Witherfall. 01:26:34.600 --> 01:26:36.280 They're, I guess, progressive metal? 01:26:36.410 --> 01:26:36.920 I don't know. 01:26:38.780 --> 01:26:39.360 Dark metal? 01:26:39.470 --> 01:26:41.740 I don't know what you want to call them because they have kind of a dark vibe to them. 01:26:42.780 --> 01:26:44.680 They actually, the little bit I heard was okay. 01:26:45.720 --> 01:27:14.660 Again, these are single songs we're listening to this morning. They're a U.S. band. Should have known something. They were selling all kinds of merch in the back of the merch room. I should have put two and two together. Third band is a melodic death metal band from Finland. Shocker that that would come from that part of the world, Insomnium. Eternal Tears of Sorrow. A little bit I heard was okay. I don't know anything about them. I mean, I'll check them out. So I think up to this point on day three, 01:27:14.740 --> 01:27:43.320 on Friday. I'll have a little bit to watch going each time, but there's nobody there that's, you know, making me want to spend the whole time there. But I'll watch each one. Dinner session possibly for me here with this next band at that point. I guess they're from Sweden. They're Hard Rock AOR. AOR for you, people who don't know, Album Oriented Rock. The Night Flight Orchestra. I don't know anything about this band. I listened to one song, and I wanted to check out another band after that. 01:27:44.720 --> 01:28:14.420 A lot of people are excited about this. I don't know. We'll see. The next band is the one that kind of was a head scratcher. I'm not sure why this is happening, but Jeff Soto Scott is coming back to play. Jeff Scott Soto. I can never work so I'm not a big fan. I mean, he's a great singer, but I'm not big into his stuff. He's doing a tribute to Queen, so it's going to be all Queen music. He's a great singer, so sure it'd be good, but I'm not sure why they're doing this. 01:28:14.500 --> 01:28:43.120 I haven't heard anyone say anything. So I'm going to have to watch because they do the announcement after the fifth band on Friday. So at this point I was kind of like, oh boy, this is going to be a tough one. And then they made my Friday. Fine, I'll survive. From Norway making a return and a band that's been kind of not active for a while, but band members have been active. 01:28:43.480 --> 01:29:13.440 That's the band Conception. I'm a big fan of these guys. If you're not familiar with them, they're kind of one of the earlier prog metal bands from the early 90s. And they're from Norway, which there was really no prog metal coming out of Norway in the early 90s. They have Roy Kahn, who was the singer also in Camelot. I can never pronounce his name, but his first name, I believe, was Torrey, the guitarist. He was also in a band called Ark, which had the singer Jorn. Or some people might say Jorn, but it's actually Jorn. 01:29:14.120 --> 01:29:43.460 who's a really famous kind of hard rock singer too. I'm looking forward to that. I'm pretty big on that. So do you have any thoughts about that first or day three lineup? No, I pretty much, I'm probably not going next year, but there was no hook for me there. Yeah, I figured as much. So before we go any further, we are drinking beer. Tara, why don't you tell us what we're drinking? It's an IPA from Iron Monger called 01:29:43.500 --> 01:29:45.220 But this one goes to 11. 01:29:46.640 --> 01:29:54.380 Yes, and for any of you who don't know what that means, that is a reference from the movie, the brilliant movie, Spinal Tap. 01:29:56.020 --> 01:30:03.980 Yeah, and I like the way that they put the font of the letters on the can here. It's pretty much like the Spinal Tap lettering. 01:30:04.020 --> 01:30:33.980 And they put little pictures of the IPA juice in each one of the, it's got knobs on there and it does go to 11. So. Yeah, the knobs he's referring to are on his amp that he's, when he's being interviewed. And the character's name is, for anyone who doesn't know. That's Nigel Tufnell. Or at some moments you hear Nigel Tufnell. And Nigel is basically their caricature of Jeffing. 01:30:34.020 --> 01:31:03.960 Jeff Beck, I think, in the movie, for the most part. He certainly looks like him. Yeah. But he does some Jimmy Page stuff when he plays the violin with a bow, and I think he uses his foot at one point. So anyway. All right, so day four. It's a Saturday. First band. Their list is a symphonic metal band from Finland. I'm going to say it's Aryan. Or Aryan, which would be kind of weird because there's already a band called Aryan. 01:31:04.000 --> 01:31:32.860 It's A-R-I-O-N. So we'll say Arian. Be safe. Symphonic metal, female and male vocals. I'm kind of over that drama. A lot of people seem to be excited about them. I think they're a newer band. We'll see. The next band is a prog rock band. They might get a little heavy once in a while. They're kind of eclectic in their sound. They're from the United States. Thank you, Scientist. I want to like this band. 01:31:35.700 --> 01:32:00.100 They have a few albums out. I'll probably watch them, but I don't know how much I'll be into them. I don't know what to think of them. It's interesting. I'll probably watch just because they are different. They're probably the oddball in this whole fest so far. Third band is a multinational band. They're like a power heavy metal band called Beast in Black. I know nothing about this band. Literally zero. Never heard of them. People went crazy. 01:32:04.040 --> 01:32:33.980 I got one band I'm really digging and then all of a sudden they announced from the Netherlands The Gathering and I'm just like what? The Gathering? I'm a huge Gathering fan. I prefer the Annika years more than any of the other periods but I will definitely want to see them because I think it's four original members are in the band again and they're newer singer or current singer. I'm down. I mean it's a gathering coming to the States I'm going to watch regardless 01:32:34.020 --> 01:33:03.880 who's in the band. So I was really excited. But I didn't get as excited about it like I did with Conception because I was kind of in shock. I was like, I never saw that coming. The fifth band, or artist, I should say, which I saw. When they do the video, you can see pictures of the bands, but it's really fast. And you have to pay attention. And I saw this and I immediately lost my shit because I'm really psyched. From Norway, bringing his brand of progressive black metal, returning, Eson. 01:33:07.080 --> 01:33:33.140 The place literally exploded when they announced him. I was so happy to see that. That's going to be fun. I mean, Conception was loud. Isan was loud. They got the two biggest, I think, applause during this set. So I'm like, okay, I got three bands I can watch now. I'm pretty happy. And then finally, headlining the fest. This band has like five different versions of it. 01:33:33.160 --> 01:34:02.500 It's all named different things with one common word. This version is called the Terili Leone Rhapsody. This is coming and a place went crazy for this. I'm not a Rhapsody fan, but I'll probably watch just because I do believe they are very classy in the way they approach things and it's pretty well done. But that could be an early night for me. So that's it. Any thoughts on day four? Nope. Also, no hooks here for me. 01:34:02.560 --> 01:34:32.460 So I probably won't be here next year. But, you know, I will say that I was kind of puzzled by some of the choices this year in terms of like when you think about prog bands and power metal bands, a couple of these bands, I don't see how they fit into this. I know he picked some kind of oddball choices sometimes, but I was really kind of puzzled by this Night Flight Orchestra and then the Queen Tribute. 01:34:32.540 --> 01:34:38.260 I just I'm not sure I don't see how that fits in but you know it's it's Glenn's 01:34:38.420 --> 01:34:44.720 thing and he can do what he wants but I was just some of this stuff I just don't get yeah he's actually 01:34:45.040 --> 01:35:02.520 bringing a lot of bands that are on the very low end of notoriety and some massive heavy hitters I mean anything to do with Rhapsody is going to be huge bringing Conception back is big for this type of a fest the gathering and Eson don't necessarily fit but 01:35:03.020 --> 01:35:32.220 I think they're going to get amazing receptions. So it's definitely a different lineup this year than the past. So maybe that's what makes it a good lineup. I don't know. I'm not going to piss on it like some people already have. They're whining and bitching. And some people are acting like it's the greatest ever. Glenn had something really funny to say. He said, well, there you have it. There's days three and four. He was telling everyone in the venue. And he says, and I can guarantee you I'm going to only hear three things. This is the most amazing lineup ever. This is the worst fucking lineup ever. 01:35:32.520 --> 01:36:02.020 Who the fuck is that band? And that's pretty much all people have been saying. So. All right. So that's it for day three at Prague Power with our upcoming next year lineup. We'll get back to you tomorrow at some point with day four and a wrap up with the festival. So we have reached the end of Prague Power. It's over. We are the next day. It's Monday. We are recovering from a long week and we're going to talk about the final day and wrap it up. 01:36:02.520 --> 01:36:32.420 And that'll be it for this year. So, day four. Kicked off with Sorcerer. This is one of the bands I was really excited to see. And let me say, they did not disappoint. I wasn't sure how a kind of doom band with some prog overtones would go over. And they just fucking slayed. They were awesome. And I think they got a good reception because at one point, Tiara and I were kind of, we weren't lamenting. We were like, well, not a lot of people here yet to start. 01:36:32.520 --> 01:37:01.220 And out of nowhere, it filled up pretty nicely, I thought, for them. The floor wasn't 100% full, but it was pretty packed down there. And fists were in the air, and people were screaming and cheering, and people all around were headbanging there in their set. And they were awesome. I really enjoyed it. They played every song I wanted to hear from their two album releases. And then they closed that with, obviously, The Sorcerer, which that was pretty cool. That was their little Opeth Black Rose of the Immortal moment where people were yelling out, 01:37:02.540 --> 01:37:32.400 their final song. So yeah, like all four people that were doing it. But it was great. Super way to start off the day. I'm glad we got there early and got great. We had super seats and killer way to kick off the final day. TR. Yeah. So as you know, coming into this, there weren't any bands in particular that I really knew about. And this was one that I listened to a little bit of. I listened to a little bit of all of them. But this was the one where I was like, yeah, these guys. 01:37:32.560 --> 01:38:02.500 sound pretty good. And then seeing them and hearing all their music that they played during their set, as you know, it was like I pushed all my chips in. I'm all in on this band. And the nice thing is, as long as they've been around, they only have two albums. So it was real easy to get the whole catalog, thanks to you also, because I went over to the merch area and nobody had any more. But then I forgot about the other merch area where they still had a couple. And I think you got the last one of 01:38:02.520 --> 01:38:32.260 one of the discs. Yeah, I decided to walk out and I was in the bathroom and I heard two guys talking about shirts and I was like, fuck, man, I don't want to buy another shirt. So I walked over to see what he was talking about regarding the Sorcerer's shirts and I walked over and I saw the CDs sitting there. This is a separate merch area. This is the band merch area. There's a band merch area which is actually inside the venue and then in this venue complex, there's three different venues that use a third small venue which has a bar. They put all the merch, 01:38:33.560 --> 01:38:36.560 for all the different vendors. So you've got that, which is separate from 01:38:37.200 --> 01:38:40.680 where we are for the band merch. There were two CDs sitting there. 01:38:41.360 --> 01:38:45.760 And I asked her, are those the only ones you got left? And she said, yeah. I literally grabbed the last one from the 01:38:46.540 --> 01:38:49.780 Fire King album. And some guy walked up and says, hey, do you got any more of those albums? 01:38:50.320 --> 01:38:52.760 And it was the last one. So TR scored thanks to my 01:38:53.920 --> 01:38:54.740 having to go to the bathroom. 01:38:56.040 --> 01:38:58.360 So that played out. I'll be eternally grateful to your bladder. 01:38:59.360 --> 01:38:59.820 Thank you, bladder. 01:39:01.020 --> 01:39:30.920 Yeah, so anyway, yeah, I was blown away by these guys and really loved their sound and everything they played. I was just, I loved it, so. And I think I'm kind of more of a Doom guy in terms of just the genre that I like the best of metal, so. This was a revelation to me, so I told him he has tons of music coming his way. You're a traditional Doom fan, I think, so I think you're going to enjoy a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Yep, so that was a good way to start the day, I'll tell you. 01:39:31.020 --> 01:40:00.560 that. Cool. So we'll run through these next few bands. Jagpanzer came out and they had an hour to play and they literally spent one minute talking to us. I think we were told, look, we'd love to talk. We're going to try to jam as much music into this hour as we possibly can. I think they played like 13 songs and they kicked ass. It was great. Old school metal, kind of thrashy stuff a little bit here and there. Pretty fast paced. 01:40:00.560 --> 01:40:30.020 Just an onslaught for an hour straight. Literally did not stop. I mean, a song would end, they kick into a little intro thing. They did a lot of intro bits that were like 5 to 15 seconds and then just ripped through every fucking song. So, two bands, and we're just like, wow, crap, we need a breather after that. Yeah, it was. It was an onslaught is a good word because, and I kind of wish that they had taken a little more time to talk, but I'm sure that the fans of the band were real excited to get that extra song or two. 01:40:30.580 --> 01:40:34.060 But just like being there it was like oh man you know 01:40:35.260 --> 01:40:39.320 somebody's got to let up here because this is this is just you know it was rough. I mean 01:40:39.780 --> 01:41:00.540 nothing against them. They were they were really good. I really liked them. I thought they the vocalist was amazing. I was really impressed with him and you know the whole band was good but I just I felt like man we could have used like a couple little breaks in there just to kind of cleanse the palate for the next song and it was just like right you know bam bam bam and 01:41:00.560 --> 01:41:01.460 So, yeah. 01:41:01.900 --> 01:41:04.180 And there wasn't one slow song of the 13 they played. 01:41:04.660 --> 01:41:11.520 And it should be noted that Jagpanzer was at the first Prog Power back in 2001 at J.J. Kelly's just south of Chicago. 01:41:11.700 --> 01:41:14.480 So it was kind of fun to see them back 20 years later. 01:41:15.020 --> 01:41:18.600 For a band that had already been around for a long time, the first time they were there. 01:41:18.840 --> 01:41:21.500 So they were definitely the oldest of the group. 01:41:22.060 --> 01:41:25.880 You know, they outdid Psychotic Waltz by X number of years. 01:41:26.280 --> 01:41:26.940 So that was fun. 01:41:27.680 --> 01:41:27.960 All right. 01:41:27.980 --> 01:41:57.660 So the next band was Caligula's Horse. Which is a. I guess they're listed as a prog metal band from Australia. And a lot of people were ready to see them. I have tried so hard to get into these guys. They have a rabid fan base it seems like. I mean. The crowd was going crazy for them. I wasn't bang on the vocals too much. I mean he put a lot into it. But I just wasn't into his style. And they did a little too much of that genti chugging. And I can take a little bit of it. 01:41:57.980 --> 01:42:27.720 It seemed like it was a lot. They played their heavier stuff I got for the fest because they can get pretty mellow in some of their passages. We watched enough to make a judgment and it just wasn't my thing. People loved them, but we, I think, decided that that was the time that we wanted to get food. Yeah, and this was their first U.S. show ever. And so that was kind of interesting. And you could tell that the crowd, just like, 01:42:27.980 --> 01:42:57.940 for Galnerius where you have these guys coming from a long way away that have never played here before. I think the crowd really wanted to welcome them. And there were plenty of fans in the group. But like you, I liked them musically, but I just, you know, some of the vocals, like the guys' falsetto, I just, I don't know, I wasn't into that. But I could see, like, if they had, like, some instrumental passages or something, that would be kind of cool. 01:42:59.860 --> 01:43:05.780 I like the personalities of the guys and everything and you could tell like a big difference 01:43:06.160 --> 01:43:27.960 between these old-school guys Jagpanzer and these totally new-school guys that are you know you could tell they're all young and you know what a difference in just appearance stage presence I mean everything it couldn't be more different and but it was but it's all you know part of the fest right and so it was really interesting to see that dynamic yeah it's funny to see 01:43:27.980 --> 01:43:57.440 the older guys headbanging the whole song and the newer bands waiting for their moments to headbang. I found that kind of funny. But anyway, I wanted to see them at least for a few minutes just because they came from so far. But, you know, maybe I'll get into them later. I don't know. It's just not working right now for me. So the next band was Poets of the Fall, which apparently, other than Galnerius, this is the band everyone wanted to see. And TR and I went for food and beer, so we really don't have much to say about them. Unfortunately, we had to pick some, at some point, 01:43:57.460 --> 01:44:26.160 Somebody has to get missed in the fest, no matter how hard you try to watch everyone. I mean, I think we saw 18 bands play out of the 20, and this is one of them. And I just looked at it like this. Hey, whoever was hanging out during one of the bands I liked, they were hanging out in the lobby area, they could have our seats while they watch them. So unfortunately, we have nothing to report on the band other than the fact that everyone loved them, except TR and John. Well, we really didn't see them, so we really don't know. I mean, you know. We know. Okay. 01:44:28.320 --> 01:44:56.680 The next band was Threshold, which I was really excited to see. I've been a fan of these guys for years. It's the third time they've played Prog Power. In their long history, getting back to the early 90s, they've had three different singers. And I have been fortunate to see them perform with all three different singers, all three times they've played at Prog Power. I think they've only got four actual U.S. states total of their name. I think they played Ross Fest recently. And they did the 70,000 Ton Sting. 01:44:56.860 --> 01:45:26.680 I'm not going and getting on a boat with a bunch of drunks and all that disease floating around. I'll probably get knocked off in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle and drown to death. So if that boat doesn't leave, then, you know, your chances of survival are right. I'm joking, of course, because everyone who goes down to that thing loves it. They say they have a blast. But I thought they were great. It's funny. I like the singer that they had there the most of their three singers. And I know a lot of fans put him third. I just like his style. I thought his style matched better with their, 01:45:26.860 --> 01:45:56.520 Longtime singer Mac that passed away a few years ago. And the set list was really good. They played a lot of the new album, which I was down on. And then listening to it a little more, I started to like it more. And live, I thought it was great. They picked a few choice cuts from their past. Played some early stuff that the current singer, you know, Glenn Morgan was on, on their second album back in 94, 95 when it came out. I was, I loved their set. They had a lot of energy. And I thought the crowd was pretty good. 01:45:56.880 --> 01:46:04.940 Considering that their songs were longer and it was definitely metal, but they're more traditional 01:46:05.240 --> 01:46:09.960 prog metal, not newer stuff. And I thought the crowd was pretty good and it was pretty full in there for them. 01:46:10.640 --> 01:46:26.500 So that was a great, great set for me. Yeah, same here. I enjoyed them. I thought that everybody in the band played very well and the vocalist sounded really good. He played guitar as well. That was kind of cool. And yeah, the crowd seemed into it. 01:46:26.580 --> 01:46:56.420 despite the fact that there are passages in Threshold that are kind of mellow or chilled out for a little bit. Which was good. I mean, you need that, right? I think it can't all be Jagpanzer Thresh songs for every second of the thing. But they did a great job. I enjoyed the pace, the whole thing. Yeah, and their guitarist was just... They traditionally have two guitarists. They usually have six members in the band, but their longtime guitarist had left a few years ago. 01:46:56.580 --> 01:47:26.420 They had a guy that replaced him that was with them for a while. And he since left to do his own thing. So they were down a guitarist and down a singer. Or they made a change to singer. I don't know what happened there. But when they brought in Glenn Morgan, he's also a guitar player. So he didn't play the whole time. But he played probably about a third to 40% of the time he was playing. And he's a pretty good player. I mean, he's not out there soloing. But he more than adequately added what they needed. And then some. So they were awesome. Anything else about them? Nope. 01:47:26.560 --> 01:47:27.620 I enjoyed them. 01:47:29.180 --> 01:47:32.660 Then it came to the point where TR and John were like, oh man, this is rough. 01:47:33.480 --> 01:47:37.800 I just want to see a few seconds of Demons and Wizards and then move on. 01:47:39.460 --> 01:47:47.240 And in the lead up to Demons and Wizards, there's about a 45 minute break in between the 5th band and 6th band at the fast speed. 01:47:47.300 --> 01:47:50.900 So the headliner gets a lot of time to set up their stage because they always get their own stage set up. 01:47:51.280 --> 01:47:52.840 They use their own equipment across the board. 01:47:55.080 --> 01:48:24.900 If you don't know Demons and Wizards, it's made up of Hansi from Blind Guardian and John Schaefer from Iced Earth. And they've got out two albums dating back to 1999 and then 2005, I believe. And I hadn't really listened to them much, but I figured that the music sounded similar to the two bands. Well, we had heard a rumor that a certain former singer from Iced Earth was going to come out and sing with them. And I looked at him and I said, I can't fucking believe this, man. I kind of don't want to stick around. 01:48:25.080 --> 01:48:28.980 I want to go back but I'm not going to miss out on possibly Matt Barlow singing. 01:48:30.140 --> 01:48:55.060 I'll stop you right there. He did not come out. He did in New York but he did not come out for this show. At least not when we were there. So we stuck around and ended up absolutely loving their set. That is probably the most energetic set I've seen in the 20 years I've been at Prog Power. The fans were fucking rabid. It was insane. I mean they came out and played a couple songs and then Hansi went 01:48:55.080 --> 01:49:25.040 to address the crowd and for, I'm not kidding, for five minutes, they just cheered his name. And then they stopped when he finally got everyone to stop. Then they started cheering John Schaefer's name. And it just, it didn't stop. And they were, at one point, they both had to walk back a few steps and they were laughing. But what we didn't know is he was waiting for something to get taped to his monitor. And when it finally came, he says, okay, now we can continue. So I've been waiting for that the whole time. So he kind of made light of the fact that it took a long time. They just absolutely fucking crushed it. 01:49:25.140 --> 01:49:54.880 their set. I don't know if I'm going to be a super fan or anything, but I'll tell you, I definitely, I doubt we'll get a chance to see them ever again. I can't imagine they're going to tour because they only have two albums over the past 20 years. There's plenty of material there. There is, but let me just tell you, they pretty much hit both albums pretty well, but they played two Blind Guardian songs and two Iced Earth songs. When they played Burning Times by Iced Earth, the place just went crazy, and I thought Hansi sounded great. 01:49:55.060 --> 01:50:24.940 singing that. And then they played Welcome to Dying, which is a classic Blind Guardian song. And they were back to back. No break between the songs. They just went right into both. It was insane. I mean, there was a massive pit on the floor, several of them actually. I mean, fists were in the air the whole time. People were screaming. They were singing the lyrics. Hans didn't even sing half of the choruses because it was so loud in there. That's the loudest I've ever heard it. So what were your takes up to that point? I was blown away. I mean, the crowd, 01:50:25.060 --> 01:50:29.280 I don't think you know and I haven't been going as long as you but I can tell you 01:50:29.720 --> 01:50:55.040 that was the most crazy crowd I've ever seen these guys were so hungry for this and just insane like just like crazy I've never seen these people go this bananas for a band and we've seen them go bananas for stuff but this was like this was beyond like they were just everybody was like like going nuts yeah 01:50:55.040 --> 01:51:24.680 It was great. So the song that I knew, I read that Matt Baller would come out for in New York was another obviously Iced Earth song. So I said to Terry, I said, why don't we wait and see what happens at that point, then we'll decide. So it got to that point. That was 12 songs in and it was I Died For You. He didn't come out. And I was like, he's not coming out. I can't imagine he's going to, and maybe he does at this point. I mean, I'm literally beat. So the next song he plays Valhalla and I knew it was coming. They played Valhalla. Place again went crazy. 01:51:24.740 --> 01:51:53.540 They went crazy for both songs, but they really went nuts for Valhalla. And then they do this thing where the crowd sings Valhalla at the end while the band is kind of, they bring it down to a low level. And then the band stops playing and the crowd keeps singing Valhalla. It must have went on for like five minutes. They just kept singing Valhalla, the final lyric to that. And they did it last time we saw them. And I said, how are you feeling? And T.R. says, yeah, I think I'm pretty good at this point. So we ended up making 13 of the 18 songs. So we almost made it to actually the encore. 01:51:54.220 --> 01:52:24.200 I couldn't do it anymore. And we had to get up early because we hit the road at 6 a.m. So your thoughts going through for the rest of their set? Wow. Yeah, just they were tremendous. Like you, I don't know. I probably actually check out their albums. I mean, it's only two albums. So it's like, you know, I wouldn't be in for much. And and and for what they did, like I enjoyed what they played. I mean, all the songs that they did were good. And what a presence that Hansi and 01:52:24.240 --> 01:52:54.200 John both and the rest of the band you know everybody in the band was tremendous I mean it was super tight and and just you know Hansi has a way about him that's just like there's there's an intensity but there's like fun and you can tell that he appreciates the crowd but he also you know kind of eggs them on and and and just I don't know it was really you could tell this guy is well loved and he understands it but he's also grateful but he also like you know 01:52:54.200 --> 01:53:24.160 Kind of plays it up a little too. Yeah, and he doesn't run around and he doesn't throw his fist in the air and chant and scream. He kind of methodically, like a wizard, just kind of maneuvers to pieces around the board. He's the wizard. Yeah. And John is the demon. I think that's pretty much what everyone's figured out. But he just, he kind of just methodically walks and he just has this look on his face when he looks at anyone who's ever seen Blind Guardian. And you just want to cheer for him. It's kind of, it's almost, I don't want to say captivate anybody, 01:53:24.220 --> 01:53:54.000 But he has a very good stage presence and he's fun to watch. And he does this thing where he leans forward on his front leg. And every time he does, I feel like my back's going to go out just because I can't do that. So awesome way to end the set or show, I should say. It was a great prog power. So let's kind of recap what we liked and then our final thoughts and then I'll be dead. So why don't you tell me what your favorite, let's do three bands. What do you think your three bands were that kind of stood out to you the most in this fest? 01:53:54.220 --> 01:54:21.640 Top Band for me was Sorcerer, for sure. They were excellent, and I really enjoyed their stuff, and like I said, I was all in on them. I really liked Sanctuary's set. That was another band I kind of felt like, wow, yeah, I could get into this. This was really, really good. And then, I don't know, it's tough between Threshold and Demons and Wizards. Who gets that third spot? Tie for third. Yeah, okay, fair enough. All right, that's a good list. So I'll go reverse. 01:54:25.020 --> 01:54:53.440 I have to think about this for a second. I'm going to say I have a tie for third also between Demons and Wizards and Barren Earth. I actually did like Barren Earth's set a lot. I'm a big fan of theirs. I would say second was Threshold and Sorcerer. They only played for an hour and that was the best hour of the whole fest for me. So that takes it for me. There were other great bands. I mean, I really enjoyed... Yes, the Kodak Waltz was good. I enjoyed Tomorrow's Eve's set. I mean, Odin Ogden. 01:54:53.580 --> 01:55:23.540 I'm not a Power Metal fan. I enjoyed their set a lot. I thought they were great. Or Ordon Ogun. Ogden Ogun. Ogden Ogun. Ogden Ogun. It's a long running joke for the weekend. Anyway, so Fest 20 for Prague Power USA 2019 is over. I thought it was great. Saw a lot of old friends that I've seen for years that I've actually known since the very first 01:55:23.580 --> 01:55:53.400 First Fest, some new friends. It was great to see Babs and Julie and Lance. We saw our friend Ed. I don't hang out at any of the parties. I haven't the whole time I've been here. I've never gone to any of the parties after each night, and I still have a ton of people I see all the time. We've met some new people, talked to a lot of people. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad you got to come down, TR, and we got to do a lot of babbling about this here and there and drink a lot of beer. Yeah, great time. I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I could do this. 01:55:53.560 --> 01:56:23.540 You know, fourth Prog Power for me. And it's, yeah. Now I'm starting to know all the people and, you know, kind of. You had some friends that came down that you met up in Philadelphia. Yeah. Patrick and Dan from the chemist show that I saw up there. And they, this was their first Prog Power and I could tell they were having a good time. They really enjoyed it. Yeah. Awesome. So that's it for us. We're going to hit the road and get going and get back to D.C. If you listen, thanks for checking it out. And until next week, 01:56:23.600 --> 01:56:40.560 Next year. Later. Middleheads Butler out. Awesome. Test one, two, three. Check one. Testes one, two. Testes one, two. Testes.