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Features, Tours and Festivals

ProgPower USA Reveals 2019 Day 1 & 2 Lineup

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Now that the 2018 ProgPower USA Festival has ended and since we’ve shared the announcements about the 2019 Day 3 and Day 4 performing lineup, we can finish off the topic by revealing the recently announced Day 1 and Day 2 performers. Before we begin, I suggest that you peruse THIS LINK to see those weekend performers because a few of them are going to blow your Metal mind while some others will surely spark new levels of musical curiosity in you. This video isn’t as long as the other one, so just enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and be informed. I recommend letting it play in full and wear headphones if you are in a public space to not disturb those around you.

The Lineup: Iron Mask, Secret Sphere, Insomnium, Pretty Maids, Tomorrow’s Eve, Mayan, Galneryus, Evergrey.

Be Advised: Tickets will go on sale Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 at 10am ET via Ticketmaster. Only 900 tickets will be made available to the general public, and tickets for the past 5 years have sold-out in less than 3 days!
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Features, Tours and Festivals

ProgPower USA Reveals 2019 Day 3 & 4 Lineup

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progpower usa 2019 logo

Though placed on their Official Vimeo Page just the other day, I could not attend to this news until right now but not to worry, its nothing that’s late at all when it comes down to it. We’ve arrived at the time of the year where hundreds and hundreds of Progressive and Power Metal fans converge in a single location in Atlanta, GA for the annual ProgPower USA Festival. The four-day affair is ticketed as the first two days and then the second two days. Generally speaking, the weekend shows are the biggest draw and the announcement video is online for all to examine. I think they reveal this for the audience on the second day of the happening so let’s take a look at it. Please be advised that while this is a long clip, it’s got a lot of awesome music to enjoy so here we go.

The Lineup: Wind Rose, Subsignal, Barren Earth, Psychotic Waltz, Orden Ogan, Seventh Wonder, Sorcerer, Jad Panzer, Caligula’s Horse, Poets Of The Fall, Threshold, Demons & Wizards.

Be Advised: Tickets will go on sale Saturday, Oct. 5, 2018 at 10am ET via Ticketmaster. Only 900 tickets will be made available to the general public, and tickets for the past 5 years have sold-out in less than 3 days!
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Events, Reviews

ProgPower USA XVIII Day Four Musings (9/9/2017)

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Contributor Steven Stolper was on point enjoying the findings at the annual ProgPower USA Festival that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at the Center Stage Atlanta theater and as already noted in one of the earlier chapters, PiercingMetal has NEVER been to the event despite the occasional interest. Fortunately, Agent Stolper was sending a final transmission to the Metal High Command from the field about this mission. Here now are his transcribed views bout the fourth and final day of ProgPowerUSA XVIII.

ProgPowerUSA XVIII Day 4: 3 days of nonstop music and parties take a toll on the body and the mind, so difficult choices had to be made and some sets were skipped. Pain and Amaranthe namely. All of the Day 4 bands except the opener were from Sweden, a testament to the country’s great contribution to the genre and popular music in general.

Seven Spires (USA):
Australia’s Teramaze was originally scheduled to perform in the opening timeslot, but unfortunately had to cancel a few days before due to health issues. That was upsetting because Teramaze was one of the bands I was looking forward to the most. Their latest album, Her Halo, was a really tasty slab of melodic prog metal. Boston’s SevenSpires answered the call and rushed to Georgia to bring their brand of metal to the masses. Seven Spires play aggressively melodic euro power metal with a female singer named Adrienne Cowan, who does both clean and extreme vocals equally well. Their video single, Cabaret of Dreams, sounded true to its name live, like a metallized groovy cabaret number. Other songs were more traditional, with many pounding harsh voiced numbers. The band had a very energetic stage presence and did a good job whipping the somewhat sleepy audience back into fighting shape.
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Events, Reviews

ProgPower USA XVIII Day Three Musings (9/8/2017)

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Contributor Steven Stolper was on point enjoying the findings at the annual ProgPower USA Festival that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at the Center Stage Atlanta theater. Historically speaking, PiercingMetal has NEVER been to the event but we’ve occasionally had interest in going based on the lineup for the year. I asked for a quick briefing of the acts that he saw and here are his transmissions to the High Command from the field about Day Three



ProgPowerUSA XVIII Day 3: Day 3 (or “Day 1” as it used to be known as until a couple of years ago) is when the ProgPower machine really revs into high gear. There are more bands (six versus four), longer sets performed, more autograph signing sessions, more merch and a whole lot more Prog. This year, almost all of the “Day 3” bands were heavy on the Progressive side with one notable exception being the visitors from Spain, Lords of Black. I assumed that this is due to different musical tastes of the booking teams of Days 1-2 vs 3-4. Although, as mentioned before, this seems to vary recently, probably based on touring schedules of non-exclusive bands. Speaking of exclusivity, all of the bands playing Friday, except Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress, are flying in specifically for the ProgPower event and are NOT doing standard tours of the regions around the country. This is what makes this festival so unique and attractive to fans of the genre living in the Americas. It is often the only opportunity to see these bands live.

Daydream XI (Brazil):
Brazilian newcomers opened the main event on Friday in a very impressive fashion. Smooth progressive metal with thick dual guitars and nice vox is a recipe that has very broad appeal for the ProgPower crowd. I was not familiar with the band’s material beforehand. I suppose that was true for most attendees, but the band’s music was easy to connect with. A friend described it as a more mellow and sexy Symphony X. Sounds about right. No one really wants to have to be too analytical about music at 2PM on a Friday anyway, especially after 2 days of the festival. Most impressively, singer Tiago Masseti also handled the second guitar duties, including many of the solos. Highlight of the set was a beautiful piano and vocals only ballad, which really showcased singer’s lovely voice.
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Events, Reviews

ProgPower USA XVIII Day One Musings (9/6/2017)

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Contributor Steven Stolper was following up to some inquiries I had made of him recently and then shared that he was away for the weekend enjoying the findings at the annual ProgPower USA Festival that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at the Center Stage Atlanta theater. Historically speaking, PiercingMetal has NEVER been to the event but we’ve occasionally had interest in going based on the lineup for the year. With Steven on point, I asked for a quick briefing of the acts that he saw. Here are his transmissions to the High Command from the field.

ProgPower USA Musings. Day 1: It’s the end of summer. The time for the great annual Southern pilgrimage for fans of progressive and power metal. Every year fans of the genre from all over the world converge on Atlanta to feast their eyes and ears on the kind of music normally reserved for the big European metal fests. Following are some brief comments on the bands’ performances.

Power Quest (UK):
First North American appearance by this veteran British collective. Their guitar players could not make it over the pond so they recruited two Americans , including Bill Hudson (Jon Oliva, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Dirkschneider). The music was solid European style power metal, similar to Helloween. They were let down a bit by lackluster sound mix that did no favors to the vocals. Matt Smith of Theocracy, a great American power metal band, joined them on stage for a few songs.

Serenity (Austria):
Sound was much improved for Serenity. Vocals were a lot clearer and guitars really soared. Serenity’s brand of earnest symphonic metal was well received. Earlier material especially impressed with classy memorable songs.
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