PROGPOWER SCANDINAVIA 2007
(Copenhagen - Denmark)

A light-hearted overview of ProgPower Scandinavia, The Rock, Copenhagen, Friday 9 th and Saturday 10 th November 2007

Christmas came early in Copenhagen, thanx to Claus Jenson and his merry little helpers at Intromental Management, in the form of ProgPower Scandinavia. The fourth and newest member of the PP fraternity took place at The Rock, a fairly small – capacity 700 or so – nightclub pretty much in the centre of Copenhagen, and at 8pm on the Friday night, France’s SPHERIC UNIVERSE EXPERIENCE had the honour of being the first ever PPS band; and a pretty good job they made of it too. Despite the lengthy intro tape and some obvious stage nerves, the five-piece soon hit their stride and dazzled the crowd with some clever keyboard and guitar interplay courtesy of Fred Colombo and Vince Benaim. The hacking intro riff to ‘Neptune’s Revenge’ from their current album ‘Anima’ got some heads moving at the front, but it was the closing pair of ‘So Cold’ – a seemingly straightforward song with some complex instrumental parts – from their 2005 debut ‘Mental Torments’ and ‘Heal My Pain’ from ‘Anima’ which really got the party started.

CIRCUS MAXIMUS appeared to be more animated, more aggressive, than they did at ProgPower Europe, and pretty much romped through an hour’s material from their two albums ‘The 1 st Chapter’ and ‘Isolate’. Vocalist Michael Eriksen was in fine form, and what Mats Haugen did to his guitar bordered on abuse. When we tackled bassist Glen Cato M ø llen about this later he seemed surprised at our observation as, from the band’s point of view, they were all exhausted from a long day’s travelling and were afraid that this would have impaired their performance. But if this was an example of what the band can do when they’re tired, we’re going to keep them awake for 48 hours straight before they play at PPUK: wind ‘em up and watch ‘em go! Needless to say, Glen wasn’t overly happy with the proposal, but soon realised it was a joke… Maybe…

By the time THRESHOLD – a band never that far from a ProgPower – hit the stage The Rock was heaving. Absolutely jam-packed. Stick a sardine in that crowd and he’d think he’d got a good deal. The UK’s finest kicked things off with ‘Slipstream’ (by the way, is it just us at PPUK who think the line “do you really think so?” is a bit too wussy for a black metal bark?) and ran through 90 minutes of classy progressive metal. With Damian Wilson back behind the mikestand and Pete Morten on second guitar the band are tighter and more explosive than ever before: a joy to watch and a pleasure to listen to. Highlights included Karl Groom’s soloing during ‘Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams’ and Johanne James drumming – all of it. I don’t think many people got the irony of Damian dedicating ‘Mission Profile’ to the Americans, but his supercharged performance overcame any unwarranted objections. Rounding things off on a semi-humorous note, the singer was almost ejected from the club – with the rest of the band still playing! – for climbing around the outside of the balcony, and then introduced Pete Morten as ‘Steve’ at which he appeared truly mortified (although apparently he has done this before). Encores of ‘Sanity’s End’ and ‘This Is Your Life’ topped things off with bucketloads of panache.

Unfortunately we missed headliners MERCENARY: it was already past midnight and we were knackered. I have little doubt that they were excellent, as we’ve caught them before at ProgPower Europe 2006 and they played a blinding show. Later, back at the hotel, the PPUK team – those of us not discussing Damian Wilson’s hair, that is – hit upon a three-point plan to guarantee Threshold global domination:

• Make Damian and Pete Morten a Godfather-style offer they can’t refuse so that they stay in the band;
• Rename everyone ‘Steve’ so that Damian can remember their names (in the spirit of this we decided that bassist Steve Anderson would have to be known as Steve Steve); and
• Change the line “do you really think so?” to something more 'metal'

Maybe we’d drunk too much.

Saturday’s proceedings got underway at 6pm, with ANDROMEDA doing the honours. For some reason, there appeared to be less people on the second night, but that didn’t faze the Swedes who came across live as considerably heavier than on CD but without sacrificing the intricacies of their music. Johan Reinholdz in particular seemed to be having an enormous amount of fun, teasing all manner of intricate solos out of his guitar, and the set’s standout tracks ‘The Hidden Riddle’ and ‘Inner Circle’ (both from 2006’s ‘Chimera’ album) showcased the band’s technical abilities.

An interview with Andromeda meant we missed the first couple of songs from MACHINE MEN, but any band that can introduce itself with the words “we are Machine Men from Finland – land of drunk people” is OK by me. Heavy on riffs and heavy on mascara, the Machine Boys played a blend of prime time metal, at times almost seemingly plucked from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Although they’re visually a train wreck, Machine Men were nevertheless a fun antidote to anyone suffering from ‘technical musicianship overload’. And, hey, guitarist J-V – perhaps unsurprisingly – wielded a Flying V! Metal or what?

DARKANE’s brand of Twenty-First Century Bay Area thrash seemed at odds with the rest of the bill; had they come together twenty-five years ago they could have been the kings of the speed metal scene. Played at two speeds – fast and faster – their sound unfortunately disintegrated into a wall of tub-thumping and although a knot of diehard fans clumped around the stage, I don’t think they were many people’s cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong, Darkane are good at what they do, but were perhaps an odd choice...

Led by enigmatic frontman Terence Holler, ELDRITCH “from Italy and the USA” ran through a set of powerful, heads-down metal which galvanised Copenhagen once more. Their performance drew heavily on their 2007 release ‘Blackenday’, but with seven albums under their belts since coming together in 1991 the band had a wealth of material to play with. Lead guitarist Eugene Simone and his six-string partner Peck Proietti thrashed the living daylights out of their instruments, but the visual focal point was always Terence, a man of bizarre mannerisms, a piercing stare and a beanie hat with a life of its own. In summary: clever songs and a great performance (that’s the band, not the hat).

To the PPUK team, FIREWIND will always be the first band ever to play at ProgPower UK, and as such they’re a band we’ve got a soft spot for. In the year-and-a-half or so since March 2006, Gus G and the guys have gone from being a great band with lots of potential to a great band with the world at their feet. Despite powerhouse drummer Mark Cross and bassist Petros Christo keeping things tight at the back, and Bob Katsionis providing the fills ‘n’ spills on the keys and rhythm guitars, all eyes were on vocalist Apollo Papathanasio and Gus himself, a fireball of riffs and solos. What we saw of Firewind was awesome, but unfortunately an early flight combined with the fact that things were running late meant that we not only had to cut short their set but also that we didn’t get to see ORPHANED LAND, another band collectively rated highly by us here at PPUK. By all accounts, Israel’s finest had a blast, and, despite the fact that we all thought there was nothing wrong with their show at ProgPower Europe, after the gig vocalist Kobi Farhi contacted us to point out that their performance in Copenhagen was, from the band’s point of view, way superior. “Sound wise it was better, and, on a personal level, I was a lot healthier this time around and could enjoy the show more. I sang better and, well, in fact we just all did better.”

Same time next year then?

John Tucker

November 2007