Headliner #2 Confirmed:

Avoid the first two discs if you don't like death metal ... 1993's The Karelian Isthmus, and 1994's Tales From the Thousand Lakes.

Elegy (1996) contains a lot of growls, but sees them creeping more into clean vocaled material. This disc contains a couple of their live staples though.

Tuonela(1999), Am Universum (2001), and Far From The Sun (2003) are pretty much clean vocaled releases.

A new singer joined the ranks in 2005 or so, and since then they have released two discs of similar style which contail growl and clean vocals. Some songs are fully clean vocaled, some have a mix of the two to varrying degrees. They are Eclipse (2006) and Silent Waters (2007).

They have two greatest hits types .. Story .. 10th Anniversary (2001), and Chapters (2003). Both contain a mix of their different styles, but nothing from Far From the Sun to their current material.

Hope this helps.

Britt

Perfect! This is exactly what I was looking for.:Smokin:
 
I noticed you glazed over the part where I pointed out that you elevated the situation by taking a shot at the "forum members."

Umm...l'm a forum member...so l didn't think it was necessary to put emphasis on it as you did. l've also made generic statements just not as stupid as the one that was made...considering it's made every year regardless of circumstances. ;)
 
But the only thing that will stop me from going is some unforeseen thing like what happened last year.


Don't you EVEN think of it this year mister.
hmm1.gif
 
For immediate release: January 15th, 2008

Amorphis Confirmed as Second Headliner of ProgPower USA IX

Atlanta- Finland’s Amorphis have been confirmed as the second headliner of ProgPower USA IX. America’s premiere metal festival returns to Center Stage in Atlanta on Sept 26 & 27.

“Amorphis may not fit the stereotypical profile, but they truly are a progressive giant in this scene. From their death metal roots to the current moody atmosphere, they have done it all. Any band that can survive for sixteen years by doing it their own way deserves to be a headliner” said promoter Glenn Harveston.

Amorphis's last performance in the U.S. was in 2003.

Joining the band are festival headliner Iced Earth, Florida’s Jon Oliva’s Pain, Poland’s Riverside, Germany’s Iron Savior, Denmark’s Volbeat, Sweden’s Andromeda, Florida’s Rob Rock, Italy’s Elvenking, France’s Spheric Universe Experience, Austria’s Serenity, and Italy’s Pathosray.

Tickets for ProgPower USA IX go on sale March 1st and limited to 900 tickets.Advance gold badges are sold-out for the seventh consecutive year. For further information including advertisement and sponsorship details, visit www.progpowerusa.com.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,.....:confused:....Ohhhh-Kaaayyyy!
 
Yes. Exactly.

Also, I am at a loss as to why harsh vocals are a total turnoff for a band: Orphaned Land, Therion and Mercenary seemed to go over pretty well for this fest...why is this still an issue with some?


No offense, but... because harsh vocals SUCK! I've been a metalhead for 33 years, owned thousands of releases in that time, but still could never get into the growling shit.... sorry. I think I speak for the people that dislike the growling vocals when I say this, but it's so talentless and pointless. There's no emotion in it for me - it just sounds like pain. And before you slag me for saying I should check out the band first, I actually bought three AMORPHIS discs over the years, hoping that they would drop the cookie monster vox, and to some degree they have, but still, not a good headliner IN MY OPINION. I know I am in the minority here but hey, those of you that dig it, rock on.
 
No offense, but... because harsh vocals SUCK! I've been a metalhead for 33 years, owned thousands of releases in that time, but still could never get into the growling shit.... sorry. I think I speak for the people that dislike the growling vocals when I say this, but it's so talentless and pointless. There's no emotion in it for me - it just sounds like pain. And before you slag me for saying I should check out the band first, I actually bought three AMORPHIS discs over the years, hoping that they would drop the cookie monster vox, and to some degree they have, but still, not a good headliner IN MY OPINION. I know I am in the minority here but hey, those of you that dig it, rock on.

The whole anti growling argument has already been discussed to death. It's probably only secondary to the anti female fronted band discussions.
 
The whole anti growling argument has already been discussed to death.

I had my friend load up the website for me so she could see my reaction to the 2nd headliner announcement in real-time, and after I went through my 20-second "meh->I'm going" transition, she graciously listened while I explained to her how Amorphis would be a "controversial" choice. She thought it was completely hilarious to learn that there were two warring "camps" in the metal world; she figured "it's all a bunch of loud noise anyway! You're saying there are *types* of loud noise that are allowed and types that aren't?" I told her that in the last 10 years or so it has gotten SO much less-warlike than in used to be, but as we see, there are still some old soldiers fighting a skirmish here and there.

Really though, the reaction actually seems a fair bit less negative than I expected; I'd almost say the growly-defenders have made more noise in this thread than growly-complainers.

Neil
 
Really though, the reaction actually seems a fair bit less negative than I expected; I'd almost say the growly-defenders have made more noise in this thread than growly-complainers.

Neil


I suspect that the growl haters are just silently disappointed. There are a lot of usually very active posters that have had nothing to say in this thread.
 
I'll echo a few other posts. I remember the initial reaction from the Anti-growl patrol when I announced Mercenary, Orphaned Land, & Therion. All three went on to receive a tremendous response & kept the place packed. Once those with even the slightest tolerance & an open mind get over the hurt of not having a traditional prog/power headliner, they will realize just how good these guys truly are. Plus, they do not employ growls all the time. The videos I posted enforces that.

Their live reputation is impeccable.

Btw, Freak Kitchen still hold the record for the most negative announcement response. That ended up ok.
 
I'll echo a few other posts. I remember the initial reaction from the Anti-growl patrol when I announced Mercenary, Orphaned Land, & Therion. All three went on to receive a tremendous response & kept the place packed. Once those with even the slightest tolerance & an open mind get over the hurt of not having a traditional prog/power headliner, they will realize just how good these guys truly are. Plus, they do not employ growls all the time. The videos I posted enforces that.

Their live reputation is impeccable.

Btw, Freak Kitchen still hold the record for the most negative announcement response. That ended up ok.

raintime went over quite well it seems too didnt they? i was down in the floor and the response seemed to be pretty good to me.

freak kitchen though, i had heard mattias's solo stuff and freak kitchen long before, i knew everyone was going to be absolutely blown away. i have a feeling volbeat is going to get a response similar to freak kitchen, for some reason i keep thinking the bands are in the same vein when they kinda arent.

while i personally think there could have been maybe better choices for my personal tastes, this just completely cements the diversity of this line up. to have this much diversity but yet still along the same prog and power kinda sound, is pretty mind blowing. i wish someone like rhapsody would have made it for me personally, but i cant deny that amorphis is a good choice and shows what this years prog power is going to be all about.

props from me
 
Try hunting up some songs from albums like "Elegy", "Tuonela", or "Tales From the 10,000 Lakes". Amorphis' style has gone through distinct phases, ranging from death metal to more atmospheric (as has previously been mentioned), so maybe you'll find something there a little more to your liking. It's worth a shot anyway.

I'll look those up as you've suggested. But my only issue is that with bands who change their style (You said they were death metal before, and the 3 videos posted are anything BUT death metal), is that they tend to not touch on those older stuff anymore when they change their format to a new style (Not to start a flame war, but have you heard In Flames live lately? They don't play anything older than Clayman anymore). So I'm a little hesitant to be excited over older material if they're not likely to play it live.
 
I suspect that the growl haters are just silently disappointed.

Yeah, and that's awesome. Not their disappointment, but their silence. There are two different reasons that the war has died down: yes, many people have turned coat, going over to the dark side, but others have simply realized that there's nothing there worth fighting over. Those in the second group are actually more noble. "You can like what you like, I can like what I like, and there is no need to try to convince the other person that their taste is wrong." It's the realization that there is plenty of music to go around to make everyone happy.

Neil
 
I just remembered... Iced Earth & Amorphis were two of the bigger acts that played the 1st March Metal Meltdown in NJ, 1999... So this'll be the second time I'll see them in one show!!
 
Really though, the reaction actually seems a fair bit less negative than I expected; I'd almost say the growly-defenders have made more noise in this thread than growly-complainers.

I was thinking the same thing, actually, even keeping in mind that several posters had been notably absent from commenting. :)

I've discovered that even within the pro-growling league (tm), there are factions that love it all, and factions that don't mind growled vox if the words are somewhat understandable (Opeth is a good example).

You're entitled to your opinion, but to do it [growling] properly requires more talent than you might think.

QFT.

Growling -- and even more impressive for an indivifual frontman, growling AND singing cleanly -- takes a lot of talent, especially for sustained periods (like a long tour).
Sure, there are a lot of pretty lousy extreme metal bands out there with poor growlers fronting them, but there are also a lot of lousy 'tr00' metal bands out there with questionable singers. From what I've seen and heard, Amorphis falls into neither of those two categories.