Best of Power, Best of Prog

[PPLurker]

I have a group interested in attending Progpower but they are generally old school. Oh how i know there must be a dozen threads to compile, and to some this may be hateworthy, but can I poll the incredibly knowledgable of this forum oncemore for a suggested 4 hour compilation - 2hours of Power, 2hours of Prog? I have a decent setlist already but wanted to poll this group. What would your MP3 list look like for each if you wanted to indoctrinate the eager? Thanks for your patience!

 

[dcowboys311]

2 hours of Blind Guardian and 2 hours of silence.

 

[Harvester]

Are you referring to the genres or next year's roster specifically?

 

[zedowns]

4 hours of Pain of Salvation: Heavy on the Road Salt material.

 

[PPLurker]

Generally, the genres. First I thought to give a primer on the genres. These are Peter Gabriel / Queensryche / 70's, 80's rockers. What tunes blew your mind for the first time and opened your horizons to the worlds of Power and Prog Metal?

Later I hope to compile a best of for the coming year's roster. But first, a sampling of the most incredible tunes that forever changed you.

 

[VenomGA]

4 hours of Pain of Salvation: Heavy on the Road Salt material.

Trying to put them to sleep??

 

[Braxil]

Instead of splitting it into 2 hours of each genre? Why not try to gradually "blend" it from power to prog? There are a lot of bands I can think of off the top of my head that aren't 100% in either camp but are very important to the collective genres. Anyways, the big bands for me that helped me get into the genres were Hansen-era Helloween, Stratovarius, Angra, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Fates Warning, Crimson Glory, Psychotic Waltz, Conception, Evergrey, Threshold, Vanden Plas. They're not all still my favorites, but those are the bands that got me started.

 

[zinescene]

Prog:
Andromeda - Encyclopedia
Anubis Gate - Hold Back Tomorrow
Blackfield - Blackfield
Circus Maximus - Sin, Alive
Crimson Glory - Lonely, Lady of Winter
The Deadstation - Limitless, or so it seems
Dream Theater - Pull Me Under, Caught In A Web
Evergrey - Rulers of the Mind
Fates Warning - Guardian
Freak Kitchen - Heroin Breakfast
Porcupine Tree - Blackest Eyes
Opeth - Windowpane
Queensryche - London, The Lady Wore Black, Queen of the Reich.
Redemption - Leviathon Rising, The Fullness of Time
Savatage - Hall Of THe Mountain King
Seventh Wonder - Taint The Sky
Spheric Universe Experience - The Inner Quest
Threshold - Pilot In The SKy of Dreams
Timothy Pure - The Aberation
Ice Age – Perpetual Child
Parish – Rachels Eyes
Symphony X - The Odyssey, Serpents Kiss
The Tiles – Reasonable Doubt
Vanden Place – Christ O

Power Metal:
Angel Dust - Bleed, Black Rain
Angra – Nova Era, Salvation:Suicide, Acid Rain
Blind Guardian – Battlefield, Mirror Mirror
Brainstorm - Blind Suffering
Demons & Wizards - Poor Mans Crusade
Edguy – Until We Rise Again
Falconer - Black WIdow
Gamma Ray - All you Need To Know, Heart of the Unicorn, Valley Of The Kings, How Long
Helloween – Mr Torture, Twilight Of The Gods, Future World
Jag Panzer – Frozen In Fear
Kamelot – Center of the Universe, Feast for the Vain, Ghost opera,
Luca Turrili - War of the Universe, Age of A Mystic Ice
Masterplan - Spirit Never Dies, Sail On, Enlighten Me, Heroes, Crimson Rider, Back For My Life, After This War
Nightmare - Cosmovision
Nocturnal Rites - Never Again, Not Like You, Our Wasted Days, Brave New World
Power Quest – Cemetary Gates
Rhapsody - Emerald Sword, Wisdom of the Kings
Silent Force - Master of My Destiny, Fall Into Oblivion
Sonata Arctica – Replica, Don’t Say A Word, Weballurgy, Full Moon
Steel Prophet - Strange Encounter
Stormwind – Warriors of Troy
Stratovarius - Hunting High & Low, Twilight Symphony, Millenium, Darkest Hours
Twilightening - The Forge
Within Temptation – Mother Earth, Ice Queen

This is just a tip of the iceberg

 

[Mardoch]

Zinescene did a pretty damned good job right there.

 

[Mantraschism]

Agreed with Mardoch. That's a pretty solid playlist. I'd add some Psychotic Waltz though. Try 'Halo of Thorns', 'I of the Storm', 'A Psychotic Waltz', or 'Spiral Tower'.

 

[zinescene]

Thank you both....I'm not saying this because they are a band in my own backyard but I really thought The Tiles were a band that could have and probably should have gotten a shot at playing ProgPower.

This is one of my favorite songs from these guys.

 

[Cheiron]

My recommendations are:

Dream Theater - Train of Thought (there's a method to my madness but you can also choose Awake)
Savatage - Streets
Fates Warning - Parallels

Sabaton - Attero Dominatus
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys
Blind Guardian - Nightfall...

 

[Harvester]

Heavy on the Road Salt material.

I thought we wanted to make them fans though?

 

[espz]

The top three for me will always be Operation Mindcrime, Streets and Image and Words. Those were my gateway albums. (Queensrchyce, Savatage, Dream Theater in order, for those who don't know?)

 

[General Zod]

I have a group interested in attending Progpower but they are generally old school.

If what you're ultimately interested in is convincing your friends to come, I would take a different approach.

First off, I would try to sell them on the social aspects of the festival. Simply put, they will have a blast. Everyone does. It's guaranteed.

Second, I wouldn't try selling them on entire sub-genres of Metal. It's just too much. And really, what's the difference if they decide they like Savatage, Queensryche or Iced Earth? None of those bands are playing the festival. I would sell them on the bands who are playing the festival. If you want a sampling, I would start with the headliners (who are headlining for a reason) and go from there:

Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation
Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter
Sabaton - The Art of War
Shadow Gallery - Tyranny
Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos

Zod

 

[General Zod]

4 hours of Pain of Salvation: Heavy on the Road Salt material.

I'm fairly certain the Geneva Convention expressly prohibits this method of torture.

 

[Metal_Camden]

If you give me your address, ill send your friend a free copy of the new Seven Kingdoms record

 

[djjello]

It's almost like he had that list memorized... and ready to go!

 

[Creeps]

Being a fan of 70s rock and 80s metal / hard rock I can name some eye.. or ear opening albums that got me to look for more interesting bands to listen to.

Judas Priest - Painkiller. In my opinion the Power Metal 101 class. If you don't like this album, you probably won't like Power Metal.

Fates Warning - No Exit. Was my first real introduction to prog metal. Not a bad start.

Dream Theater - Images & Words. Pretty Much a no-brainer and was my follow up to prog after Fates Warning discs.

DGM - Frame. For me, a perfect blend of power and prog.

In addition to the above:

If I'm introducing friends to Power I go to these albums all the time; Brainstorm - Soul Temptation, Kamelot - Fourth Legacy, Primal Fear s/t, Silent Force - Infatuator, Tad Morose - Modus Vivendi and whatever the recent Nevermore disc was.

My Prog tastes lead to the heavy but here's what I grab for them to try; Circus Maximus - 1st Chapter, Dreamscape - End Of Silence, Threshold - Subsurface, Symphony X - The Odyssey, and Evergrey's song Dark Waters.

For off the beaten path; Orphaned Land, Therion, Scar Symmetry and now Kontrust.

 

[Angrafan]

Road Salt 2 is an incredible album.