We're just a month away from yet another amazing weekend, and in fact four amazing days of bands. I love this festival, if for no other reason that it turns me on to bands that I might not otherwise have heard. This year, I've come to enjoy the brilliance of Devon Townsend, Stream of Passion, Serious Black, Freedom Call and others. But one of my favorite parts of the weekend is the anticipation for the video for next year. So, what are your requests and/or predictions for the 2017 festival? I'll give some of my own once I've had the chance to hear what some of you have to say.
It's too late for requests since the roster is probably almost set, if not done, but it's never too early for predictions. A couple bands that I'd be fairly surprised to not see booked: Dynazty Myrath And a few that seem like decent possibilities: Borknagar Sunburst Threshold And some longshots that would be great: Jag Panzer Nightingale Riot (they would bring the house down) Aside from that, no idea. I haven't kept the pulse on prog and power metal as much this year - or not as much has been lighting me up - so I'll likely be even more surprised than usual with the roster announcement.
Eclipse Soto W.E.T. Whitesnake Loudness (never had a band from Japan) Candlemass Paradox Lacuna Coil Dynazty Metal Church Tainted Nation Ghost or Ghost B.C. Gus G. Nordic Union Y&T
Europe Powerwolf Unisonic Destruction Praying Mantis Denner / Shermann .U.D.O. Wizard Brainstorm Amorphis Grave Digger Helstar Helloween
This is more of a wish list than a prediction. Added a few more. Diviner Sunburst Brainstorm Eclipse Ensiferum Buckethead Innerwish Loudness Anthem Manimal Metal Allegiance Sanctuary Pegazus Psycrence Shrinebuilder Stinking Lizaveta Twilight Force Vanden Plas Votum Morgana Lefay Savatage Accept
Almost definitely will get booked: Power Quest Redemption Myrath Probably: Sunburst InnerWish Hoping for: Votum Kingcrow Vanden Plas Threshold Teramaze Subsignal
Agent Fresco Port Noir Thank You Scientist Katatonia Gazpacho The Pineapple Thief The Gathering reunion with Anneke
Here are some of my hopes: Threshold: Haven't played PPUSA since 2007, and so this would be a very good time for them to return. Sabaton: Granted, they headlined the festival fairly recently (2013), but I wouldn't be surprised to see them get a Day 1 or Day 2 slot. Accept: This would be truly awesome for me, as I've never had the chance to see them live in any incarnation. I'll be seeing UDO in January (the last time he'll be doing Accept material), so catching the current version of Accept doing some of the same material, plus a lot of the newer stuff would be great. Eden's Curse: This would be pretty nifty, but the legal issues over the band's name could be a hindrance. Metal Church: Please bring them!!!! Mike Howe was one of the more amazing vocalists of the late 80's and early 90's, and I'd love to see this reunion.
I'm expecting: Dynazty Vanden Plas Ghost Ship Octavius Myrath Sunburst Unisonic Redemption Really hoping for: Gamma Ray Brainstorm Mob Rules Candlemass Orphaned Land Electro-Nomicon Wouldn't surprise me: Helloween Edguy Rhapsody of Fire Kingcrow Long shot, but REALLY hoping for: Pretty Maids Powerwolf Pagan's Mind (probably too soon, but maybe not) Crazy Lixx Axel Rudi Pell
After all these years, I still find these types of posts fascinating. Some are true guess to a balance roster and some are just personal wish lists. Regardless, it provides insight as to what people are thinking, even with a very small sample size. In the mean time, zig when they expect you to zag.
Well, damn near all of us expect that you didn't book Ayreon, so if you want to zig by booking Ayreon, feel free to throw that curveball at us.
I like how you think! Then again, we did vote to make him go with the curveball. Maybe the big name was Ayreon and we fucked ourselves!? OH GOD WHAT HAVE WE DONE!? Sunburst, Ghost Ship Octavius, and Myrath seem like "good chance" choices. I don't know about anyone else, but as far as returners go I would really love to see Ihsahn again. Pagan's Mind is always welcomed. I'm still agog that my 3 favorite melodeath acts have all played (or will be playing this year) the fest: Soilwork, Solution .45, and Scar Symmetry. Any of those doing another set would be most welcomed. Anything with the Mountain King is always fantastic. And because everyone loves lists of varying realism Bands I Would Love (more or less reasonable): Anubis Gate (I really want this one to happen) Shattered Skies (pending vocalist?) Hemina Caligula's Horse Destiny Potato (or anything David Maxim Micic) The Omega Experiment (do they even do live? who cares, it would kick ass) Lalu Disperse (I'm gonna keep on wishing and hoping for this) Black Fate Earthside Fake Heroes (me and like 6 other people, file under the "less" side) Tesseract Universe Effects Persefone (I have to see how this insanity translates to live, I hope they get another shot) Sound Struggle James LaBrie solo Distorted Harmony Twelve Foot Ninja The Make Me a Miracle category: ARK Ayreon Savatage Dream Theater doing Images and Words and Awake Conception (we can even use the new Greek Khan if we want, it's fine) Demons & Wizards
Awful glaring omission on my part. Freakin Evergrey! A) a good chance they're playing next year and B) a band I would damned sure love to see on that stage again.
Came up with this as a roster: Katatonia Vektor Myrath Cain's Offering The Paralydium Project Ancient Bards Edguy Diablo Swing Orchestra Psychotic Waltz Caligula's Horse Hammers of Misfortune Sunburst There's like a million different directions for every slot, but I couldn't think of ANY names for a mid level power metal band. Glenn's really booked just about everyone of note.
