Prognosis Festival

Saturday- 23 March 2019

PROGNOSIS

Well, well, who do we invite to the first ever edition of Prognosis the festival? What about Prognosis the band? What seemed to be an obvious choice was a good one at the same time. With their powerful, groovy, very British sounding music the Manchester boys were the right choice to start the day.

Though sadly the masses we saw the night before were absent at the start of the second day, those who were there enjoyed a lot the Brits performance. Certainly they won many new fans.

GOLDEN CAVES

After attending several shows of the Dutchies of Golden Caves it’s fair to say they never seem to disappoint. Their catchy, yet melancholic sound is just very uplifting and entertaining. The band came on stage, and instantly grabbed the audience with their enthusiasm. The band is composed of great songwriters, exemplified in tracks like ‘Child of Mine’, the emotional ‘Mother’ and ‘Keep Runnin’.

Sadly the experience was cut short as Green Carnation were starting on the big stage (not the smartest way of scheduling a progressive festival), and so the new material they performed towards the end of the set was missed. However, fans in the audience we talked to later, stated that it sounded very promising.

GREEN CARNATION

Norwegian band Green Carnation has been through many musical stages on their journey up until this performance, starting out as a death metal act, and touching in on doom, atmospheric goth, and progressive metal, as well as more straight-forward hardrock and even an acoustic bypass. Therefore it was with great anticipation we saw them take the main stage at the Effenaar. Luckily we can say that we were not disappointed in the least! Grabbing the audience immediately with a reworked version of the epic ‘My Dark Reflections of Life and Death’, from their debut album they had the whole audience entranced.

Singer and frontman Kjetil Nordhus has a authoritative and imposing stage presence, that matches his powerful voice, and commanded the audience with a steady hand. Up next was another reworked track, namely an electric version of ‘Sweet Leaf’, the opener from their 2006 album “The Acoustic Verses“, which also worked perfectly in this new, more energetic adaptation. We also were treated to favorites like the melancholic ‘Lullaby in Winter’ as well as the heavy and dynamic ‘Pile of Doubt’. Another highlight of the gig, was the premiere of new track ‘Sentinels of Chaos’, which, in our humble opinion, bodes very well for the future of the band. It’s hard to pick a top performance from this weekend, but we can say with security that Green Carnation was one of the true contenders for that spot. Great work by the Norsemen!

LETTERS FROM THE COLONY

The Swedish Progressive Death Metallers of Letters From The Colony, might have been the odd one out this Saturday, they definitely were the most brutal band on stage during the festival. We didn’t know them that well before seeing their extraordinary fierce performance on the Effenaar small stage.

Their mix of progressive metal, metalcore and death metal seemed to please the audience who were attending, and the band blazed through a set of tracks from their 2018 debut album “Vignette”. An absolute breath of fresh air in the festival!

DEVIN TOWNSEND

Devin Townsend was busy during those two days of festival between a conference, a clinic and an acoustic gig. But he came on stage jovial as ever and ready to crack up jokes. His stage equipment was quite minimalist, a computer, an amp head and a microphone. Well in this case, two . But we’ll get to that later. Witnessing Devin Townsend alone on stage is a brilliant mix of self deprecating jokes , stand up comedy, and of course music. If you are familiar with Devin’s bombastic, grandiose and wall of soundesque music, the first question that comes is: How on earth is he going to pull it off with just one guitar? Well he did it, and masterfully. The charisma he brings to the stage is like no other; even though he was alone up there, he captivated the audience who religiously listened to every single note and word.

His solo and acoustic materials spanned across several decades of his music. From ‘Funeral’ from his Strapping Young Lad days (which he dedicated to a friend who died because of a stupid fight), to ‘Solar Winds’, ‘Accelerated Evolution’, ‘Ocean Machine’ and ‘Addicted’, he picked tracks from his discography that would work in an acoustic setting.

And going back to that second microphone on stage, being in the Netherlands, it wasn’t far fetched to think that long time collaborator and Tinkerbell of Metal Anneke Van Griesbergen would grace the stage with her presence, even more so as Eindhoven is her home town. And of course she did, her pristine voice echoed in unison with Devin’s for the track ‘Ih-Ah’ (“Addicted“). The strong bond between the two musicians is unmistakable and their performance was greeted by a long round of applause.

Devin’s powerful voice and the clear melodies of his acoustic guitar resonated throughout the venue, giving goosebumps and bringing tears to some fans’ eyes. The Almighty Devin was preaching on stage, spreading his music, love and some life lessons. Ending his set with ‘Life’ is no accident: the core of his philosophical approach to music revolves around one fact: never give up on life.

NOSOUND

We were really curious at how the Italian ensemble Nosound leaded by Giancarlo Erra were going to be in a live setting. Used to their electronic approach to progressive music, it was a real surprise to see a pretty normal band with 2 guitars, bass, drums and keyboards.

Erra, behind one of the guitars did a splendid job leading the rest of the band and the music through a more ‘analog’ approach of their music by simply rocking the hell out of his guitar while the rest of the band clearly had a great time.

WITCHCRAFT

Less prog, more hard rock came to the big stage with Witchcraft from Sweden. Not in the best of moods, singer and band founder Magnus Pelander threw some insults and middle fingers to the photographers, complaining that the band was not big enough to prohibit photographers all together and applauding them when they left the photo pit after three songs.

His “no offense” didn’t help much after those offenses. Not the best impression from the band that seemed to be a bit out of place in the line-up with its 70’s inspired straight forward rock. Still, many in the audience seemed to enjoy them, and if they helped the ticket sale that’s not a bad thing.

COG

For many in the audience, it was the first chance to see the Australian indie-proggers of Cog live on stage. The band who reunited in 2016, after being split up for five years, started out hard with ‘Doors’ from “Now and Then My Life Feels Like It’s Going Nowhere“, their debut album, before plunging into some of their best tracks.

We got to hear crowd pleasers like ‘Are You Interested’ and ‘What If’ as well as some of their newer tracks, including their newest single ‘Drawn Together’. All in all an intense performance on the small stage, Cog did not disappoint.

TESSERACT

The 5 Brits are a force to be reckoned with. Period. TesseracT are basically one of the best technical progressive metal bands right now. The main hall of the Effenaar was fully packed as the band stepped in to fulfill their job as the night’s headliners the the second day of this first and so far excellent edition of this festival.

The band went through one hour and a half of a repertoire flying over their discography but naturally focusing on their latest release “Sonder”. Daniel Tompkins never stopped moving, running, jumping, crouching and daringly stopping right at the border of the monitorless stage, daring the fans to a stage dive, synchronizing every move with every change on the music and never failing a note from his highly praised voice, he was like a roaring thunder, lightnings and all!

Mention apart deserves Amos Williams, who gave a show of his own rocking his bass guitar while barefoot dancing, headbanging, jumping like in a dare to Tompkins about who would move faster and more.

TesseracT confirmed they are one of the hottest acts of the moment and is undeniable they have grown professionally on stage, with a top-class light show and perfect sound, complete dominance of the stage and an audience who revered them. They are definitely ready to hit the big leagues and they might do it soon.

SLEEPMAKESWAVES

Playing at the same time as the nights headliner TesseracT, Sleepmakeswaves was well worth a visit to the small stage. In the 13 years since they were founded in 2006 they have gained a cult following in their home country Australia, and it was easy to see why. They live their music and dive into it head-first. Very energetically they played their instrumental post-rock with progressive elements and those who left the packed main hall had a great time in the basement. It felt almost like they were celebrating a kind of an after party with the band that went more and more bonkers on stage while giving a showcase of their music.

Click here to see the galleries of all bands.