Headway Festival 2007 Photos & Review

This year’s edition of the Headway Festival–the fifth–took once again place in club P60 in Amstelveen, The Netherlands. A promising line-up including big names such as Zero Hour and Redemption, and soon-to-be big names like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Loch Vostok, put this festival on the must-visit list for me.

Amstelveen is a nice city just south of Amsterdam, where the roads are wide and the trees are green and the people are nice, and everyone speaks English and German at least, and public transport works. Also, cabs and restaurants are expensive, but it cannot all be sunshine, right? (Also, public transport went belly up in the Easter chaos just when I tried to catch a train, but that’s another story.)

The venue, while a little small, is still very nice, featuring two bars, and a snack café next door. They offer a nice selection of beverages (read: beers), the food is comparatively cheap and very tasty, and the sound and light technicians actually listen to the music, as Sleepytime can confirm. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Read on for the review of the first day of the festival, Friday, April 6th.

All photos from the Headway Festival 2007 are online at mattness.net.

Friday, April 6th

Obsidian opened the festival on Friday. Hailing from Amsterdam, NL, they can almost count as ‘local’. Playing a technical style of progressive death metal, they can well be compared to Textures, although they miss the polish of their fellow countrymen. They put on a solid show, but the vocals appeared to be weaker than on the records. Nevertheless, a good beginning for a great festival.

Coming up next were To-Mera from the UK. Having heard some samples before, I had dismissed them as a rather generic, female-fronted prog metal outfit. I haven’t warmed much towards them from their Headway show either. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good musicians and the band performs well, but I personally don’t find the music interesting. The vocal lines seemed to be detached from the flow of the music, and the stage presence was lacking. In the end, the impression that remains was that of a band with much potential (and a good-looking singer), but which could do a lot better. If you like jazzy prog metal with strange female vocal lines, check them out.

With Dutch Sun Caged, the ‘headliners’ part of the evening began. The very convincing prog sound lead by Marcel Coenen was backed up by Paul Villarreal’s powerful singing. Roel Vink’s fat bass lines also helped to create a rich atmosphere of sound, and the band played a great show with great stage chemistry. Most songs were from their new album, Artemisia, and fans of progressive metal of the likes of Dream Theater or Pain of Salvation with a hint of Ayreon should definitely give it a spin.

Then, finally: Zero Hour, featuring the Californian prog metal wonder twins Jasun and Troy Tipton, now with Chris Salinas on vocals. And, boy, is he powerful! That man is at once an angry beast on stage and at the same time able to get a ballad across wonderfully. With the lively twins bouncing around the stage, and Chris playing the rock in the center, their show was a joy to watch. With the audience in bliss after they played “There For Me”, they continued with a diverse selection of songs and even played a song–“Temple Within”–from the upcoming album, featuring a darker and broader sound compared to Towers or A Fragile Mind. Zero Hour’s shows are always worth seeing.

Read on for the review of Saturday, April 6th.

Saturday, April 7th

The day started with the industrial-seeming hardcore prog of Dutch Transmission0. While their performance was good, their unique blend of hard riffs and soundscape lines takes some getting used to. There is no doubt they are good, but early in the afternoon, after a night of 3 °C and too little sleep, I couldn’t really appreciate them.

Seventh Wonder were noticably softer, almost mellow at times, and also more fun since their announcements were in English and thus, understandable by yours truly. Also, the speaking voice of singer Tommy Karevik was a little messed up, which ended with him asking people to call him “girl”. The audience cheerfully obliged and everyone had fun. Musically, Seventh Wonder are rockish and symphonic with heavy overtones. Their sound is well-rounded and multi-layered at once, which grabs and holds the listener’s attention all the time.

Billed as “a side project of Kristoffer Gildenlöw” by their label, and as “a serious band” by Kristoffer Gildenlöw, DIAL definitely showed that they mean business. With Liselotte Hegt on vocals and bass, Kristoffer Gildenlöw on most everything, and even their drumer going to pick up the bass in the middle of the show, DIAL laid down a sound carpet of progressive gothic death rock-metal. Unfortunately, technical problems caused a few delays which also broke the flow a little. Their first studio album, ‘Synchronized’, will come out May 8th and should go on your pre-order list right now.

With superb virtuosity and stage chemistry, Christophe Godin’s Mörglbl project then flooded the venue with a multi-layered prog-jazz power metal inferno. Christophe Godin is a crazy, crazy man; most importantly, however, he and his friends are a lot of fun on stage. When they’re also playing technically perfect jazzy riffs over a snazzy groove, nothing could possibly go wrong. A great way to spend an evening, definitely.

The Prog/Industrial/Death/Power Metal mix of Loch Vostok welcomed the audience after the dinner break. Their singer & bass player Teddy is a powerful force on stage, and their songwriting is strong and uncompromising. The songs would work just as well, if not better, with less screaming and growling, IMO, because I couldn’t help getting the impression that the aggressiveness of the music is forced at times. Nevertheless, Loch Vostok are dead serious and seriously good.

Now, writing about Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is a lot like dancing about architecture. I would just write ‘HOLY SHIT, these guys ROCK’, and that would conclude my review of Sleepytime. Their first ever European concert, they stood up to their reputation of uncompromising avantgarde artists. Self-made clothing, make-up, self-built instruments, and just the right level of weirdness. Did I already mention how great their show was? If you missed them at Headway, look at their websites for more European tour dates.

Redemption, headliners of this year’s Headway Festival and met with high expectations, finally entered the stage to bring the festival to a good finale. However, their show seemed a little half-hearted. I’m not a huge fan of Redemption; they play Fates Warning meets Threshold, a little more perfected and technical–and white-washed. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a surefire recipe for good prog metal. It just isn’t unique most of the time, and as such, nothing to write home about. Their performance at Headway was further butted by the accumulated delay, Ray Alder’s voice not being in all too good shape, and little interaction on stage in general. Whether it was because they had to shorten their playlist a little, or because only a few hundred people came to see them, their show appeared to be nonprofessional–although the performance itself was musically almost flawless. Except for when they played their encore, Ray missed the cue for the final chorus, that is. It is unfortunate that they played such a mixed show because they should be capable of doing much better. Thus, the festival sadly ended on a slightly down note.

Altogether in the end however, it was a great festival. Many thanks to the organizers! It’s a pity that only a few hundred people came this year.

Greetings to Margaret, Carla, Giuli, John, Nils, Hans, the barkeepress from Friday, the security guy (sorry, I have no clue how to spell your name), and the public library girl. See you on Headway 2008 (or ProgPower)! 🙂