My damn phone was making some annoyingly loud beeping sounds. I crawled over from my spot on the floor to where it was being charged and noticed I had two new text messages. I popped it open and saw Jonah’s message that he was getting on the plane and they were about to leave. Muttering a weak, “Hell yea,” I look over at the clock and see it was six thirty, I had under my belt a paltry three hours of sleep. I was too excited to go back to my comforter on the floor and I was going to head to the airport for the third time in three days to pick up Jonah in two and a half hours, and seeing as how the MARTA (rail transit system) ride was a half hour there I figured, what the hell, I’m gonna get some breakfast and check out the internet. While screwing around on the net in the cpu room of the hotel this one dude comes in and I ask him if he needed to use the computer cos hey, I was just piddling around anyways. He said he wasn’t but he did ask if I knew a place where he could get some batteries for his digital camera, the power charger he brought wouldn’t fit into American electrical outlets. I really didn’t know but I had ten extra batteries so I asked the guy how many he needed and when he just needed two I said “Hey man, take these I got a shitload of em anyway.” I asked him where he came from and when he said Brazil we began a huge Angra / Shaman / Viper talk. That was pretty cool and around this time I remembered that Ed, my roommate from last year, is an early riser so I got his room number from the front and he came down to the lobby where we had some breakfast before heading off to the airport. While we were eating, the Brazilian guy was in there too so we all sat down and had our morning meal together. I asked him how hellacious his flight into Atlanta was and he said that it was fourteen hours from London and they had to circle the airport before landing too. I asked him why he was flying from London and he said something along the lines of just coming from France and that’s when I put two and two together. A Brazillian guy, in France, “Are you Gus?” “Yea man!” Wow I felt stupid, here I was talking to the new singer of Adagio and I didn’t even know it. Gus was really excited about the show and told us of his whirlwind recruitment into Adagio, all of three days before he was in and invited to fly out to France. We finished our meal and parted ways as Ed and I hoofed it to the MARTA and then to the airport yet again.

To bypass around five or six hours, here’s the bullet points. Jonah finally arrived and there was much applause and horn throwing, we rode the MARTA back to the drop off and went to a pint sized mall to eat lunch at a Greek sandwich store that was the only place open and devoured the savory and delicious turkey subs when Yan and his wife came upon us and sat with us during our meal. Back to the hotel. We got in just in time to see Steen take off for his interview with Jon Oliva so it was much needed relaxing time in the room on the soft, sweet, bed. This didn’t last long however as Noah, Jonah, and yours truly began our patented insult slinging and all around acting like ‘tards. After showering we exited the room and about fifty yards away was Wuthering Heights as well as Claus and Lars (from Intromental in case you forgot) so we all ran over there. It was then that I noticed that only Morten, Erik, and Patrik were here for the event from the albums and that they had recruited Teddy from Loch Vostok to play bass, Andreas from Platitude on keys, and Marten from Manticora on second guitar. Morten, Jonah, and I were pimping the Pyramaze shirts and we had some more ‘tardisms before going to the lobby. When the notion that we should all head off to Hooters was passed around Yan, Jonah, and the Asian decided to go with ‘em and even if I had just had a huge turkey sub I could manage to scarf down some more food at such a fine establishment as Hooters. We all piled into two taxi’s and had ourselves a hellified ride to the joint. When we walked in there were some other Prog Power attendees and one of them saw the trio of Pyramaze shirts and asked us, “Woa dude! Where’d you get those shirts?” Jonah’s response (not insulting, just jokingly) “I dunno man, it’s probably because I’m in the band!” Since there were quite a few of us there we had to split up into two groups, Lars, Claus, Marten and Teddy were at one table and from left to right starting with me at another were, Asian Steel, Yan, Jonah, Morten, Patrik, Erik and Andreas. I asked Andreas what he was here to play (I didn’t know everyone’s roles yet) and he said keyboards and that metalreviews needed to review the new Platitude. So, we ate, and talked, and ate some more, and talked even more and after running up a hundred and seven dollar bill we finally took off but not without having everyone hit on this super hot blonde chick that asked us the million dollar question, “Are you all in a band?”. Outside I snagged a picture of Morten and Jonah with me in the middle and then me and Yan decided to head back to the hotel and I grabbed my Gold Badge as the Euro squad and Jonah decided to go shopping. Siesta time.

Not quite. When I picked up my badge I noticed that we could foray into the vendor area and I proceeded to head inside when a strange occurrence happened. I only bought one cd, the new Nightwish. Trust me, as a self diagnosed cd junkie this is as weird to me as it is to you, although I did buy quite a few shirts to make up for the lack of cds. I’m not really regretting passing up the other goods (I did go back to buy the two Platitude cds the next day) except for the new Blind Guardian DVD. I really feel like kicking myself for not getting it. After getting my metal expenditures out of the way it really was time for some much needed rest. I managed to get a couple of hours of lounging in, not sleep for I was still too excited to get some sleep, but I did lounge really, really damn good on the bed. With only a few hours to go before I would head to the venue and catch the bands (yes there actually is going to be coverage on the bands, I promise!) I decided to go screw around on the computer some more. While I was walking to the elevator Teddy was coming out with two huge boxes of metal supplies (beer and vodka) and asked for a bit ‘o help and I was more than happy to oblige. After being invited into the room with Erik, Patrik and Teddy again we started talking about all sorts of stuff for the next hour and a half. Ranging from who we all thought was going to win the election, religious cults, the weird shit on American TV, and more we had quite an interesting time. When Teddy went to his room to crash I also decided it was time to get my ass to the venue so I jetted down there. Right when I entered I grabbed a program and sampler cd from Deron Blevins and then bought a Theocracy shirt from him which I had to haul ass back to the hotel to drop off. Arriving at the venue yet again I walked into the arena and caught the last half of Into Eternity.

I will be honest, I had heard two songs off Dead or Dreaming when the album came out a few years ago and it didn’t make me drop my panties and bend over for more. When I grabbed my spot on the floor though I was simply blown away by what I saw and heard, Tim Roth was wailing away on his guitar while their other guitarist (Rob Doherty?) harmonized with him perfectly on the solos. Speaking of harmonizing they were able to pull off their trademark vocal harmonies off and Tim and the bald dude gave some great meaty death growls too. I was ready to hate this band and to tear them apart in this review but they converted me. I just bought Buried In Oblivion yesterday and I feel like such a wiener for not having this going into Prog Power.

I missed Dreamscape for two reasons. I was hungry again and I have a preemptive strike for not liking them because the kicked Hubi Meisel out of the band. Back at the venue an hour later I ran up to the front for Tad Morose and caught one of the top three performances this year. Right from the very beginning, these guys were one tight unit. Urban Breed was a fine frontman, he had very good stage presence and I could imagine the hundred pairs of panties flying at him when he took of his jacket later on in the set. There was not one single dud of a song played that night, Cyberdome, Another Time Around, No Mercy, Sword of Retribution, Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine, Anubis, the list goes on and on with hit after hit. For me, this was the best performance of the night.

Exhaustion was setting in so I moved from the floor to the seats with Yan, Noah, and Jonah and got ready for Kamelot. Earlier during Kamelot’s signing session I managed to sneak in some words with Thomas, Glenn and Casey, so I was really looking forward to their show. When Center of the Universe started I was as excited as a sixteen year old girl at the prom. Thomas was slaying his guitar and Casey was beating the hell out his kit. The problems began though when Khan started to sing. At first I thought it was just me, but when I turned to Jonah and asked him, “Dude, is it me or is he not hitting those notes?” He agreed. Throughout the set Roy was having problems hitting any of the high notes as well as moving the mic away from his mouth when he did sustain a note (although this did look unintentional). I felt bad for the man because I knew that this must have been an off night, his performance on the albums is a million times better than what I was seeing. III Ways to Epica was played for the first time ever but I just simply couldn’t enjoy it. After Forever I decided to leave because I was completely underwhelmed and disappointed. I missed Midnight coming out to do the chorus to Call of the Sea however he did make an appearance during Nights of Arabia where he stood by the mic for a few minutes before disappearing stage left. I want to see Kamelot live again because from what I have heard from other sources, this performance was a fluke and that when they have it just right, they kick complete ass. Hopefully this will be the case next time.

Before the ”Savatage” set there would be a thirty minute airing of Jon Oliva’s new project Pain or Jon Oliva’s Pain. There were some good songs thrown in but there were some others that I didn’t like at all either. Since this was comprised of entirely unfamiliar material I don’t remember the names of any of the songs. For the Sava diehard I’m sure this was a treat but for me, the casual fan this wasn’t too thrilling. I would have preferred to hear Strange Wings or Warriors instead. So, I went back out to the lobby during the end of the Pain set to mingle some more when I ran into Mike the Cop and we stood there drooling over the bartender. I was about to go get a picture with her when this guy walks by and Mike goes, “Hey isn’t that Jens?” So I run off to catch him and it turns out it’s Dirk Sauer, not Jens, and I catch him and proceed to talk his ear off for the better part of an hour. When I showed him my original Savage Poetry sleeve he looked surprised and asked me, “Where’d you get this?!” When I told him off the net he looked dismayed and asked how much I paid for it. I told him and he looked shocked and said I should just have gotten the new version of the album. Well, hell, I already had that! Following Dirk’s departure I grab the picture with uber hotness and then head back into the arena just in time to hear Power of the Night and Hall of the Mountain King. Honestly, this was all I needed to hear and I began to bang my head and throw some horns during both of these metal classics. When the lights come back on and we head back out to the entrance I meet up with the guys and its back to the hotel. I told myself that I would get some sleep that night as I was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion but I managed to stay up another three hours to close to four AM. I don’t remember that much though, I vaguely recollect going to I think it was room 306 and watching a little bit of the Blind Guardian DVD and eating some pizza while Urban Breed hung out before going back to my room and just crashing out ten seconds after my head hit the pillow.