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Festival News: Subtacto 2008 Announces Line Up

Posted on Sunday, April 20 @ 22:33:04 UTC by nightowl

The Norwegian progressive rock festival Subtacto had much trouble last year, but think we have learned from our mistakes, and we are now ready to try a second attempt.

This time we have moved the festival to late in the Autumn in Norway, and to a smaller venue. The budget is also cut to under one third of what we had in 2007, but the good news is that we are holding the festival over three days and with an exciting lineup nevertheless!

The dates are Friday 17th, Saturday 18th, and Sunday 19th of October. The venue will be Amat?ren (The Amateur) in Oslo, a club venue taking approximately 300 people. There will be two bands performing on Friday, four on Saturday and three bands on Sunday.

There will be sold day passes as well as 3-day passes for the whole event. There will be three foreign bands performing, and six Norwegian bands. The three foreign bands will all of them have their first concert in Norway at the festival. The names of the bands who will play at the festival will be confirmed from now on and until the beginning of May, and ticket sales will start during mid-May.



The first two three bands have been announced. The Norwegian band Windmill will open the festival's second day on Saturday October 18th. The band from southern Norway are currently in studio working on their debut album which will be released later this year. Windmill plays symphonic art rock with a lot of keyboards and with use of flute and saxophones. Bands like Camel and Pink Floyd cames to mind trying to explain their style.

The Norwegians will be followed on the stage by the Belgian band Mindgames from Antwerp. Mindgames' influences are to be found in the whole progressive rock history. Elements of Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Marillion and too many others to mention can be found in here. Their music is very sophisticated, precisely played and perfect balanced between energy and softness. Strong melodies and multiple rhythm changes are a key factor in their music. They also have a important visual appearance on the stage.

Read some of the reviews of their second album Actors In A Play:

Progressor: Actors In A Play is one of the strongest and most original Neo-related albums I've heard in recent years, though it's definitely something much more diverse and greater than a traditional Neo and should probably endear itself to anyone into the Art-Rock genre in general. (6/6)

Strutter Magazine: This record blows anything I have heard from Belgium the past few years. (?) It's quite stunning to see that this is just an independent release, because it definitely has all the ingredients to be a label release. Anyway, I can easily recommend you to check out one of the better Belgian bands at the moment. (8,6/10)

The third band to be announced are the Norwegian top-of-the-notch-proggers Magic Pie, who have confirmed their appearance. Magic Pie will be the Norwegian headliner on the festival second day, Saturday October 18th. These Norwegians have taken the progressive community by storm after their 2005 and 2007 album releases. Both albums have won a lot of awards and the band are absolutely sensational in a live setting.

They have played RosFest twice, go to England in September, and return to the Subtacto Festival this year. Their performance at Subtacto last year was cut short, but this time they will be allowed to play their whole set, no matter what!!!

Earlier this year the icelandic singer Eirikur Hauksson replaced Allan Olsen behind the microphone. His powerful voice will become another important element in the Pie's vocal staff.

Eir?kur is considered to be a talented vocalist, able to adopt various styles. He has been commended by metal enthusiasts for his ability to adopt the styles of various legends of metal, including, but not limited to Bruce Dickinson, Graham Bonnet, Ronnie James Dio and Joey Belladonna. He can also sing in a variety of styles suitable to pop and rock.

In Norway he, amongst others, has been a vocalist in the power metal band Artch, sung in the Norwegian group Just For Fun, who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, and been a stand-in bass player for the Norwegian legends Aunt Mary. Last year he sung the Icelandic submission to the Eurovision Song Contest.

More information will be available at our website - www.subtacto.com - and at our MySpace page - www.myspace.com/subtactoprog.

Posted in Festival News