P.A.W.N. (DE): Fine Female Fronted Prog

Only a small part of their album is available so far for public consumption, so I can't suggest a sub for them just yet, but I heard the track 'Vessels' from this outfit playing on Internet radio last night, and thought "Oh - yes please!"...So I'll just let the two guys behind the project do all the talking:

P.A.W.N. is proud to present its first CD: “The Gift of Awareness“ – an epic and melodic Progressive Metal/Rock album that encourages one‘s mind to wander. The heart of the album is the 26-minute title track, the centerpiece for the intricately arranged concept. Progressive guitar riffs alternate with symphonic keyboard sounds and instrumental parts that are surprisingly approachable for the progressive genre. The female vocals offer an unusual contrast to the multilayered and complex music, without resorting to cliched operatic tricks.

From listening to this powerfully produced album, it‘s hard to believe that most of the parts were created by only two musicians: Sebastian Rudolph (Keyboards, Keyboard-Guitars & Basses (Ministry of Rock), Vocals, iPad) and Dennis Matzat (Drums, Percussion). The duo not only composed and recorded the songs, but has also produced the album, in doing so, exploring the boundaries of home recording. Selected guest musicians were invited to join the pair from Hamburg, including Michael Klein. Klein, formerly a full member of P.A.W.N., contributes the lyrics to all of the songs and some vocals to the pirate-progger “A Voyage of Uncertainty“. Gottfried Rudolph and Sven Rhenius support the project with some acoustic-guitar-fills. Finally, the most impressive guest performance is contributed by Lisa-Marie Rothe (Vocals, Artwork and Logo Design).

P.A.W.N. was founded in 2002 as a sequel to the Hamburg Gothic-Death-Metal-combo Querimonia, who released their one and only album “Void of Malice“ in 1998 on the Source of Deluge label. During the next years, P.A.W.N. made a name for itself in Hamburg through gigs in clubs such as Marx, Logo, Knust and Headbanger’s Ballroom. The highlight of these was the participation in the finals of the Hamburg Emergenza Band-Contest 2005 in the sold-out Hamburger Markthalle. However, various member changes made for a difficult road to bigger success. In that time, the original quintet reduced to a trio, and the band is faced with its biggest challenge yet. In 2009 guitarist Daniel Müller-Ramien was diagnosed with a tumor. On this album, he was only able to join in the song “Vessels“ with a short vocal and guitar part. Even so, with his blessing, Sebastian and Dennis decided to continue and finish the record alone. Daniel succumbed to his disease in January 2014, but his spirit and soul live on in every moment of “The Gift of Awareness“.

This album is for you, Daniel.

www.youtube.com/pawnprog
www.facebook.com/pawnprog

Edited by yam yam - September 11 2014 at 04:53

Sorry about that David...I think this is the lady in question, but not 100% sure (it comes from what I assume is the same lady's Behance.net profile - Lisa-Marie Rothe did the artwork and logo design for the album as well as the vocals).

It was on morow.

I have asked the Heavy Prog team to check this band out, and added them to progfreak:  http://progfreak.com/P-A-W-N--159793.html.  

Here's another track that the guys have just uploaded to YouTube - the one I heard on Morow that immediately caused me to stop dead in my tracks and say..."WOW"!!

Edited by yam yam - September 25 2014 at 17:49

Guldbamsen wrote: Sorry Dave, but being promised a femalefronted prog group in your title, and then encountering two nerdy looking (I say that with great affection) dudes in the band pic, really made my morning.

Hey David - These pics are definitely of Lisa-Marie:

Edited by yam yam - September 30 2014 at 04:35

Guldbamsen wrote: Sorry Dave, but being promised a femalefronted prog group in your title, and then encountering two nerdy looking (I say that with great affection) dudes in the band pic, really made my morning.

Hahaha.

Reading all of this really made my day!!! And yes. I cannot deny that I am in fact that kind of prog nerd you are talking about. Actually, if you spend a good portion of your free time in front of a computer for four years, writing and producing this stuff, you become this nerd automatically...

But we are really happy to have Lisa as the nerd-counterpart!

yam yam wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: Sorry Dave, but being promised a femalefronted prog group in your title, and then encountering two nerdy looking (I say that with great affection) dudes in the band pic, really made my morning.   Hey David - These pics are definitely of Lisa-Marie:         Courtesy of their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pawnprog    Edit: The first pic I posted was also of Lisa-Marie.

^ sounds like a plan  - thanks Dave

This all goes to show what a massive part Internet radio plays in assisting up-and-coming prog acts to get themselves heard. I doubt that any FM or DAB station in the World would include this sort of stuff in its normal rotation - with the exception of maybe Planet Rock - who do a weekly show called 'One Man And His Prog' on a Sunday Night (hosted by Darren Redick). Internet radio stations like Morow, Prog.FM, Delicious Agony - and a fair few others - churn out prog 24/7, but without a presenter in sight. This is where Justin Case Prog Radio (and also Aiiradio.net) scores over the rest of them - there is someone on hand to actually talk about the music that is featured on the shows, and the opportunity for listeners to join in the discusion via the chatroom. But despite that, none of this would have happened if I hadn't been stopped dead in my tracks by the wonderful 'Vessels' being played to me via Morow's autopilot while I was peeling my spuds the other week, and it has been a great pleasure for me to be able to spread the word and help this fine band (duo) get firmly on its way.