The sixth installment of UK Tech-Fest was set to be one of surprises for me – although I question the validity of the sea of cookie-cutter djent bands that stormed the metal scene a few years ago calling themselves “tech,” this year’s line-up seemed to be stacked with tech-death, shred-wizardry and a general selection of bands that offer up a whole lot more than a poor man’s Meshuggah clone. With UK exclusive shows from The Black Dahlia Murder, Obscura, Virvum and Beyond Creation I know this was not a festival for me to miss.
Due to travel, setting up camp and catching up with people, one of the only bands I caught during Thursday’s pre-show was Glasgow up-and-comers Godeater. Though I am friends with the Godeater guys, trust that there is no bias in what I say – the five-piece absolutely decimated Tech-Fest. With only two prior shows under their belt, they played a set tighter than any band at their stage in their career has any right to, storming through half an hour of synthy atmospherics, blast-driven grooves and utter aural annihilation to their biggest crowd yet. There was a buzz about their set that followed those leaning to the heavier side of Tech-Fest’s spectrum all weekend, and were one of the highlights of the whole weekend. Godeater are definitely a band to keep an eye on for the future.
London prog-metallers Sentience had a tough act to follow, but their brand of super-melodic, accessible tech-metal proved to be a highly charged and incredibly fun addition to the line-up. Keep a lookout for Sentience playing the New Blood stage at Bloodstock after winning the London heat of Metal To The Masses! Fellow Londoners Shattered Skies offered another very melodic prog metal set, driven by the excellent vocals of frontman Gerry Brown, marking themselves as another of the pre-shows better bands.
Channeling their inner Dillinger Escape Plan, Reading’s The Arusha Accord’s brand of math metal isn’t something I would class myself as a fan of, however there is no denying that as a live band they are a force to be reckoned with. Utterly chaotic and packed to breaking point of an infectious energy, their set marked The Arusha Accord as one of the best live bands in the tech-metal scene at the moment. Having not listened to them since my mid-teens, and gravitating away from –core genres and somewhat embracing my inner elitist, I was pleasantly surprised by how good pre-show headliners Chelsea Grin were. Despite an hour of biblical rain marring the otherwise scorching hot weekend, they played to a respectable crowd. My objections to their set are more rooted in the genre they play, and would likely have been identical if they were switched for any deathcore band – a lack of leads, too much emphasis on breakdowns and bland, chugging riffs, and many songs sounding interchangeable. However, in terms of live performance, it would be difficult to fault the Salt Lake City bruisers. Alex Koehler’s vocals were off in places, but on the whole Chelsea Grin are a much tighter unit than they were a handful of years ago. I didn’t stick around for the after-party bands, opting to get some much-needed sleep instead, but I heard nothing but praise for after-party openers My/Bitter/Half all weekend.