UK TECH-METAL FEST 2019
NEWARK SHOWGROUND, NEWARK-ON-TRENT
Dying Fetus and Leprous head another showcase of pulverising precision
FRIDAY
Now in its eighth year, UK Tech-Fest has long proven a rallying point for forward-thinking metal, and this year Newark Showground’s two sun-baked hangars host another three days’ worth of bands guaranteed to send the mercury even higher.
London’s RED METHOD stride onto the Fireball stage like they’re here to prove a point, setting their death- and nu metal influences into a crowd-combusting whole. ANNOTATION OF AN AUTOPSY frontman Steve Regan paces across the Line 6 stage as the Norwich bruisers’ grind-charged beatdowns set up another crowd rampage. ICEFISH’s melange of influences – from metal to classic rock and jazz fusion – is ear candy for prog aficionados. Unleashing rounds of machine-gun guttural vocals and complex riffery alongside progressive passages, ARCHSPIRE live up to their status as tech-death titans.
With the Line 6 stage audience heaving, BLACK TONGUE deliver a barrage of downtempo doomcore plucked directly from Hell. It’s a hard act to follow, but DYING FETUS waste no time raising the bar for sonic extremity. From the razor-sharp grooves and metallic clatter of Fixated On Devastation to Grotesque Impalement’s muscular deathgrind, their gloriously gloomy aura hangs heavy over the Showground, proving they’re certainly the wrong ones to fuck with.
SATURDAY
California’s provide a rude early awakening on the main stage. are a brutal, commanding’s introspective ambience couldn’t be any more dissimilar, while induce a state of proggy bliss via slow burners like and . make their UK festival debut in grandiose fashion as djent-spliced grooves transition into searing cleans. The elaborate math-rock mastery of harnesses the complex and the catchy with virtuoso guitar work, and soothing vocals during quieter moments. Switching between nerve-shredding guitars and emotive ambience, deliver a set brimming with absolute belief, ’s venomous urgency inciting an erupting mass of bodies.
