Rosen Bridge are up first in The Bread Shed tonight having made the short trip from North Wales. They immediately crank out their crunching tech-metal akin to Northlane, InVisions and Architects. They’re not as slick and smooth live as on their recordings, but still offer an interesting and entertaining performance. The harsh vocals bite and slam into the front row, but the cleans seem troubled by the dry house sound tonight. There’s some nice guitar work, including finger tapping on an eight string, and the whole set is very cohesive and will appeal to fans of the afore mentioned bands. Jot Maxi comes on to guest for a song and it’s a nice touch early on in the night. For Rosen Bridge I think once the dynamic segments, such as quiet stops into beatdowns, are nailed perfectly these guys will be a great live act. Equally, working on snaring some catchy riffs, or memorable choruses, will propel them even further too.

I’m excited to finally see Lake Malice, having followed them for a while now and they don’t disappoint. The band are from Brighton and center on Blake and Alice who provide a massive mix of metal, tech-metal, nu-metal, punk, electronic-rock, and even pop. Live we see Alice provide the varied vocals and Blake thundering guitar, together with a live drummer and intricate backing-track. Fans of Spiritbox, Dream State and Vukovi will adore this band. Alice delivers velvety clean singing somewhere between Ava Max and Hayley Williams, but then storms effortlessly into shouty Hanin Elias style vocals, and even guttural Vexed type growling. All the time she’s bounding about the stage like a firecracker, while Blake spins, jumps and bounces energetically. They’re infectiously enjoyable, with a brilliant boppy but heavy feelgood factor. Previous single ‘Blossom’ is a standout track, but the whole set is exciting, vibrant and fun. I can’t wait to see and hear more from this duo very soon.

Hacktivist had to postpone this gig’s original date last year due to co-vocalist Jot Maxi fracturing his pelvis, and looking at the crowd you feel there’s a mix of hunger for the missed months of live action from these guys, but also regret that some of the momentum from the release of album “Hyperdialect” has been missed. Bassey hip hop thumps through the venue before the band take the stage and the crowd are more than ready once they take up their positions. A hooded Jermaine ‘J’ Hurley and pumped-up Jot Maxi come on and prowl the stage menacingly. It takes a while for the sound to get balanced, but once it does the chance to finally tour tracks from the latest album interspersed with older songs goes down a treat. The crowd almost seem to have forgotten how to go wild to this superb and brutal tech-metal punk grime band, but 'Overthrow' lights the fuse and a dancing moshpit starts up. By the time 'Dogs of War' is passionately delivered the pit is thrashing and bouncing. 'Armoured Core' has the delicious rumbling bass, choppy guitars and bouncing chat, and even has a delicious guitar solo that leaps out. The songs from new album “Hyperdialect” are flush with technical yet groove-laden guitar work stabbing and darting in liaison with the intricate backing track and syncopated drums. Jot Maxi is obviously loving performing live again, and the whole band are energetic and vibrant. More and more people get pulled into the pit until the whole room is jumping, and by the time Alice from Lake Malice comes on to provide the Aaron Matts verse of single ‘Hyperdialect’ everyone is grinning and dancing. A great return to form from Hacktivist, and a platform for even more in the future.