First up are Aleya who impress with their varied take on tech-metalcore. They’re straight into it, with no introduction to the crowd, delivering their brand of Bury Tomorrow style song-process, through Blood Youth new nu-metal heaviness, out to Northlane or Erra influenced tech-metal. In fact, Erra are the closest match to this young band of any potential ‘for fans of’ suggestions. This is a young band finding their feet, but there is definitely something here with these guys. There is some interesting tech-guitar work, and groovy riff work (a la Bury Tomorrow’s Black Flame), all backed-up with a lovely tone. The bass keeps everything going with drums providing a lot of the dynamic changes in overall vibe, with great heavy splash work. But it’s the flick-of-a-switch vocals that offer warm clean tones one minute and powerful guttural growls the next. They reveal an anthemic closer, and you feel that they just need the parts to gel a little more, and hit on a real big breakout song, to hook people in again and again.

Lost In Lavender Town kick straight in without an introduction as well. The instrumental five-piece are reminiscent of I Built The Sky and Coldbones. Ridiculously intricate bass, syncopated hits, plenty of riding splash and deliciously technical guitar work. They manage to knit this all together into an excellent holistic sound though. That technical guitar work is truly outstanding with plenty of tapping and spider walking. They’re best described as Unprocessed or Uneven Structure without the vocals obviously - it’s truly arpeggio heaven, with a superb use of a well seated guitar tone to allow melodies to thrive without the need to simply be volume boosted. They demonstrate a very impressive balance in the sound and writing across all the songs with a delivery so professional and tight.

Next-up are Dreameater who embody the spirit of Emmure and Godeater. Their frontman does his best to get people involved and forward. The vocals are viciously yappy shouty vocals, that hardcore punk sensibility rather than guttural, but incorporating some great high vocal shred. There’s plenty on the backing track – including the harmony guitars and thundering bass-drop noise. The bass and guitar provide the churning, violent harmonies, and when the guitar does move to a unique melody it's drowned out by the very loud drums and a rumbling rumbling bass. The guitars and bass possibly just aren't violent and brutal enough to be as effective as Emmure, but there’s plenty of promise in these guys.

Headliners Sertraline are bidding farewell after this tour to frontwoman Lizzie Parry. They’ll be massive boots to fill, but I must admit my abiding memory of Lizzie will be of her getting stuck behind a flag whilst performing at home for Tech-Fest during lockdown. Funny how these things stick in your mind! But seriously, her vocals are tonight once again sublime - guttural vocals are thrown out and then seamlessly shifting into the luscious honey-soaked clean singing. This melodic tech-metal outfit (for fans of Jinjer) are going to continue post-Lizzie and the tremendously intricate yet groove-laden guitar work, together with dynamic tight syncopated drums, will carry this band on to great things. Their songs are well constructed and delivered with catchy choruses, driving rhythms and appropriate guitar parts which gel holistically with each song. Fundamentally, there's that groove and funk from the guitars and drums layered with vicious growls and sweet melodies from the vocals. It’ll be interesting to see how they adapt or fill Lizzie’s role in the band as they’re so close to something special we’ve all got our fingers crossed they can build on their solid foundations.