Tech Fest, the UK’s finest festival dedicated to all things tech-metal, has added another 13 bands to an already stellar line-up for fans of intricate rhythms and 12-string guitars.
Joining the 22 already confirmed artists will be post-hardcore mob Devil Sold His Soul, one-man metal/fusion project Chimp Spanner, prog-metal trio Alaya (in a European exclusive), Serbian oddballs Destiny Potato and probably the heaviest thing to come out of Lincoln in Martyr Defiled. The Algorithm, David Maxim Micic, Eumeria, Shields, No Sin Evades His Gaze, Doomed From Day One, Noise Trail Immersion and Now, Voyager complete the latest addition.
Last year was the festival’s debut as an open air event with camping, taking place in a couple of fields behind a pub just outside of Peterborough. This year’s event will be at Newark Showground, and organiser Simon Garrod sees it as an upgrade.
Speaking to Zero Tolerance he says: “This year’s venue will be vastly improved on all levels. It will provide a nicer environment and a much higher quality festival. You can expect bigger sound systems, louder music and impressive staging/lighting for a developing festival. Each year we seek to improve all areas of the festival experience.”
Announced earlier on to also be playing Tech Fest were German proggers The Ocean, Swedish dual-vocal attack Vildhjarta (in a UK exclusive) and American tech-hardcore outfit Glass Cloud (in a European exclusive), along with 19 other acts including The Safety Fire, The Eyes Of A Traitor, No Consequence and many more.
Talking about how they went about picking the line-up Simon adds: “We picked bands that we felt had released some really good material lately or have some incredible material coming up. Some bands we feel have earned a slot from their hard work touring relentlessly that need to be heard! Some decisions were based entirely upon the skill level of the individual musicians in the band, some decisions were based on expanding to a new audience to help bring a new crowd to Tech Fest and to gain a wider audience and create a bigger platform for the tech-metal scene to expand into. Technique/precision/musicality/emotion/innovation and hard work are what we look for in bands.”
Aside from the friendly, intimate atmosphere and some blistering performances, one of the most memorable elements of last year was the scorching weather, rare to find across a full weekend in the UK, let alone when a festival’s on! Simon is reassuring that this year there will be showers available for free, but that’s obviously not the main reason to go: “You should come to Tech Fest if you want to be inspired by some of the most talented musicians in modern metal today,” he says. “We focus on bands that are pushing music to its limits, who aren’t afraid to try new things. We create a very friendly and relaxed vibe, we always have more space than we need, there will be very few if any queues for food/entry/bar. There’s cheap food/drinks and camping will be nice and spread out in case you want to keep to yourselves in a quite area. All the bands from the top to the bottom of the lineup share the experience together as one happy family all united in mutual respect for each other’s musical accomplishments and ambitions.”
Tickets cost £59.99 for the full weekend (with an additional £20 for camping) and are available here.
Click here to visit the Tech Fest Event Page on Facebook to make new friends before you arrive.
And for further information visit the Tech Fest website here.
If you’re still not convinced (or have an hour to spare now Breaking Bad has finished) there’s a documentary all about last year’s festival below.
