An absolute dream tour for the discerning prog nerd, The Tech it Easy tour makes its way through Europe with the all star lineup of Allegaeon, Gorod, Defects and Bruteallies. There’s no better bang for your buck than this tour with a wide array of insane technical proficiency and brutality.

Local progressive death/thrash outfit Bruteallies (pronounced Brutalise) went first. Their breed of Sylosis/Revocation inspired twiddly yet oppressively heavy thrash gives everyone just enough umph to start this long evening off right. People are banging their heads and screaming left and right. There’s a respectable amount of skill in songwriting and technical proficiency in this band without sacrificing accessibility, Bruteallies seem like a band you’d discover on Scuzz at 2AM back in 2011.

Being from Manchester, Bruteallies are helping hold up the widely varied and powerful Manchester metal scene while spreading out to unknown pastures. They’re a newer outfit but they’re still ready to throw down with their noodly riffs and powerful drumming. After a bit of a break, the UK metal assault continues for one final push with the Southampton Metalcore crew, Defects.

Since Abysmal Dawn were unable to make it to the UK tour, Defects were the next choice to fit the bill. It’s a bit strange to have this form of anthemic Metalcore next to all these progressive death metal bands but they managed to get the crowd banging their heads in the limited space they had.

Defects big choruses work fantastically with the sparse yet technical guitar solos did a lot of work to win over the crowd but it was the impassioned stage presence of frontman, Tony Maue, who races around a small stage with the same enthusiasm you’d expect from a gigantic arena band. Be sure to check out their brand new single, Where Did I Go Wrong, a track that delivers on its promise of being supremely heavy while getting a stoic audience crossing their arms and gently nodding their heads in mandatory prog nerd fashion.

Next up was the French Progressive Technical Death Metal outfit, Gorod, returning to Manchester with their exceptional brand new record, The Ember Gone. Opening with Bekhten’s Curse and showing some geniunely fingerbreaking jazz chords, Gorod began an absolutely baffling sonic assault full of feral vocals coming from the squarest jaw in death metal and earth shattering drumming that could rupture organs.

The set featured some barnstorming tracks including the rapturous intro of Birds of Sulphur and lead singer, Julien Deyres. During We are the Sun Gods, vocalist Julien Deyres had time to crack open a cold one while guitarists Mathieu Pascal and Nicolas Alberny performed this hypnotic clean tapping solo that proved without a shadow of a doubt that this band has reached the absolute peak of musicianship.

The most fascinating part of this set was during Forgiveness, when guitarist  Mathieu Pascal wheeled out an upright guitar with two necks and played both simultaneously to create some kind of clean harmony. It’s a strange instrument that vaguely resembles a Chapman stick. It’s a testament to the creativity and experimental nature of progressive metal and one of the few times I’ve been genuinely surprised and curious about how something like this works.

Another break begins and unfortunately, the venue isn’t nearly as full as it should be at this point with vocalist Allegaeon vocalist Ezra Haynes commenting “We’re hanging out, all 60 of us”. Despite this, Allegaeon played with full force right from the very start with absolutely monstrous sweeps big enough to span canyons with the blistering assault of Threshold of Perception.

The set continued with the crushing bulldozer that left nothing but devastation in its wake, The Swarm. This track was a firestorm of sonic fury of speed and precision that fully encapsulated what it meant to have an overwhelming force standing in front of you hellbent on annihilation and the set just kept building and building and building in intensity.

Wake Circling Above has yet another harmonised tapping solo with guitarists Greg Burgess and Michael Stancel showing some of the cleanest sweeps I’ve ever seen without even using a fret wrap. It’s utterly mind boggling seeing all this being performed as fast as it is accompanied by blast beats from Jeff Saltzman and skeleton rattling bass work from Brandon Michael Filling out and already massive sound.

Allegaeon did around 50 minutes and with the insanity constantly escalating, it was hard to feel short changed given just how much manic technical proficiency was crammed into this set. It was a perfect length for the uninitiated and firmly established how much power was on stage with tracks like Biomech – Vals 666, 1.618 and the swirling madness of Proponent for Sentience III finishing off the show like an apocalyptic event. There are very few bands that can match this level of blinding fury and godlike musicianship and as the show ends, Allegaeon established themselves once again as an apex predator of technical death metal.

Every single member of each band on this bill is a master of their craft and an expert on their respective instrument. The dedication it has taken for every single one of them to reach this level of proficiency is mind boggling and they deserve to be rewarded for their dedication just as Manchester had been rewarded by their presence. Bills like these are made possible by a dedicated audience and having met several members of these bands, it continues to be a pleasure to witness something as truly special the Tech it Easy tour.