Supporting Avenged Sevenfold on their UK arena tour, In Flames begin the first UK leg of the Battles touring cycle. We caught up with guitarist Bjorn Gelotte at the Glasgow SSE Hydro to find out more about new music, recording, and what it’s like to be in the band in 2017.

After dropping new album The Stage at the end of 2016, Avenged Sevenfold are back with a brand new stage production, joined by returning hard rock legends Disturbed and Swedish melo-death stalwarts In Flames.

Progressive metal is, and has been, a very diverse house since its inception, and Memoreve are the latest to addition to its already burgeoning ranks. Hailing from the UK, the band have just released their new EP Insignia - a blend of ethereal ambience, crunching guitars and stacks of melody.

Despite once again being pulled off the road due to Austin Carlile’s continuing battle with Marfan Syndrome, Of Mice & Men were able to complete several of their UK dates before cancelling the remainder of the Cold World European tour, and we were lucky enough to catch them at Glasgow’s o2 Academy.

One of tech metal’s forerunners alongside bands like Sikth and Meshuggah, Dutch six-piece Textures are one of the genre’s most revered bands. Playing undercard to Sunday headliners Between The Buried & Me, we spoke with drummer Stef Broks and vocalist Daniël De Jongh to get the lowdown on their new double album venture and to get their take on the Tech-Fest experience.

Arguably two of the most hyped underground artists in the UK right now, Black Peaks and HECK have done the decent thing and embarked upon a co-headline tour. We caught them at Edinburgh’s Electric Circus to see what the fuss was all about.

Hailing from Nottingham The Five Hundred may be tech, but they also have some serious metal chops. Having released their debut EP Winters just last year we caught up with guitarist Mark Byrne and bassist Andy Crawford to see what all the fuss was about.

Glaswegian technical deathcore merchants From Sorrow To Serenity have been blazing up and down the UK following the release of their debut album Remnant Of Humanity with established acts such as No Sin Evades His Gaze and Fit For An Autopsy. We caught up with vocalist Gaz King and guitarist Steven Jones at Tech-Fest to find out more.

Canadian prog metallers Protest The Hero have made a name for themselves in recent years as industry trailblazers, having led a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign through Indie Go-Go for 2013’s Volition, and more recently with the their BandCamp subscription EP release, Pacific Myth. We caught up with guitarist Luke Hoskin at Tech-Fest to discuss the industry as it is today, the future of the band and more.

Animals As Leaders rode the crest of the initial wave of djent abnds, and alongside artists such as TesseracT and Periphery remain as one of its greatest innovators. We sat down with guitarist Javier Reyes to talk about Tech-Fest and what’s to come for the band.