Hailed by Muse and Biffy Clyro as ones to watch, Surrey band Arcane Roots arrived in Leeds fresh from their headline European tour.

With a slot at Download Festival to come it would seem their stock is rising, following support slots with both the aforementioned groups last year.

And the surprisingly small but hard core group of fans who ventured out on a Tuesday night to see the band were given a full exhibition of why this three piece are such hot prospects.

The wall of sound created by frontman Andrew Groves alone is something to behold. Combine this with his awe-inspiring ability to perform magic on the fret board while screaming his lungs out and simultaneously moshing as hard as anyone in the crowd and you’ve got a winning combination.

The effort was admirable and you get the feeling he’d take on bass and drumming duties too if he could.

And the dynamism does not end with his multi-tasking skills on stage; the music ebbs and flows beautifully from the serene to the riff-tacular, often within one song.

The small crowd tonight hints that boundary pushing skills don’t work for everyone and with some tracks offering a distinct whiff of The Biff I suspect the band may follow their Scottish peers into a more pop-rock sound as their popularity grows.

Prog-metal support act Empress show no such sign of softening their edges for the mainstream.

The band lash out an impressive power set of heavy, yet melodic tunes beneath the Jekyll and Hyde vocals of Ollie Loring, whose ability to shift from the soothing to the searing is second to none.

A heavy dose of Mastodon with a hint of Deftones is present as they juxtapose gentle harmonies with frantic ferocity and relaxed strumming with intense thrashing.

You can catch them supporting Kvelertak in Leeds tonight where they will no doubt be celebrating being signed by metal label Roadrunner Records.