European-style metal! And at Birdy’s on a Friday night, no less. If you’re a kid who once had arguments with his friends over who rules more — Helloween or Iron Maiden? — that’ll make you happier than a crackhead on free crack day.

After an opening by Lafayette hard rockers Seed, Pvrenchymv — sounds just like it’s spelled — delivered the straight-up 1980s-era goods, crying out high-pitched epic lyrics with guitars blasting away. You could pawn off Pvrenchymv’s tunes as lost tracks from Helloween’s Keeper of the Seven Keys and I’d buy it. The band makes the kind of music most properly sung by guys cloaked in deep shadows and green lights with the occasional strobe. It’s a three-man group with the sound of five.

Vestiges of Ecstasy offered rip-roaring Eurometal in the tradition of Nightwish and Within Temptation. They’re fronted by Mia Kileen, who has an otherworldly air that falls somewhere between “blissfully ethereal” and “stabby stab crazy person stab.” Ah, creative tension. Vestiges played mostly originals, except for the time they blazed into a roaring rendition of Danzig’s “Mother.”

Closing out was Cursed for Manners, who brought a slightly older-school texture, combining just a little bit of the angsty alternative feel of the Cure with a whole lot of screamin’, making for a distinctly Tool-like sound with all kinds of mad rhythms layered over it. Any gang that can do this and still be esoteric enough to riff the Aztec prediction of Armageddon in 2012 is A+, No. 1 in my book.