So it’s festival season again and so that could only mean one thing – reviews. Formally known as ‘Monsters of Rock’, Download has created a name for it self since 2004 and has hosted some of the biggest bands on the planet. Known as the ‘alternative’ festival in the UK, it plays host to 80,000 rockers over the course of the weekend, who travel from far and wide to see some of the biggest names around.

Friday

Watching Friday’s festival openers cKy without actually listening to any of their music was a risky move. Fortunately for me, it was a risk worth taking. Opening the festival can be nerve wracking for some bands as they feel like they’re ‘opening’ to the headliner of that stage. In this case, it was Def Leppard. Luckily for cKy, they pulled it off. Only having 30 minutes on the stage makes choosing which songs to play a hard decision – especially if you’ve got a big back catalogue. Opening with ‘The Human Drive In Hi-Fi’, the crowd around me went crazy. A perfectly executed opener is usually a good start. And it only gets better. Storming into ‘Rio Bravo’ and everyone is still jumping. At this point, I envy the band for keeping such composure as there is a lot of pressure on them to deliver. They Finish on what many hard-core fans call their best song ‘Escape From Hellview’, and I can see why. Not many bands could’ve pulled off the opening slot to the main stage better than these guys did.

Having seen Anti-Flag band before, I didn’t have to think too hard about see them at a festival – being anti-politics and all. Opening with a personal favourite ‘The Press Corpse’, seemed to get the crowd moving. Booking a ‘punk’ band at a festival like Download can be risky but fans seem to be lapping it up. At past gigs, they’re notorious for talking A LOT – just generally being ‘anti-Bush’ and ‘anti-Blair’ but on this occasion, they’re fairly timid which in my opinion, is a good thing. Another personal favourite ‘I’d Tell You But…’ is closely followed by ‘This Is The End (For You My Friend)’, which appears to be a favourite of the Download crowd as everyone around me is screaming the infectious catchy chorus (including me). Ending on ‘Cities Burn’ goes down a treat.

Skindred have certainly created a name for themselves in the last couple of years. Fans can’t help but sing to their unique beats as they’ve labelled themselves – ‘reggae metal’. As a warm up to their main stage performance, they played a number of songs on the Jagermeister Stage – known as the acoustic stage. As Benji, the lead singer takes to the stage with such confidence (although it could be due to the fact that he just announced that he was high – but nevertheless), he immediately has the attention of the whole crowd. The fan favourite ‘Pressure’ was a great choice of opener and this tune has everyone singing – and dancing. ‘Nobody’ is played soon afterwards as he keeps the great vibe going in the crowd. Luckily for Benji, he has the “likable factor”. Everyone loves him. Knowing this, he somehow manages to get the crowd to do an ‘acoustic wall of death’. It’s an interesting sight to say the least. Half an hour flies by and is soon ended with ‘Warning’ straight into ‘Could You Be Love’. The set couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

This was a hard clash as pop rockers The Darkness were playing on the main stage at the same time, but I opted for Korn. I’m not 11 anymore – although I did catch their first couple of songs, one being ‘Growing On Me’. One thing I was utterly confused about at the time was the fact that everyone knew that Korn would have a bigger crowd than The Darkness, yet Korn were only on the second stage. It was clearly packed – so much so that I couldn’t see the end of the crowd.

Korn’s opening single was, again, a great choice ‘Blind’. Unfortunately for me, I lost interest throughout their set until the notable songs came on. Arguably their most famous song is ‘Freak On A Leash’ which was executed fantastically but momentum quickly died down. I’m not sure if Jonathan Davies, the lead singer is Scottish or not, but he’s well known for wearing a kilt on stage. But that’s not all. He can apparently play the bag-pipes – to which he randomly performed in between songs. It wasn’t until their last 3 songs, that I and everyone else woke up. Korn are known for singing ‘Falling Away From Me’, straight into a medley which includes ‘Coming Undone’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Twisted Transistor’, ‘Make Me Bad’, ‘Thoughtless’, ‘Did My Time’ and ‘Clown’. This was certainly the best part of the entire set, but why was it left towards the end? They ended on ‘Y’All Want A Single’, which is a personal favourite, but I thought it was a rather unusual song to finish on. Either way, the crowd loved it and I suppose that’s all that really matters.

Pendulum underwhelm in pivotal headline slot

Next were headliners Pendulum on the second stage. Arriving on stage around 10 minutes late, they made up for their tardiness and got fans jumping immediately with ‘Salt In The Wounds’. I only have one issue with Pendulum: why is that MC in the band? He’s not the talented, whatsoever. I generally don’t mind listening to Pendulum but this set wasn’t particularly enjoyable. They didn’t play much off Hold Your Colour or In Silico at first, which are the albums whose tracks would’ve pulled me in. For this reason, I found myself losing interest. The saddest thing is that I wanted to enjoy it, but the MC was severely putting me off. They also concentrated solely on getting everything absolutely perfect. Sometimes this isn’t the way forward as fans appreciate the mistakes and/or improvisation – especially with a band that relies upon drum and bass, electronica and DJ’s. I only stayed 40 minutes and walked off. As I got outside the gates, I heard ‘Propane Nightmares’ and ‘Blood Sugar’ – some of my favourite tunes. To make matters worse, it even stopped raining.

But that’s one day of music over with – already.

Saturday

My afternoon didn’t start until 2pm as there wasn’t too much that took my fancy. So the opening act for me was Skindred – again.

Walking on to the main stage to the ‘20th Century Fox’ theme tune, Skindred look refreshed and ready to blow away the fans once again. Benji was sporting a Union Jack suit – probably a symbol of their latest album Union Black. They open with the fast-paced ‘Stand For Something’ – the opening track off their EP Shark Bites & Dog Fights.
Skindred came from around my area and the venue, TJ’s, in which they more than likely played their first gig, has since shut down but somehow, they’ve managed to make a name for themselves and are now absolutely killing the 10,000 strong crowd. Benji is such a showman; he gets everyone doing the ‘heavy metal robot’. If you don’t know what that is, use your imagination! Again, everyone is singing along to ‘Pressure’ and ‘Nobody’ – many singing every single word. Their final song again is ‘Warning’ and in the middle of the song, he gets everyone in the crowd to take off an item of clothing. Benji would then tell us that this was to create the “Newport Helicopter”. On 4, we would swing our clothes in the air – like a helicopter. During this, Skindred continued playing ‘Warning’ and upon finishing the song, they had a huge roar of cheers. There are big things to come for this band – watch this space.

Next was Clutch. Opening with ‘The Mob Goes Wild’, fans clearly loved it. Unfortunately, I don’t have too much to say about Clutch as I don’t really know them well enough. After the closing track ‘One Eyes Dollar’ is played, most of the fans head over to the main stage to see the next act – DOWN. These bands are arguably similar. Again, I don’t know enough about DOWN to give a fair review. In all honesty I fell asleep on hard ground whilst they were on, although from what I’ve heard, they were average.

Skunk Anansie next. This is a controversial band and large parts of the audience don’t know what to make of them, personally, I love them. Yes, the lead singer looks crazy – she probably is. Wouldn’t want to mess with her. As Skin enters the stage, she appears to be wearing a weird feathered hood to look like a peacock (probably). First song performed is ‘Yes, It’s F*cking Political’ and her voice immediately makes an impact on the crowd – those who hate it leave straight away. Many look up at her dazed and mesmerised as she sings ‘God Only Loves You’ – a deeply touching song. Her voice is less than perfect as she prances along the stage but the presence of the band is enough to create a fantastic atmosphere. When ‘Weak’ comes on, every single person around me is clenching their fist, scooting down and belting out the lyrics. Skin makes her presence known again, letting her confidence show by jumping into the crowd and allowing random fans to touch her body. Now that’s dedication. Ending on ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’ allows everyone to cool down whilst still going out with a bang as they get ready for Avenged Sevenfold who are on next. First experience of Skunk Anansie was exactly as I expected – fantastically weird.

One of the biggest bands of the weekend are up next – Avenged Sevenfold. Their position on the main stage could make or break them, as they’ve never been this high on the main stage at Download. A fantastic opening, screaming ‘NIGHTMAAAAAAAAARE’, never have I seen such a response to one word in my life. I, like many others have much respect for them keeping going after experiencing what many wouldn’t go through in a life time. ‘Afterlife’ could be a rather risky and morbid song to sing but it was also a dedication to The Rev – I could see how it could easily reduce someone to tears as it was sung so beautifully, but M Shadows somehow kept his composure. ‘Bat Country’ is an old favourite and went down so well that M Shadows tried to keep a positive vibe and sung a song that they rarely play live – ‘A Little Piece Of Heaven’. Only when hearing the song live did I realise how crude the lyrics were. A7X are certainly crowd pleasers as plenty of fire is extinguished from either side of the stage. They really did mean business. They want to create an impact on the audience and I think it’s worked. Finally ending what seemed like a short set on ‘Save Me’ which again is a rather appropriate song for what they’ve been through in their lives. It’s also the concluding song on their latest album Nightmare. Watch out for these guys. With a new release in 2013, these guys will be headlining Download Festival – and they’d do a fantastic job of it.

The band that everyone has been anticipating throughout the festival had finally arrived: System Of A Down. Being probably their biggest comeback slot at a festival, they have a lot to live up to, and a lot to make up for. Looking behind me, I see tens of thousands of people all waiting. With this many people watching them, surely no one’s watching Alice Cooper?

System Of A Down triumph in front of a mammoth, and expectant, crowd

Arriving 10 minutes late after a curtain malfunction, System Of A Down finally storm on the stage with ‘Prison’. At this point, the crowd is electric. For me, it was reliving my 14 year old obsession. For others, it was going crazy for their favourite band in the world.

System didn’t have much time to talk. They simply reel out song after song after song, as a fan favourite ‘B.Y.O.B’ is followed by ‘I-E-A-I-A-I-O’ and ‘Needles’. There’s no time for a break. It’s now Daron’s turn to take over on the microphone. To me, it seemed like Daron was more confident and got everyone moving more than the frontman himself – Serj Tankian. The crowd died down quite a bit until the beginning riff to ‘Chop Suey’ began playing. There’s something about System Of A Down’s music that makes you dance and that’s what everyone was doing and rarely stopping. ‘Lonely Day’ was played next and many put their lighters up to this calm, gentlemelody. It then erupted into ‘Bounce’ and EVERYONE was jumping in the form of a pogo stick. From this song onwards, energy was rumbling throughout the crowd and continued to do so until ‘Cigaro’ was played. Many seemed shocked at their choice of song but others just laughed at its vulgar lyrics. When ‘Toxicity’ came on, no one stopped for air as fans kept on jumping and dancing until finally their last song – ‘Sugar’. Although a rather short song, it seemed to work well as a closing track. It may have been a while since they last played Download and it may be a while until they next play, but it was certainly worth the 6 year wait.

And another day comes to a close – and what a great way to end! System Of A Down are my ‘band of the festival’ so far but it’ll take a lot to beat that performance.

Sunday

In a repeat of last year’s Sunday at Download, we’re treated to rain. There wasn’t a big band I wanted to see particularly but the first band I watch were a Norwegian outfit called Kvelertak.

Not aware of any of their music, Kvelertak are pretty big in their home country. Singing all their songs in Norwegian makes it harder to know what they’re singing about. I think it’s quite hard to enjoy a band sometimes if you don’t know any songs or what they’re talking about. Luckily, they seem to be reeling me in. They sound fresh and like nothing I’ve heard before. Their most famous song ‘Mjød’ (which translates as ‘mead’ – yeah, makes no sense to me either) is played with such ease, not even the rain affects their mood or their style of play. If Cancer Bats are your thing, you should definitely check out Kvelertak.

I was unfortunate enough to catch some of The Pretty Reckless and to no one’s surprise, the Courtney Love wannabe is parading around the stage wearing revealing clothes and ‘trying’ to sing. The saddening thing is the crowd response. Everyone seems to be lapping them up – it’s probably down to the fact that she’s blonde, was ‘humping’ a speaker and casually said ‘so this song is about sex..’ She’s 17 for God’s sake! Now I’ve got nothing against female-fronted bands but Taylor Momsen sounds awful. ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ makes me literally want to kill myself. Okay that’s an exaggeration, it makes me want to kill her voice. That’s enough to make me walk off momentarily.

Rain is still hammering down on us but that doesn’t seem to bother Turisas as they enter the stage with such courage on ‘The Holmgard And Beyond’. Although again I haven’t heard too much of their stuff, it seems impossible to hate them. They’re insistent on getting everyone jumping and moving around despite the rain and it seems to be working. You just can’t help but dance like an idiot. Although ‘Rasputin’ is a Boney M cover, it still seems to be their most popular and most famous song. These guys are stopping at nothing and no one looks dissatisfied or disappointed to be here. Regardless of the fact that they’re on their 4th and final song, this is the song that everyone’s been looking forward to – ‘Battle Metal’. They’re known for making this song last 10-15 minutes but even so, it does not leave you bored. These guys are touring in autumn so if you’re looking for a band that brings the fun, the dancing and your crazy out all in one gig, do not miss them.

At this point, the rain was annoying me so I headed into the Pepsi Max Stage where I stumbled across Deaf Havana. As I was only in the tent for shelter and they’re not really my thing, I didn’t enjoy them. Same goes for Framing Hanley, who were on soon after, although I was pleasantly surprised by Silverstein who followed them. Plain White T’s – well there’s not much to say on this front apart from a poor booking and a displeased crowd.

Turner wins over metal festival with a carefully crafted setlist.

Much of the crowd disappeared for the headliner and final act of the festival Frank Turner. After his newest album was released only a week before the festival, I expected plenty of England Keep My Bones. He begins with ‘Eulogy’ and immediately everyone joins in. A favourite of mine from the latest album is ‘I Am Disappeared’ and he sings it so perfectly. Despite the surprisingly small crowd, the tent fills with noise and doesn’t sound like it’ll quieten down anytime soon. Although I’ve seen Frank Turner 3 times, he has never played ‘Back In The Day’ until right now. It sounded exactly as I expected it to sound – brilliant. That song is the most appropriate song to me personally so I felt the music shiver throughout my body when it was sung. Most of his fans knew he was a punk rocker back in the day but he’s also a metal head at heart so when he sung his cover of ‘The Number Of The Beast’ originally sung by Iron Maiden, the crowd went wild. It was important to the festival and to potential new fans to sing a song by a highly regarded artist. His last song ‘Photosynthesis’ is known by everyone so, to no surprise, fans ignite the room with their voices.

‘The Ballad Of Me And My Friends’ is his encore and it sounds like an exact replay of the song on the album, as this very song is recorded live. It filled everyone’s hearts with happiness as we all felt his emotions in that song. Frank Turner is a genuine guy and he sings so beautifully live. There isn’t a bad word to say about him. If you ever miss him live, you’re missing the next big thing – even if that’s not what he wants.

Strictly Our Opinion: Another festival done and dusted. Although only my second year at Download, last year was not a patch on this year – System Of A Down, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn and so many other brilliant acts over the whole weekend. Download offers something that not many other festivals do – late night entertainment EVERY night, a fantastic atmosphere and just a great place to be. Regular Download Festival goers will tell you that it’s one of the friendliest alternative festivals about, and that certainly stands true.

No, it’s not a festival for everyone, but it appeals to the right festival goers on every level and I hope that never changes. After discovering many new bands over the course of the weekend, walking many miles, drinking gallons of alcohol that I, among many others will be returning to the place they call Download. [4.0/5.0]