Download

With the addition of Sonisphere to this year’s festival line-up and stealing many metal big-hitters, Download’s title as the ‘best metal festival’ looked to be coming under some serious fire.

 

Regardless, with the blazing heat and the gathering of the metal-head hoards, there is something undeniably exciting about the atmosphere at Donington as the first day kicks off with the Blackout, thescreamo hipsters who on the main stage pumping are their generic post-hardcore mediocrity to an excitable crowd. A bizarre nu-metal medley taking in snippets of covers from Korn, Limp Bizkit and Faith No More is obviously intended as a tribute as to the bigger of the days bands but comes across as a cheap and slightly insulting gimmick.

 

A Day to Remember drop clichés like bombs dropped over Baghdad – thick and fast. Blending everything generic they can muster from hardcore and metal, their by-numbers approach is lacking any dynamism and depth. Coming on stage to the 2001 theme is so clichéd it could be a joke, but apparently it’s not which makes it just lame.

 

‘Check out Dir En Grey they’re really mental Jap dudes, with a really varied sound, each song is different’, comes the enthusiastic recommendation from a friend. Varied if you like metal that is! After expecting some sort of sound-clash, aural onslaught the Jap-metallers pillaging of expected metal sounds is a bit of a let down. Front-man Kyo bounds round stage like a possessed ape screaming, yelping and singing his lungs out…the vocals are diverse, but everything else is lost in the mix.

 

It’s so easy to hate Limp Bizkit, the rap-metal buffoons should be one of today’s lowlights, but somehow they appear to kicking ass on the main stage. Wes Borland’s juggernaut riffs are the main draw. Fred Dirst is strangely likeable and has the crowd in the palm of his hand. It’s all pretty simple stuff - big riffs, pounding beats and dumb-ass lyrics easy to chant along to – it’s party music for the angry.

Tracks like ‘Rollin’ and the cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’ that thrust them into the big time are simple metal-party tunes that get the place pumping (and other such party clichés).

 

Korn’s chugging nu-metal has aged really badly, and the bar seems like a much more exciting prospect.

 

Enough of the pretenders, it’s time for Faith No More.

Front-man Mike Patton, dressed in a sleazy red suit, slowly stumbles on stage propping himself up with a walking cane and holding his back poking fun at the fact the band are getting on a bit. Even after expecting the unexpected no one is prepared for a smoochy cover of Peaches and Herb’s sickly sweet soul tune ‘Reunited’ as the opening number, with the band moving straight into ‘The Real Thing’ – the anticipation is rising, waiting for them to crank it up a notch. As the riff to ‘From Out of Nowhere’ kicks off the excitement boils over….that’s it Faith No More are back and are once again proving that they are the daddies.

The set is awesome and awe-inspiring, Patton’s voice is out of this world and the band are probably at their tightest ever. Colossal tunes like ‘Ashes to Ashes’, the pure metal madness of ‘Surprise You’re Dead’, rap-metal standard ‘Epic’ and the inclusion of an uber-fast ‘Introduce Yourself’ make this one of Download’s greatest, and most eclectic, ever headline sets. They even get the rock hoards grooving to a cover of Lady GaGa’s ‘Poker Face’ and swaying to their better-than-the-original cover of the Commodores’ ‘Easy’.

The perfect set is closed with the amazing blast of ‘We Care A Lot’ leaving the crowd stunned and gasping for more. FNM came, saw and conquered Donington.

 

The second day is even hotter than the first, and boy is it making people angry. It’s hate-metal day!

 

Five Finger Death Punch are as violent as the name suggests, but not nearly as comical. Machismo oozes from the meathead metallers decked out in matching band-branded American Football tops. Brutal metal riffs and anger-fuelled shouts make for a dynamic if relentlessly extreme barrage of sound. Proving their jock-metal credentials they openly encourage the gathered throng to ‘hurt each other’ and separate the ‘men from the boys’, obviously thinking it is both big and clever to encourage violence and stand 50 feet away on the safety of the stage.

 

The Computers are dapper chaps. Sporting an all-white teddy-boy look the Dorset boys are blasting out some maximum rock n roll on the Myspace Bedroom Jam stage. Like Rocket From the Crypt filtered through a modern hardcore sieve, they rock with pure energy. The screamed vocals detract from the quality of the punk-rock on show (does no one fancy singing today?) but overall The Computers are band to watch. 

 

DevilDriver and Hatebreed are far to dark for the blistering sunshine but put in sturdy performances that keeps my metal-ometer topped up to the brim, before it is exploded by Down. 

 

Down are METAL, they are the spirit of rock n roll expressed with pure, joyous aggression. Phil Anselmo proves his metal-legend status engaging the crowd and providing vocals that are both powerfully angry and melodic. Down’s southern metal grooves are refreshingly tuneful and dynamic.

 

Pendulum might just be the greatest rock n roll swindle of all time! A mediocre drum and bass outfit, start wearing black and add some mediocre rock riffs to their sound and somehow the rock world is duped into believing it is credible. Thousands of people are dancing too exactly, and I mean exactly, the kind of piss-poor soulless dance that fills the kind of clubs most metal-fans hate. All their songs sound the same. The irony is giving me a headache! They are an energetic bunch, I suppose that’s something.

 

I’m experiencing mixed emotions at the start of Chris Cornell’s set: the lush, orchestral version of ‘Black Hole Sun’ was nice but the weak pop-soul new number he opens with is just annoyingly mediocre.

But all is made good with the line ‘This is a song by the group Audioslave’ which launches Cornell into a set made up largely of tracks from his collaboration with members of Rage Against the Machine and his grunge-trailblazers Soundgarden. Having played with such distinguished players throughout his career, his current band of merry men run the risk of seeming like little more than a tribute act, but play almost perfect renditions of the classic tunes.

Cornell himself is on fine form, bursting with energy and showing exactly why he has one of rocks most powerful voices. An extended version of the colossal ‘Spoonman’ is and the mass and rousing sing-along to ‘Black Hole Sun’ are both classic Download moments from an artist who has earned the title of ‘legend’.

 

 The Prodigy have just kicked off with ‘World’s on Fire’ and resistance is futile – they are the band of the people and everyone is here to dance (whether they knew this fact or not). The Essex rock-ravers even have a group of six-foot tall bikers in full biker gear boogying down and expressing their love. The sound is relentless, the bass is so heavy my internal organs are shaking this is total immersion music.

The set shows how solid the Prodge’s career has been taking in classics such as ‘Their Law’, ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Breathe’ and ‘Firestarter’ – tunes that are ingrained in the national psyche, topped off by tunes from the massive new LP. ‘Run Like the Wolves’ maybe one of the heaviest rock tunes all weekend.

Maxim Reality stalks the stage like a man possessed keeping the crowd involved in the spectacle, whilst Keith Flint bounds round like a madman spitting and snarling like a punk demon in front of Liam Howlett as he unleashes the musical carnage. 

New tune ‘Comanche’ is an indication that the band have the ability to keep churning out the big hits for many years yet. 

As the encore ends with ‘Out of Space’ no one is in any doubt that the Prodigy own this and every stage they step onto, they transcend rock, dance, pop and every other genre. When it comes to the live arena they are the dons.

 

by Chris Marks