Show Recap: Download Festival’s Friday Was an Opening Salvo of Great Music and Vibes
An opportunity to cover one of the biggest rock and metal festivals attended by more than 100,000 rock and metal fans all in one place for a few days? Don’t mind if I do!
Over the weekend, I spent three days in Derbyshire for Download Festival, the U.K.’s largest and proudest rock and metal music event. Throughout it, we had blue skies from start to end, with very few showers. For those of you who attended last year, you know why the weather’s being brought up at all…
There’s a common misconception that metal lovers only wear black. And while, for the most part, that is true, that isn’t exactly the case at Download. Across the weekend, friendship groups walked around in movie serial killer fits, from IT to Mike Myers, Scream, and Freddy Krueger, among others. Influencers flaunted their gothic Mary Wyatt x Download merchandise, and dads walked around with fluorescent mohawks and beards.
Download is the home of cosplay, and where metal fans wear the most amount of color they’ve probably worn all year round. Costumes are a must. Oh… and there’s always some dude in a gimp suit.
Playing Kerrang!’s Avalanche tent was rising Texas quartet Gore. The Avalanche stage is a great starting point for any bands new to Download, or to festivals in general. In 2022, Spiritbox played it, with hundreds of fans spilling out the sides. Fast forward four years, and they’ve just played mainstage.
From the moment Gore. took to the stage, it wasn’t long until the pounding vibrations of Will Weller’s drums took over my body. Distorted guitar shreds and a fat scream from frontwoman Haley Roughton beckoned everyone’s attention, and the band slipped into their enchanting metalcore opener “Angels Like You.” It was at this point that I severely regretted not packing my earplugs.
“Shake some ass. Mosh. Whatever you want. This song is called ‘Pray,’” said Roughton. She also later mentioned that this was the first time they’d ever played a festival. And kudos to them, because they absolutely killed this set.
Returning to The Avalanche stage a little later on, obliterating stage lights signaled the arrival of Crossfaith. It’s been over a decade since the Japanese metalcore outfit graced the Download line-up. And on Friday, they brought Prodigy-like production and a shedload of blast beats. From the moment they opened their set with “Zero,” I knew that things were about to get messy.
Between Kenta Koie cutting it up with his fry screams and keyboardist Terufumi Tamano’s raw backing vocals, the two complemented each other perfectly. Police sirens. Pig squeals. Spin kicks. The whole lot; Crossfaith are an experience to see live, to say the least.
If you’re reading this asking yourself, where is the heavy shit? You can relax, because up on the list of must-see bands was the irreplaceable Opeth. One thing I noticed about seeing these dudes is that they might be the most nonchalant prog death metal bands I’ve ever seen live.
Appearing almost 15 minutes late, walking alongside Aphrodite’s Child’s “Seven Bowls,” the Swedish lords introduced their set with “§1,” which was both eerie and cryptic. There’s nothing like a bit of impending doom to wake you up.
Throughout their set, Opeth experienced a few technical difficulties. So much so that at one point, a fan murmured, “start again, boys,” and like clockwork, they were back on. “[It’s] Friday the 13th. Half of my shit is working. Doesn’t matter, it’s rock and roll anyway,” said vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt. He continued to joke about how the band only make songs about beer and the royal family, and later addressed an apology for their lateness. He said, “I’m sorry we’re late. It’s not my fault. I’m not a complete diva.”
The best part of festival season might not be the treks you make between stages, but rather the energies and vibes you pass along the way. As I made my way back to Opus, there was a comical mix of both unimpressed and overexcited fans near the main stage where Weezer were playing.
Finally, bringing some gothic realism to Opus were Dutch heroes, Within Temptation. Wearing the most glamorous face mask, Sharon den Adel spent the entirety of their set doing what she does best: belting out ethereal vocals. The stage setup was pretty cool too, as everyone played on raised platforms alongside stage props that looked like they were in an enchanted hallway.
Throughout their set, Within Temptation took the crowd through an otherworldly performance, and played all their hits, including “Bleed Out,” “Faster,” and “The Reckoning.”
Friday’s headliners were Green Day, and although they put on an incredible show, I’m not about to bore our metal fans with a pop-punk performance.
