All things must end and we reach the fourth and final day. Whilst it is still hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum, there are thunderstorm warnings a plenty with not one but four potential typhons heading towards Castle Donington. With all the shenanigans with sackings and members not travelling, there is a real question mark about how many members Slipknot will have when they grace us with their presence at the culmination of the festivities. But we have a whole heap of bands to sample before we get there.
Read MoreWhen they say “Sold Out” they really do mean “Sold Out”. This is the busiest we’ve ever ever seen Download and all four stages start crowded and just accelerate from there. Our journey today begins with a four-band salvo on the second stage. Static Dress are quite simply a different band to the one that opened the third day of Download pilot two years ago. At the time they brimmed with potential but came across as incoherent and rather scattergun. Twenty-four months of tireless touring has resulted in an immaculately focused and really rather slick post-hardcore outfit.
Read MoreUnderstandably we are all a bit confused. Friday feels like Saturday, Saturday like Sunday and Sunday like an excursion to the surface of the sun. It’s also hot, dusty and really busy. Any inclination that the Bring Me The Horizon day would see a lull in attendance is soon knocked on the head. The place is jumping and jiving from the get-go and the sold-out signs on all the BMTH merch makes it clear that they are not making up numbers as we wait for Metallica Part 2.
Read MoreThe phrase “Scream for me Donington!” is ubiquitous in heavy metal’s lexicon. One of the joys of this weekend is watching the obvious pleasure that uttering those words gives to almost every musician playing the event. The fact that it coupled with the refrain “I’ve always wanted to say that” tells you everything about the importance of Donington Park not just to British heavy rock but to the whole scene in general. We may be celebrating Download’s twentieth incarnation, but the reverence given to what is essentially a second-rate racetrack shows that adulation goes back much further than that.
Read More