Review: Download Festival 2012

FRIDAY Arriving on site bright and early on the dank Friday morning, we’re greeted by an array of obliterated camping equipment and a field of weary-looking early arrivers. “It’s been raining for 30 hours non stop”, says a bloodshot eyed guy in crutches camped next to us who’d had the misfortune of waking up in the middle of the night with a gazebo flat on his tent. Other than the relentless drizzle and the muddy quagmire underfoot, it seems today that we’ve mercifully escaped Mother Nature’s full wrath.

Sadly, however, our plans for an adrenaline pumped kick-start to the weekend courtesy of Cancer Bats are shattered as organisers reshuffle the first few acts on the stages due to the previous adverse conditions. Ample compensation is found later on when we trudge through the brown gloop to catch the tail end of Fear Factory’s** **set on the Jim Marshall stage. Effortlessly fusing sonorous vocals with guttural growls, frontman Burton C. Bell consumes the stage as they power through industrial anthems including ‘Self Bias Resistor’ and ‘Replica’.

!Slogging it over to the Zippo Encore stage, an impressively big crowd is already in fine voice belting out ‘The Final Countdown’ ahead of Europe’s impending arrival on stage. 30 minutes after they’re due on we finally get the news that the band aren’t turning up due to a delayed flight. Testament to Download’s unbeatable atmosphere, rather than breaking into a chorus of boos the rain-sodden throng instead continue their ‘Final Countdown’ chimes.

After a quick liquid refreshment pit stop, it’s on to the Pepsi Max tent where London’s finest big-haired metalcore merchants The Defiled are serving up a brutal electronic clamour. Tracks ‘Black Death’ and ‘Blood Sells’ both impress but the set reaches its undoubted zenith when two bizarre crow-like women creep onstage and proceed to (mock) slit guitarist KK Curse’s throat. Always a nice touch.

Chase & Status are the ‘danciest’ and arguably most controversial act ever booked for Download so we’re half expecting a shower of piss, plastic bottles and yoghurt pots (circa Lethal Bizzle, 2008) when we arrive at the Jim Marshall stage. Despite the lack of traditional rock instrumentation, incredibly the Download crowd fully embrace them and chant back the lyrics to ‘Fire In Your Eyes’ and ‘Flashing Lights’ with abandon. Their brilliant MC, Rage, is crucial to their live appeal and works the crowd nicely while lynchpins Saul and Will dish out the fleshed up beats.

Culminating with a rousing Liam Bailey double-header of new track ‘Take Me Down’ and the rave-tastic ‘Blind Faith’, it’s clear that Chase & Status’ success was undoubtedly helped by the crossover Prodigy audience; but it was a notable success nonetheless.

Already Download heroes in their own right, The Prodigy conversely are 100% guaranteed crowd-pleasers. With Maxim Reality at the helm and firing out expletives like there’s no tomorrow, as the rain continues to drizzle down the Braintree dance-rock veterans quickly dispatch ‘Worlds On Fire’ and an almighty ‘Breathe’ to whip the crowd into a fervour. Jilted Generation oldies ‘Poison’ and ‘Voodoo People’ add a bit of muscle before ‘Firestarter’ truly takes things skybound with the increasingly redundant Keith Flint vindicating his place on stage in one fell swoop. Only a thumping ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and the ultimate ‘Their Law’ manage to reach the same dizzy zeniths.

While The Prodigy never threatened to scale the heights of their fellow 10th anniversary Download headliners, it was an energising, raucous set that cemented their place in Donington folklore.

! SATURDAY Slightly worse for wear from last night’s post-Prodge excesses, our first port of call on Saturday is to catch the mighty Saxon. With Biff Byford owning the stage like a man one-third his age Barnsley’s prodigal sons shake us into life with retro-heavy metal classics like ‘Wheels of Steel’ and the epic closer ‘And the Bands Played On’.

After some teenage-friendly theatrics from Black Veil Brides, it’s Trivium who kick Saturday into the next level. Clearly overwhelmed by the occasion, between almost shredding his vocal chords to smithereens on immensely powerful tracks like ‘In Waves’ and ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’, frontman Matt Heafy tells the crowd “Today is beyond a f***ing dream… metal is alive and well today at Download.” A blistering ‘Dusk Dismantled’ and the ultimate ‘Throes of Perdition’ deftly hammer home his point.

!Continuing Saturday’s upwards spiral, we arrive back at the Jim Marshall stage just in time for Corey Taylor’s surprise guest spot with Steel Panther on ‘Death To All But Metal’. Passionately showered with waves of ‘Corey, Corey!’ chants, the Slipknot and Stone Sour man was almost boyish with enthusiasm as he leaped around the stage in wellies. A great Download moment.

Perfect late Saturday afternoon viewing, bona-fide rock titans Tenacious D heroically arrive onstage wearing fluffy bathrobes in front of the giant purple veiny cock-like phoenix that adorns their latest record. Sweating violently within seconds of breaking into ‘Rize of the Fenix’, the grimacing Jack Black and ever unlikely-looking Kyle Gass are comedy gold from the offset mixing banter with tender musical masterpieces like ‘Beelzeboss’ and ‘F*** Her Gently’. Apart from the penultimate ‘Tribute’, undoubted highlight comes when Jack recites the name of every food stall in his view. You can’t buy this kind of class.

As headliners Metallica loom, over at the Pepsi Max stage Reading’s finest new musical export Sylosis impress in front of a bunged tent. Fusing driving melodies with gloriously heavy metal and thunderous riffs, it’s a travesty these boys have remained under the radar for so long.

Their seventh appearance on the hallowed fields of Donington, Metallica’s set drew the biggest crowd of the entire weekend. After the usual Western sounds of ‘Ecstasy of Gold’ the metal titans launch into a seismic ‘Hit The Lights’ and immediately send Download into euphoria. Unrelenting in their blistering onslaught, a powerful ‘Master of Puppets’, rare outing of Kill ‘Em All classic ‘The Four Horsemen’, a scintillating ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ferocious ‘Hell and Back’ pave the way for a masterful (back-to-front) performance of ‘The Black Album’ in its entirety.

As always James Hetfield commands the stage with his comical guttural laughs and ultra-clichéd shout outs to the “Metallica family”; Lars Ulrich grimaces and gurns are almost as entertaining as his drumming while Robert and Kirk cover more distance than a Premier League footballer as they sprint around the stage.

Far exceeding their 10.45pm curfew, there are zeniths aplenty throughout the two-and-a-half hour set – ‘Nothing Else Matters’ is genuinely spine-tingling and ‘Enter Sandman’ is pulsating - but nothing quite tops the pyrotechnics fuelled, fireworks spectacular finale of ‘One’ and ‘Seek & Destroy’. Earlier this year Download booker Andy Copping said Metallica’s slot could be “genius” – he wasn’t wrong.

! SUNDAY After two grey days, Sunday brings that rarest of things – SUNSHINE. Filled with the joys of summer, our first hit of the day is from DevilDriver whose brutal, slightly evil sounds starkly juxtapose the delightful weather.

Now able to sit on the hardened brown turf, we find a perch to imbibe the stoner grooves of Kyuss Lives! John Garcia and co.’s music is almost custom-built for this kind of hazy afternoon and we soon get lost in their epic guitar solos and desert rock sounds. Is that a golden eagle we can spot ahead?!

Next up, the mighty Anthrax enthral as they kick off with the aptly titled ‘Caught In The Mosh’ as scores of circle pits erupt around the Main Stage. Storming through their set with vigour, the only let down is that it’s over far to soon. Sauntering over to the Redbull Bedroom Jam stage we catch the tail end of Strangle Kojak whose energetic pop-rock lights up the tent.

!As heavy metal triple whammies go they don’t get much more mouth-watering than Black Label Society, Lamb of God and Megadeth. With their different shades of metal the three heavyweights bring different intricacies to the fore – from Zakk Wylde’s brilliantly indulgent, orgasmic solos, Lamb of God’s scintillating metalcore power riffs to Dave Mustaine’s almost unparalleled musicianship – and independently justify why metal is still thriving today.

With Sonisphere sadly no more in 2012, recently reformed and highly influential Swedish electro-tinged hardcore punks Refused were enticingly lured to perform at Download instead. And what a fine move it turned out to be. Singer Dennis Lyxzén is the consummate frontman and the core of their appeal; dressed in a trim black outfit he hollers, screams and flails his microphone around with prowess. Clearly awed by the occasion, he tells us “When we split we were just a punk band playing a few shows… now we’ve come back to this!” Typically, it’s the phenomenal closer ‘New Noise’ that is truly next level sh*t and is yet another defining Download 2012 moment. Long live Refused!

Keeping things firmly Swedish, it’s over to the Pepsi Max Stage for the end of Ghost’s theatrical show. Satanic zombie bishop Papa Emeritus cuts an eerie figure prowling the stage wielding a smoking thurible while his masked Nameless Ghouls provide the surprisingly melodic, devil-themed tunes. Perfect Sunday evening entertainment.

The most talked about headline slot in Download’s ten-year history, Black Sabbath were never going to disappoint at Donington. Astonishingly, however, they managed to exceed everyone’s expectations. Setting the scene with a video montage of their five-decade career highlights, the response when Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and stand-in drummer Tommy Clufetos’ arrive on stage is almost biblical in proportions. This is nothing compared to the opening Iommi riffs of ‘Black Sabbath’ as the legends dispatch the opening four tracks from their 1970 eponymous masterpiece with staggering precision and intensity – ‘N.I.B’ for one is up there with the greatest live tracks I’ve ever witnessed.

After the sensational early blitzkrieg Ozzy paid tribute to cancer battling Tony Iommi, saying: "The guy on the stage I've known for most of my life, and he's one of the strongest guys I know. Let's hear it for Mr Tony Iommi" as the crowd chanted “Tony!” in unison. Even hardened men are brought to tears. Weaving throughout their iconic musical arsenal – from ‘War Pigs’ to ‘Snowblind’ and ‘Iron Man’ – Sabbath were flawless, relentless and perfect. Ever humble too, before they rip into ‘Dirty Woman’ Ozzy tells us "When we first formed 40 odd years ago, I had no idea we'd be here doing this." Ending with a flurry of fireworks Ozzy beckons “Let’s go f*cking nuts!” as they launch into a frenetic ‘Paranoid’ - and, of course, we all duly oblige.

Put simply, Black Sabbath’s set will last in the 80,000 strong crowd’s memory forever. Legendary is an understatement.

Photos: Danny North, Jessica Gilbert, Giles Smith, Derek Bremner, Andrew Whitton