Miércoles 13 Jun 2012, 15:41
Fri 8 Jun – Download Festival 2012
Festivals are one of those immensely popular things in Britain at the moment. Currently it seems smaller festivals (and some not so small like Sonisphere) are having a hard time trying not only to set up the first year but keep it going on a year to year basis. This is what makes Download Festival so impressive as it is now in its tenth year and is seemingly still going strong. Ten years ago Download Festival was branded a “metal” festival and the only real one at the time, the organisers have since adapted to culture and offer varied lineups, not as varied as say T in the Park or Reading Festival but enough so that it might interest a lot of potential customers who may have been sitting on the fence. This statement is even more evident with the inclusion of a dance band sub-headlining and also the festival selling out all tickets they had.
Anyway enough chit chat, I participated in the gruelling five day camping that Live Nation happen to offer to all of their Download customers and believe this will be the last time I do so. I made this decision before the music in festival arena even started and this decision was partially based on nature and also the amenities but really each of these things are finely woven into each other. Me and my friends arrived around 3PM to the Donington based festival at this time it was raining fairly hard and continued to do so on and off again for the next two days, after pitching our tent we waited for the rain to subside. It never did. Relentless showers kept going on and on even the stalls that were at download had trouble keep the liquefied mud out, it was worse than anyone else could had ever thought. My group were in the red camp which unbeknownst to us at the time had one set of toilets which were always busy because there was too many people and not enough loos. The smell got so bad at one point I heard people gagging and to top it off I only saw it them cleaned once, if it was just based on this it would be no lamps out of five, but hey at least the people at Pootopia made a killing from me every time I needed to make a deposit.
When Friday morning came around I was having such a shit a time I had forgotten there was actually bands playing and that was why I was there for! (Although because of the mud they had to postpone the opening of the arena by two hours to cope with the amount of rain) anyway without further adue here is my take on the music I saw/heard!
We started off by watching Fear Factory as they were the first band on the bill for the Friday, as I had not heard much of them before there wasn’t much for me to sing along and by the sound of it there wasn’t to sing along to either a lot of their songs have the generic metal scream incorporated into it, although they left me with very good first impression and I would go and see them again!
Next was Billy Talent, I had seen this Canadian punk rock band before at Download Festival a few years prior and they had failed to ignite the crowd then, this time however they were on top form playing songs that the whole crowd were singing along to. Half way through the set they gave some “Canadian Hospitality” to Cancer Bats by letting them play a song (which was Hail Destroyer) as they had been taken off main stage due to the mud. Overall I believe Billy Talent made the most of their time and I wouldn’t be surprised if they slowly make their way up the festival slots in the future. Four Lamps
Chase and Status had a lot of bad comments placed against them when they were booked but as soon as they started I did not hear a single boo and heard many people singing along and having a good time, the same can be said for The Prodigy despite neither of these “bands” being the normal metal bands people have come to expect, the crowds were going mental and in full force of having a good time. A perfect way to end the first evening.
On Saturday the weather started to brighten up and also helped to dry everyone's wet spirits, despite this I was only able to see two full sets of bands the first being Halestorm. I had only heard of Halestorm by name and none of their music, and I was throughly impressed by what they brought to the table. Each song had a rocky hit to it which had a massive impact on the crowd, definitely recommend this band to anyone who likes plain old straight up rock music!
The second band was Skindred they have flawless stage presence everytime I see them, the frontman knows how to get the crowd rallied up and ready for rock music. Yet when they play a song from Beyonce it seems to fit in perfectly, Skindred never fail to impress and will headline the second stage (maybe the main stage?) soon in the upcoming years mark my words. Everyone should experience a Skindred set once in their lives, trust me they will love it.
Other bands I saw on Saturday include Black Veil Brides, Trivium, Biffy Clyro & Tenacious D but as I didn’t see them in full I did not think it would be fair to review them.
Sunday saw one of the heaviest circle pit inducing bands ever to take the Download stage Lamb of God, playing all the fan favourites from their back catalogue and rallying the crowd to have an awesome time which everyone seemed to be having. They were great but they have/could be better based from the times I have seen them in the past.
Megadeth took to the stage shortly after and captured the crowd with all the metal classics they had stored away from their vault. They barely moved from their center positions but they didn’t need to, they had the crowds singing along and were molding them in their hands like putty.
Soundgarden were sub-headlining on the Sunday and saw them playing a grunge induced set with Chris Cornell hitting all the high (and sometimes very long) notes. A lot of the crowd were enjoying it but I wasn’t such a big fan, I’m sure for some people seeing Soundgarden has been something they have waited a long time for but for me it just never connected with me in the same way and having seen Cornell do some solo gigs I thought he could do better.
They saved the best until last in my opinion with Black Sabbath playing last at the festival. Lowering a sheet over the stage to keep the set a mystery whilst it was being created, then you hear Ozzy say from behind it “Make some noise for me then” which made the crowd erupt. For men who should not be doing this music-thing at their age, they seemed to moving around a fair bit and enjoying themselves whilst they do. Even if people didn’t know the songs they still were moving about to it and had a genuinely good time which just goes to show how good stage presence they still have. Definitely the best band to play the whole weekend, even at their age they are still showing some of the younger generations how to do it right which tells you something.
Overall Four of five!