The rain had fallen hard, boots across the site had trudged many miles. The result? One of Download's muddiest festivals in years. As exhausting as that can be, it didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the Download faithful as the festival reached it's final day of this edition. A day which started off as a logistical nightmare for the organisers but ended in triumph.
After a long snaking queue to get on site early on Sunday (the dreadful conditions meaning slower admittance through security), our first port of call was to see Code Orange (12/13) FINALLY get their chance on the main stage. A criminally early slot faced initial delays due to the weather and culminated in the band having 10/15 minutes carved off their allotted time. Despite this, Code Orange arrived, performed as if they were in a sweaty basement venue, caused a stir and ultimately smashed the place to pieces (both figuratively and literally). Sadly the band only had the chance to crack through five songs. Bleeding In The Blur was dedicated, with tongue firmly in cheek, to Avenged Sevenfold with Reba Myers having a go at them for apparently refusing to reduce their own set time causing everyone lower down the bill to suffer. The final track Spy was utterly ferocious. Once it closed, the band continued to play with the organisers now cutting their sound, leading to the band trashing what they could and Jami Morgan launching his microphone towards presumably security of the side-stage sound desk in pure frustration. There are rumours Code Orange may be taking some time away after this run of shows - it'll be an odd way to go out if that happens.
Next band we checked out, still on the main stage, was Kerry King (11/13). There was a certain amount of buzz when King started appearing on festival posters before he'd formally announced his return to the stage and from the evidence of what we seen at Download, there is still serious fire in his belly for all this thrashing around lark. With Slayer team-mate Paul Bostaph on drums and a line up which includes Phil Demmel on lead guitar there is definitely a high level of proficiency here and they know it. Stomping around the stage like they own the place, this entire set made for very enjoyable watching with vocalist Mark Osegueda of Death Angel fame proving to be a particular stand out. The focus of the set was of course the debut record From Hell I Rise - all tracks which pretty much sound like Slayer without it actually being Slayer, but when the band threw in to Raining Blood and Black Magic, that's when it really kicked off. The crowd excitement audibly and visibly rose so it felt a bit of a shame when they chose to close off with the title track of the new album. We get it, but one last Slayer track to close things off would've been the cherry on top for a great set.
Whilst with Kerry King we're talking about a return, Sum 41 (10/13) are of course on their exit run with this being their last ever UK festival appearance. It was no surprise therefore that the set was jam packed with their biggies with All Killer No Filler and Does This Look Infected? tracks filling up half of the set-list. Even with that being the case, given this was a farewell and they had pulled a vast crowd, it came and went in a flash. Be sure to snap up tickets for their final ever run of UK dates in the latter part of this year for a bumper edition of this.
Directly following this were the of course consistently brilliant live Limp Bizkit (12/13). As a live band Bizkit just never disappoint and today was no different - wall to wall bangers and quite easily the biggest crowd at any stage all weekend. Opening with Break Stuff was bold - also closing with Break Stuff was an even bolder and somewhat odd choice. With the number of HUGE tracks in their repertoire, not sure they need to go down the Europe Final Countdown road. In between the Break Stuff sandwich you had all the usual big hitters and crowd favourites which had the place utterly glued to the performance in front of them. Fred's got his big white beard going, Wes Borland is looking as mad as ever and the rest of the band sound as powerful as they ever have. Perfect festival group.
Following one of the potential sets of the weekend, a long arduous trek through the mud to get to the second stage led us to another - Machine Head (12/13). It's been a long self-imposed hiatus away from festivals for Robb Flynn and his merry men so this return to Donington (somewhere Machine Head have frankly DOMINATED in the past) felt both triumphant and a genuine moment. Opening with Imperium in to Ten Ton Hammer was brilliant verging on the sublime - the latter of these causing Machine Head's crew to launch a load of inflatable massive hammers into the crowd which was enjoyable to see. It's been so long since they've been at Download there were a few tracks getting their first round of festival plays including CHOKE ON THE ASHES OF YOUR HATE and Is There Anybody Out There?. Both of these in particular garnered a huge reaction which seemed to please Robb Flynn hugely. A slightly slower, groovier, version of Nu-Metal style From This Day was a lot of fun just ahead of the fiery crescendo of Davidian in to Halo. It was all just massive fun - the band were enjoying it as much as the crowd and it absolutely showed. The last time Machine Head were at Download they become embroiled in a bit of tit for tat due to having Chase & Status above them on the bill. A far less overly serious Machine Head, out to simply have fun, is what we got in 2024 - and it was truly great.
Closing out proceedings in 2024, Avenged Sevenfold (10/13) made their third appearance as main stage headliners. Tonight's show was good on the whole, but it was marred with tech issues - something which plagued the festival across the Saturday/Sunday this year. The set was largely dominated by tracks from their latest album Life Is But A Dream... which from an overall enthusiasm perspective seemed to split the crowd. The main thing to report here is that, as expected, these tracks are absolutely meant for the live arena. They take on a whole new level live and we'd encourage you to head to an Avenged show should one cross your way on this run. Outside of the new tracks, the band packed the rest of the setlist with fan favourites from Unholy Confessions and Bat Country to Hail To The King which was dedicated to all the Dad's in the audience due to it being Father's Day. The show closed off with Cosmic without an encore to follow. And without the standard end of festival firework display and fanfare - a bit of an oddly subdued full stop on a great but challenging weekend.