Scream for me Donington! 45 years since Monsters Of Rock first turned Castle Donington into a legendary pilgrimage site for rock and metal, Download Festival is still keeping the torch burning bright with another triumphant outing for its 2025 edition.
Topping the bill were an all-new (for Download, at least) set of headliners in Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn, but you didn't have to look much further down the bill to find an impressive array of talent from across the rock and metal spectrum. That in mind, we've assembled our biggest takeaways from Download 2025, exploring not just the line-up but what it means to the wider shape of alternative music going forward. Wanna know which bands knocked it out the park? Read on!
The improvements to site are brilliant
So let's address the elephant in the room: Download 2024 was mad, and not always in the good way. Torrential downpours turned the site into a ceaseless bog and incidents like food poisoning definitely put even more of a dampener on the weekend for some fans.
It's helpful that the weather (largely) co-operated for Download 2025, but there was also a serious sense that the site had been massively improved this year. Increased seating/refuge areas, free Wifi, feedback for food stalls and even a skate ramp - as well as better walkways, signage and accessibility points - made this year feel like a real high watermark for on-site amenities. As important as the line-ups are each year, it's stuff like that which really makes Download feel user friendly and the kind of festival you can enjoy no matter how old (or young) you are.
Metalheads love a bit of pop (even if they won't always admit it)
Before the main arena had even opened at Download, the party was in full swing. For all the whinging and bitching that gatekeepers will offer, go to any metal gig where some cheesy pop is blasting over the PA (Aqua, Eiffel 65, Backstreet Boys - take your pick) and watch as the room lights up.
We saw it at the Download Pilot, when the first big sing-along after the lockdown was to Vengaboys' We Like To Party,.So while the choice to get the Vengaboys themselves playing at Download seemed mad on the surface, it wasn't a total shock that the tent was absolutely packed when they turned up on Thursday. They weren't the only pop hits at Download 2025 either; McFly enjoyed a similarly packed out tent on Friday and even come Sunday, we spotted a bunch of metalheads square dancing to Rednex' Cotton Eye Joe.
President might be the new Sleep Token
Before a note of their music had been released, President were drawing comparisons to Sleep Token. The mysterious newcomers generated interest when they were announced - the band had no online presence and this was to be their first gig - but the release of singles In The Name Of The Father and Fearless in the weeks running up to the festival only intensified the discussion as their sound clearly subscribed to the tech-metal-meets-RnB sonics of the Saturday night headliners.
But we'll admit, we were still blown away to see that President's debut performance pulled easily the biggest crowd in the Dogtooth Tent all weekend. Escorted to the stage by a full motorcade, the mysterious, masked group exceeded the hype with an impressive showing of clanging riffs and wild swings between crooning melodies and harsh screams, even getting massive sing-alongs for the two singles that are out now. Their full first gig is happening at The Garage in London on July 30th and we reckon it's safe to assume they're a new sensation in the making.
Extreme metal can still rule at Download
Rock and metal is an exceptionally broad church in 2025. With more specialist festivals than ever before - Fortress, Desertfest, ArcTanGent, Incineration - it's becoming increasingly common to see niche genres like black metal, stoner, doom etc. filtered to dedicated crowds rather than at the bigger mainstream events. That doesn't mean they're neglected entirely, however.
"We're probably the most apocalyptic band on this bill," Dave Hill admitted as Anaal Nathrakh tore into a typically incendiary performance on the Dogtooth Stage on Saturday afternoon. The circle pit seemed endless and bodies were tossed like cabers for the extreme metal legends' set, but they were by no means the only extreme band to smash it at Download.
Cradle Of Filth pulled a big crowd for their own (literally) flame-enhanced performance headlining in the Dogtooth later that evening, while on Sunday we saw the likes of Lorna Shore and Seven Hours After Violet absolutely smash it out the park representing deathcore. More extremity in 2026, please.
Trivium are a bunch of dirty trolls (or maybe we shouldn't read too much into everything)
With bands like Ghost and Sleep Token curating a pervasive sense of mystery in metal with rich lore and surprise pop-ups - Sleep Token even hosting a prize draw at Download for fans who solved an anagram puzzle - it's not surprising that fans are being eagle eyed about any hints to special events and pop-ups at Download.
It's also a well-established tradition at Download to have secret sets, stretching back to Metallica at the very first event in 2003. 2025 was no exception, with word breaking that Malevolence were going to play the Avalanche Stage on Sunday as a late addition, but fans quickly spotted the curious absence of any band in the 11am slot on the Opus Stage on Saturday, leading to speculation about who might fill that slot. Could it be Turnstile, making an unannounced appearance between Outbreak bookings? Metallica again (the appearance of Bastardane certainly got people talking)? Late on, buzz arose that it could be Trivium repeating their legendary early morning slot in 2005 that effectively broke them in the UK.
That chatter kicked into hyperdrive on Friday when frontman Matthew Kiichi Heafy posted on Instagram: "Who's ready to do this again?" Tagging the festival in. All but confirmed, right? Nope. As it turns out, the band weren't appearing - which makes sense, given they're headlining Bloodstock in August - and the massive crowd that turned up to see the "secret set" instead just saw the stage being set up. Fool us once...
The future of metal is looking very exciting...
Download 2025 was packed with fresh talent who look ready to blow up. The very first set on Main Stage, Japan's SiM were hyperactive genre-mashers, their reggae-punk-metal fusion bringing up echoes of Skindred as a refreshing change of pace to kick off the day.
There was also the matter of all-new talent with emerging bands like Amira Elfeky, Gore., Seven Hours After Violet, Battlesnake, Survive Said The Prophet and House Of Protection all making their Download Festival debuts with some stunning sets across the weekend.
And that's to say nothing of the bands who stepped up their game from previous years. Bleed From Within have risen from the Dogtooth tent in 2022 to a full main stage show this year complete with pyro and bagpipes as they absolutely smashed it, while Malevolence's not-so-secret set on the Avalanche Stage was packed and elicited some enormous sing-alongs. There was also another contender for all-time great festival stage openers when Orbit Culture kicked off Sunday with a maelstrom of riffs, double-bass beats and techy, melodeath grooves. It paints a very positive picture for the shape of metal going forward.
...and we reckon we've some headliners in the making
With Korn making the leap up to headliner (finally!) and Sleep Token similarly making a meteoric ascent, it feels like everything is open for more bands to step into that top billing. There's been some iconic sets in recent years that could serve as a case for why some bands are ready to step up - Evanescence's enormous crowd in 2023 springs to mind - and Download 2025 was no exception.
The first, on Friday was an impressively stacked offering from Weezer. Kicking off with Hash Pipe and then ripping through My Name Is Jonas, Perfect Situation, Surf Wax America and Undone - The Sweater Song is a strong case for them having one of the all-time best greatest hits in all of alt. rock. But the absolutely colossal crowd they attracted - and massive sing-alongs they enjoyed - definitely suggests that they'd go down a storm if they were given a little longer with top-billing at Download.
Then on Sunday, there were two bands eyeing up the top spot. Bullet For My Valentine have made no secret of their ambition to someday headline Download - having already topped the Download Pilot - so the choice to do The Poison in full again ("for the last time in the UK, ever!" Matt Tuck insisted) was a natural fit and highlighted how many massive bangers that band had even on their first album, chucking in Knives and Waking The Demon as an encore to underline their arsenal of anthems.
Spiritbox was something else entirely. Three years since they made their debut in the Avalanche Stage tent, they pulled one of the biggest main stage crowds we saw outside of Korn themselves for a late afternoon slot - and absolutely conquered it. Just two albums in, that band are blasting out the bangers - Jaded, Secret Garden, Circle With Me, Holy Roller, Soft Spine - and just looked so assured as they blasted through the set. At the very least, we'd hope they'll be headlining second stage next time they're round.
Metal has never been so weird and wonderful
Costumes at festivals are a given, but when even the bands are getting involved you know it's going to be fun. Battlesnake's sizable crowd in the Dogtooth tent on Friday included a devil in pink bunny ears, but not to be outdone, the band made their appearance in their now iconic priestly robes with wings and horns, highlighting their surreal humour amidst classic old school heavy metal riffs, ending with half the band stripped to their pants covering AC/DC while their guitarist soloed atop a moving flight case. Go figure.
Similarly, if you'd have said 20 years ago a hyperpop artist with metal crossover cred would be pulling a massive crowd on main stage we'd have struggled to believe you (after figuring out what the hell "hyperpop" is, anyway), but that's exactly what Poppy enjoyed with an almighty turnout to see her blasting through a ten-song set that combined pop melody with crunching nu metal influences.
Also on Saturday, Kim Dracula brought the weird with a hyperactive mash-up of nu metal, trap and pure oddness, songs squealing and skittering between styles in ways that bring up the likes of Dog Fashion Disco, Korn and Mr. Bungle, chucking in jazzy sax solos amidst it all. That set the tone for Sleep Token to similarly break out the sax during Emergence during their headline set, proving that instrument has been woefully underused in metal until more recently.
But if Saturday belonged to the sax, Sunday was all about the bagpipes. Bleed From Within brought out their own bagpipers to cap off an immense In Place Of Your Halo, and perhaps unsurprisingly Korn's Jonathan Davis embraced that Scottish spirit by donning his own kilt during their headline set and breaking out his own set of (bag)pipes for Shoots And Ladders.
It feels like a perfect highlight that metal is more open to experimentation than ever, the genre still evolving and expanding in exciting new ways. So far as Download Festivals go, 2025 proved the future is bright. Roll on 2026!
