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23 years in and, after a truly blockbuster weekend of beautiful weather, returning legends and some of the most exciting new noises in metal, it seems Download's standing as one of the biggest and most important fixtures in rock remains very much intact. Many bands made their Download debut, while one headlined for the very first time; plenty of others showed that bigger things surely await them. Here, however, are the 10 bands that truly stole the show.
Silent Planet (Friday, Opus stage)
One of the first acts to grace the second stage this year, Silent Planet delivered a battering we still felt as we hauled ourselves home on Monday. The Californians’ EU tour has grabbed plenty of headlines – they gave away shirts in Italy to protest venue merch fees and are booked for two Ukrainian gigs – but beneath the frills, they’re a bollocks-heavy and lyrically conscious outfit. Antimatter and Collider dropped into djent riffs with such force that it made other metalcore bands who draw influence from Meshuggah sound lame in the process, while frontman Garrett Russell screamed his soul out up front. MM
Limp Bizkit (Friday, Apex stage)
The kings of swaggering nu metal bangers finally made the big step up over two decades after they had to cancel on headlining Download's first event, and Fred and the boys didn't disappoint. An all killer, no filler set ensured maximum movement across the field all night - with the sole exception of their mushy cover of The Who's Behind Blue Eyes, which still drew a ton of crowdsurfers and, courtesy of a dedication to Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers, packed a genuine emotional punch. MA Read our full Limp Bizkit review here.
Lowen (Saturday, Dogtooth stage)
One of the most unique and powerful sets of the weekend came early Saturday afternoon in the Dogtooth tent, as London-based British-Iranian metallers Lowen brought some Persian mysticism to Download for the first time. Packing massive, doomy riffs and Middle Eastern melodies sounding like they snaked their way out of the depths of the Caspian Sea, it was a sign that the UK metal underground remains an exciting, inventive place. MA Read our full Lowen review here.
Trivium (Saturday, Apex stage)
With the possible exception of Slipknot - who were already a massive deal and had played Download twice previously by the time they took their legendary headlining slot in 2009 - no band's rise is linked so closely with Download as Trivium. Their Saturday evening set was the first time they've returned to Donington and truly put on a showing that matched that iconic moment in 2005, the nostalgic swell behind classics like Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr only surpassed by the sheer quality of modern anthems like The Catastrophist and The Sin And The Sentence. Modern metal done right. MA Read our full review of Trivium here.
Elder (Saturday, Dogtooth stage)
Long-burning psych-metal jams in a festival field, before the kind of audience who’ve shown up for Guns N’ Roses and The All-American Rejects? Sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, yet Elder scored an unlikely win with their Saturday Dogtooth set. Taking the stage just as Trivium finished unloading hell on main, their turn was a welcome lull, pulling Download into a cosmos of immersive melodies and gradual riffs. Watching it, it was excellent, but it was even better when we closed our eyes and let the New Englanders transport us to the haziest corners of our imagination. MM
Kublai Khan TX (Sunday, Apex stage)
Kublai Khan TX’s barrel-chested hardcore was a genius booking for a crowd overcoming their Sunday-morning hangovers. Right after main-stage openers Unpeople blasted everybody awake with the loudest set of the weekend, the Texans stormed in and got them all two-stepping. Frontman Matt Honeycutt demonstrated masterful control of the still-filling field, pulling more than a few weary arses from their camping chairs. Hardcore had an incredible showing at Slam Dunk last month, and after this assured Download debut, maybe camo shorts and Sick Of It All long-sleeves will have their day once the nu metal revival blows over? MM
Bloodywood (Sunday, Apex stage)
It wasn't just the genre's OG icons bringing nu metal mania to Donington this weekend. One of the few modern artists doing something brand new with the sound brought some South Asian thunder to the main stage on Sunday, shaking off any weekend fatigue with their groovy Delhi metal ragers. Anyone not already on board with Bloodywood's brilliantly full-throttle live show would have been converted within minutes of them bouncing out on stage, with one of the funnest sets of the whole festival following. MA Read our full Bloodywood review here.
Skindred (Sunday, Dogtooth stage)
Secret sets have been an on-and-off Download tradition since Metallica appeared unannounced in 2003. So, when an unusual gap was spotted in this year’s Sunday-afternoon Dogtooth schedule, everyone from Pantera to Don Broco was rumoured to be showing up. In the end, it was ragga-metal party-starters Skindred, hot off scoring a UK number-one with April album You Got This. The tent was overflowing as Benji Webbe’s crew laid down 25 minutes of feel-good mayhem, capped off by a hemmed-in Newport Helicopter. “Come see us at Alexandra Palace on Halloween!” Webbe urges – you got it, mate! MM
Letlive (Sunday, Avalanche stage)
Arriving with a reputation for anarchy, Letlive’s Jason Aalon Butler says the Cali punks were briefed heavily before seizing the stage. We’re not sure what rules were laid out for them, but each was probably broken. The fivesome played a hyper-spirited 40 minutes, loaded with post-hardcore ragers and principled speeches from their frontman. Guitarist Jeff Sahyoun’s mic cable has to be untangled within a couple of songs, before Butler rips his shirt open, tears his trousers, then strips to his boxers. During 27 Club, he scales the scaffolding and ignores demands over the P.A. to climb back down, even as the sound gets cut. An act of awesome, righteous rebellion. MM
Linkin Park (Sunday, Apex stage)
Linkin Park closed out the weekend with a celebratory and emotional run through their hits-stacked catalogue, and there could be no bigger seal of approval on Emily Armstrong becoming Download's first headlining frontwoman than the sheer volume with which Donington sang along with the cuts from 2024's excellent comeback album From Zero. If theres a better way to see out a festival than a packed-out field screaming its heart out to Faint, we haven't seen it. MA Read our full review of Linkin Park here.
