Download Festival 2013 on Sunday
Download festival on Sunday 16th June
Kevin Gaughan and Peter Coombs report
Scroll down for reviews of Stone Sour, Ghost, P.O.D. and Rammstein
Slideshow
14:25 Masters of Reality – Zippo Encore Stage
One of the many bands I had not come across until this weekend were Masters of Reality. A five piece from Los Angeles, calling themselves a dessert rock band, hmm, interesting.
Looking cool, calm and collected, Chris Goss and his band entered the Zippo Encore stage, the second main stage, exchanged pleasantries with the crowd and got on with their set.
It was sunny and the crowd was plentiful, the music was laid back, powerful, driving grunge-ish with keyboards, just perfect for soaking up the sunny Sunday rays with beer in hand. A very cool character on guitar with plenty of facial hair made for an interesting, ZZTop look.
As Chris said ‘it was hard to fit twenty years of music into a half hour set’, but what I heard, I liked a lot.
Click here to see them perform at the festival
15:20 Amon Amarth – Zippo Encore Stage.
On the second main stage in the sunshine were Amon Amarth (meaning ‘The mountain of doom’ – taken from the novel ‘The Lord Of The Rings’). Amon Amarth are a five piece Death Metal band from Sweden, they came with their own very impressive stage set which, unfortunately, took seven minutes too long to assemble which meant they only had a twenty minute set.
The crowd at the Zippo Stage filled up quickly as people marched into the arena while Amon Amarth were erecting their set.
As the stage and smoke suggested , the performance was about as heavy as it gets. With deep, growling vocals from Johan Hegg and drums on constant fire at probably several hundred beats per minute, there was no messing with this band.
Although, the chatter between songs and the professionalism in apologising for the fact that they only had time to play four songs made me think ‘what jolly nice chaps’!
Click here to see them perform at the festival
17:15 The Howling – Red Bull Stage
This five piece punk/rock band from London hadn’t played at Download, but, man, they played like they meant it. The big Red Bull Stage filled up soon after they started.
Within minutes a circle a huge pit opened up in the middle of the marquee and it all went t bit mad with plenty of crowd surfing, including Blacky the singer who continue singing while surfing on his back.
Full of energy and unusually catchy rock melodies, it’s no surprise the marquee filled up as soon as they started. I couldn’t help but like the sound of this band. Full of show-off confidence that was good to watch and whipped the crowd up into a frenzy.
My conclusion? – The Howling are a fantastic band to see live, watch out for them.
Click here to see them perform at the festival
18:05 Surrender the Coast – Red Bull Stage
Leicester’s five piece hard core/southern rock band, Surrender the Coast, made themselves known in the Red Bull Stage BIG TIME!
With growling vocals from Andy Connelly and hundred-mile-an-hour drums courtesy of Dan Barton, their take on hardcore is so bad it’s GREAT! With energy that didn’t falter the entire way through the set, they must have drank a tent load of Red Bull before they started!
Surrender the Coast played a set of solid hardcore sounds with undertones of catchy melodic metal riffs. Great stuff.
Click here to see them perform at the festival and another one here.
Peter Coombs writes:
Stone Sour
With a crowd as big as the headliners, Stone Sour obviously have one hell of a following and are seemingly on far too early in the day. However, after Corey also did his masked thing on Friday night, we can excuse download for their set time choices.
Stone Sour was impeccable, tight and inspiring, while Corey’s voice sounded pure and brilliant. Mid set, the band vanished and Corey appeared with his guitar and sang two songs; Nutshell, an Alice in Chains cover and Bother; always visibly emotional for Corey after the passing of Paul Gray; the crowd took over the singing while Taylor strummed his guitar and stood in awe of his followers, and with a chant comprising of ‘Corey…sucks’ he smiles, tells the crowd admiringly that they suck and the band return for an outstanding rendition of Through Glass.
The band pays tribute to Black Sabbath with a phenomenal cover of Children of the Grave. Anyone who has read my previous reviews knows how much I love Sabbath!
For the penultimate song they play Get Inside from their first ever album; much heavier than their more modern material. 30/30 150 finish an incredible set; Corey Taylor was nothing but outstanding, he truly is one of the greats in Metal Music and thoroughly deserves his recent honour as ‘Best Vocalist’ at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards.
Ghost
The mysterious Ghost take to the stage in their notorious macabre style; and the ‘nameless ghouls’ open the set with their title track from the newest album Infestissuman, before welcoming eccentric frontman Papa Emeritus ii.
Although the bands thin sound was a little lost in the wind, the crowd were highly responsive and enjoyably chanted along to the Latin verses. The Swedish rockers compiled a set of their best known live songs; Ritual, Con Clavi Con Dio and Prime Mover, to name a few of the unfortunately short set.
Admittedly I would have preferred to see them on the Pepsi Max Stage; the darkened tent lends its-self more to Ghost’s theatrics, however they were still a great watch (as always), and a fun change to the rest of the day. They ended with their set with the huge Monstrance Clock, the closing track off their new album.
P.O.D.
A hideously cheesy, borderline laughable intro, reminiscent of a fair ground ride, warns us that the following sounds will make us ‘hip….and hop’; certainly an entertaining start for the surprisingly big crowd at the Pepsi Max Stage.
The San Diego nu-metal band kicks off their set with the predictable Boom, which lyrically (and egotistically) describes the band’s escalation to popularity. Throughout the set, the songs from their 2001 album Satellite are definitely the prominent pieces and by far get the best reaction by the audience; Youth of the Nation and Alive induce an ovation of audience participation.
Closing their set with a cover of Sublime’s What I Got (one of my favourite songs) makes a nice change to the rest of the set. There is no doubt, this band is good; however, in my view, they are well past their heyday and quite honestly I got quite bored with the repetitive nature of their sound.
Rammstein
An enormous crowd gathers for the final band on the main stage of Download 2013, eager and anxious faces swarm as more and more attempt to get as close as possible for the eccentric explosion that is expected from arguably the greatest live performers of the present; Rammstein.
Fireworks above a blackened stage begin the set, joined in perfect timing by drummer Chrisoph Schneider. As the band perform their opener Ich tu dir weh, the daunting vocalist Till Lindemann makes his entrance; descending from the top of the incredibly constructed stage in bondage gear and a pink fur coat.
The entire set is an absolute treat for the senses, with almost too many things happening at once to mentally take in; the audiences eyes scan the stage, witnessing Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz (keys) dancing on his treadmill, Till causing blood to pour from his head from head butting his microphone stand and of course, fire storming from, well, literally everywhere.
Every song is an entire performance piece, perfectly implemented and continually jaw-dropping, with the band often disappearing through smoke screens only to return in different get up with yet another flamboyant prop to set alight. There was even a convincing stage invasion from a single man, who was promptly set on fire from Till’s flamethrower.
Controversies fill their set as they disgust and mesmerize their onlookers, the famous ‘butcher’ scene, where keyboard player/band bitch Flake arrives in a giant cauldron and the blood soaked Lindemann engulfs him in flames, doesn’t fail to impress. Followed by Flake (now almost naked) being walked around the stage on a lead, only to be raised on a platform in front of the stage, with Lindemann, who precedes to ‘have his way’ with him and empty his load over flake (who manages to continue playing keyboard during) and over the first few shocked rows of the crowd.
Du Hast, Buck Dich and Ich Will bring their set to a close. The whole crowd take a much needed rest and wait for the highly anticipated encore. Christian Lorenz arrives on stage, on an upright grand piano, exampling his outstanding musical talent, and Lindemann joins with the haunting operatic Mein Herz brennt. The sonorous, anthemic Sonne follows and they close with the overly camp Pussy, along with Till riding a giant phallic shaped foam cannon, soaking the front few thousand audience members.
Yet another remarkable firework display and it’s all over for another year, what a way to end! So the countdown begins…roll on 2014!
Click here to see them perform Bang Bang at the festival