Download Festival

[Nerf]

Argh, planning my days out now. The first clash has come in the from or Buckcherry or Ill Nino, followed by Hinder or Turbonegro. Right now the plan is as follows:

Buckcherry: 13:50 - 14:20

*20 Minute Break*

Hinder: 14:40 - 15:15

*20 Minute Break*

Megadeth: 15:35 - 16:20

*20 Minute Break*

Dragonforce: 16:40 - 17:25

*Perhaps Another Band Here?*

Velvet Revolver: 19:05 - 20:15

*Run To Turbog Stage*

Hayseed Dixie: 20:15 - 20:55

*5 Minutes Late Or Early*

Korn: 20:45 - 22:00

[DFF]

Off to Download!!! Laters guys.

[Nerf]

WTF.

Hardcore Superstar only have a 25 minute set?

That's fucking bull.

[fourstarfizzle]

WTF.

Hardcore Superstar only have a 25 minute set?

That's fucking bull.

Edited June 10, 2007 by fourstarfizzle

[Farmer Reil]

Somehow I'm not at all surprised that MCR got bottled ¬_¬ Yeah, it sucks and shouldn't happen, but they're MCR

Oh, and whilst listening to Bruce Dickinson's show last night, a point was proven. You absolutely cannot record Dragonforce live, and have it come out sounding like anything other than the background noise in a crowded pub ¬_¬ If the fucking BBC can't do it, nobody can.

I also had no idea Vadim sounded so fucking camp. Despite meeting him twice. It was awesome.

Edited June 10, 2007 by Farmer Reil

[Nerf]

Back guys.

It was a good fucking weekend, although now I'm absolutely knackered and have an exam in an hour. Since I had to get there on Friday, then proceed to do all the necessary trecking and setting up, I missed Zico Chain, half of Buckcherry's set and Hinder. I'm not really bothered about any other than Buckcherry. Things started off proper well with Megadeth who played a really good set, finishing with a Holy Wars / Mechanix medley. They played most of the necessary songs (Peace Sells / Symphony of Destruction) aswell as some new shit including Gears of War. They were really fucking enjoyable. Dragonforce were next who were fucking awesome. My only complaints would be that they need to tell the bassist to stop doing backing vocals 'cause he sucks the big one. The set was awesome, except Dawn Of A New World. I hate that song. I so wish they'd played Soldiers of the Wasteland instead, or if they wanted to play a ballad, Trail of Broken Hearts or Starfire. I skipped Wolfmother, Velvet Revolver rocked, and I didn't even think about watching My Chemical Romance. I headed to the tent early for some sleep 'cuz I was fucking knackered by now.

Saturday was fucking immense. Started with Turisas, followed by Hellyeah, then Shadows Fall who were definitely in my top five acts of the weekend. They played an awesome set. I headed back to the tent for some food and rest during Aiden & 30 Seconds To Mars, and got back for Bowling For Soup. I don't care what you say, they're fucking awesome. After Machine Head, I walked with my Dad 'cause he wanted to see Lez Zeppelin, but we ended up at the wrong stage and watched My Vitriol who were alright. We got back in time for Raining Blood by Slayer, which I was happy about. After Slayer it was Manson, followed by the act of the fucking weekend in Crue. I was all decked out with big hair, tight clothes, and eyeliner and I fucking rocked out. Their set was incredible. Opened with Dr. Feelgood and played all the fucking classics - Shout At The Devil, Same Ole Situation, Don't Go Away Mad, Home Sweet Home, Anarchy In The UK, Girls. Mick played a hell of a fucking solo. He just went off on a tangent and the fucking result was incredible, which ended up with him playing Voodoo Chile somehow. It was beautiful. They finished with Kickstart My Heart, which is my favourite Crue track, and so I rocked out with some guys the old fashioned way - screaming along while throwing your arms into the air.

Yesterday wasn't bad at all, either. Got up for Parikrama, who come with Iron Maiden's seal of approval. Fuck knows why; they're shite. Reuben were next, and I was suprised. I never really liked them that much before, but they impressed me live. Chimaira blew everybody away, as expected. I was disappointed by Papa Roach. They were really poor. I was even more disappointed when, as FSF said - Hardcore Superstar were cancelled. I text Summ and he seemed pretty gutted aswell (about that, ya bastard, why didn't ya text back when I asked about the meetup? Denied!) I had another break at this point as I was annoyed at the lack of HCS who were going to be one of my highlights (in all their small-stage 25-minute glory). I'm gutted I missed Lamb of God, and to a lesser extent Mastodon, but Stone Sour fucking blew us all away. They were awesome. I was gutted they didn't play Bother or Idle Hands, but the rest of the set rocked the fucking shit. Killswitch were good too, and ending with My Last Serenade was awesome with us all screaming along. I skipped Evanescence (because really ; who the fuck cares about Evanescence? Although from what I heard from the tent, Amy Lee's voice was SHIT. The girlf text me who was watching the webcast and confirmed that she kept losing her voice) and went straight down for Maiden. They fucking rocked, as expected. They didn't quite get me as excited as Crue but they were fucking good anyways. The first few songs dragged on for me 'cuz I fucking hate the new album. I can't get into it at all. Towards the end about fifty of us got together and started lighting fires around the place, then circle pitting around it. Security kept putting them out so we would scream "NEW FIRE!" and go and start a new fire elsewhere in the arena. There was nearly a fight when some guy and his friend in a Tool shirt came over and started shit saying we were wankers for lighting the fires, so this dude with a mohawk (who was fucking tiny, but mean looking) had a stand off with him. They nearly came to blows but we split them up.

The highlight of the weekend came this morning. I was woken up by the sounds of muffled moaning. I got out to see devastation as the whole fucking camp had been fucking destroyed. Yay for fun riots. However, I decided to investigate the moaning, and discover that our next door neighbour (if you can call tent-buddies that) was fucking our other neighbours wife. What made it even more sweet was when she left and saw us. Her face went white, blank and her jaw dropped. She turned back and said "...uh...thanks for the...uhh...whiskey...Tom..." and ran back to her own tent. Her husband was snoring away the whole time. Fucking brilliant.

[YI]

Oh come on Nerf. They have to let the bassist in Dragonforce do something. I mean seriously. Nobody gives two shits about him.

[Farmer Reil]

Don't pick on my Freddy

He's the coolest Frenchie ever!

But yeah, he can't sing for shit

[fourstarfizzle]

Boo hiss, you missed DevilDriver, for shame on you, apparantly they pulled off the biggest circle pit again this year, much like last years.

[DFF]

*WARNING CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS TO FOLLOW*

Well, I'm back and here's a run down of what I saw over the three days:

Friday

The Zico Chain - A solid opening band that got much better throughout their set. They have a load of potential and I wouldn't be surprised to see them higher up the bill in the next year or two.

Buckcherry - A fun band that managed to get the crowd going. Quite a lot of their songs are standard sleazy rock fair, but two great performances ('Crazy Bitch' and closer 'I Love The Cocaine') ensured that they wouldn't be forgotten.

Hinder - Quite a bland band, but nothing really wrong with them.

Megadeth - I've come to the conclusion that Mustaine just shouldn't sing; he has such a below-average/boring voice. Megadeth were quite boring live, but the crowd were into them.

Dragonforce - Has some sound problems where the sound guy seemed to keep turning their guitar volumes up and down throughout the entire set. Still, it couldn't stop them putting in a good performace.

Wolfmother - Very f'n good! I wasn't really much of a fan before hand, but these guys played a very tight set and the crowd sodding loved them.

Velvet Revolver - Started off a bit bland and 'meh' but improved with each song leading to a VERY hot finale of 'Slither'. Did a very good cover of Mr. Brownstone.

KoRn - Best band of the day. I'm not a huge fan, but they were simply excellent. At first we were all disappointed at them being on the 2ndry stage, but the acoustics in the tent were amazing! Every song came across as at least good, with most being a lot better than that.

Saturday

Turisas - A really entertaining viking metal band that should have had longer than a 25 minute set. Did a stonking metal cover of 'Rasputin' by Boney M.

Army of Freshmen - I'm not usually a big pop-punk fan (not as much as some other peeps on here anyways), but AoF were brilliant. They got everyone in the tent, including myself, jumping up and down. My mate quite accurately (in my opinion) described them as New Found Glory - but with a keyboard player.

Damone - Only saw one or two songs of their set. Nothing special.

Shadow's Fall - Walked passed them to get from one stage to another. They weren't by cup of tea and seemed very 'meh'.

Bloodsimple - Only ended up hearing them from outside and they weren't anything special.

My Alamo - These were lucky enough to be opposite Aidan and Bring Me The Horizon, thus we were watching them by default. A bland band, but nothing poor.

As I Lay Dying - Not my cup of tea, but I did weirdly enjoy the five or six songs I hung around for. If you're into heavy metalcore/the heavier end of melodeath you'll probably like them. They were just a little too harsh on the ears for me, but they seemed good at what they did.

Bowling For Soup - I don't care what anyone else says - these guys were fun as hell. Very entertaining.

Machine Head - I still cannot get into them fully, no matter how much I listen to them. They had what I would call a decent to good set, for that style music. They were very popular.

Lez Zeppelin - An all woman Led Zep tribute band (get the name? ). We only caught the last three songs but they were pretty good, especially the coer of Whole Lotta Love.

Slayer - Saw a bit whilst walking between stages. They did nothing for me. I mean, their were better 'legends' (Maiden), better f'n heavy bands (As I Lay Dying), and just better all round musicians (Dream Theatre). They seem pretty pointless and irrelevant.

Biffy Clyro - Caught a few songs before legging it back to see Manson. Were very good from what I saw.

Marilyn Manson - All-round, it was a solid performance. Some tracks were good, others were boring as fuck, whilst a select few were very good. Not as impressive as I thought he'd be, though I did enjoy the performance more than this mini-review probably implies.

Linkin Park - fuck ME WHAT AN AWESOME fucking PERFORMANCE!!! They owned the day with a very tight set. The atmosphere was amazing and... well... I can't praise them enough. They were great. In my opinion, by this point just edging out KoRn for band of the weekend. So glad I chose to see them over Motley Crue.

Sunday

Parikrama - A very entertaining opening band from India (Maiden met them on their Indian tour and pulled some strings to get them a slot). They had a kick-ass violinist.

After Forever - Saw them on recommendation from a friend of a friend and I was greatly impressed. If you like Nightwish/Within Temptation et al then check them out.

Cancer Bats - They were one of those bans that I wouldn't really like their music on CD, but entertained me live. Got the crowd going.

Papa Roach - Decent start with a good/great ending. I enjoyed them.

Devil Driver - Only heard them from outside and at a distance as we went for food. Was told that they had a MASSIVE mosh pit (by the sound of it, the biggest/most impressive of the weekend).

Orange Goblin - A decent band. Probably wouldn't go out of my way to watch them on tour, etc but would definitely check them out again at another festival. They were a kind of doom/heavy metal band.

Lamb of God - Saw the majority of their set and they nearly bored me to tears. Ugh.

Stone Sour - Again, another band I struggle to get into. However, moreso than Machine Head, I enjoyed part of their set (especially/mainly the lower songs, which ARE very good).

Within Temptation - Due to technical problems they came on quite late and could only play 4 songs. Still, they were VERY good and I'd see them again.

Dimmu Borgir - Only heard 2 or 3 songs as we again went for food and chilled out. For a black metal band they seemed quite good, and easier to listen to than on CD (where I find the vocals sometimes too harsh for my taste). Got a nice crowd going.

Dream Theatre - We were in the tent for about 20 minutes, killing time before Maiden. We saw 1 and a half songs. And they were fucking brilliant. Prog Metal ftw! All of us were simply blown away by the talent and the all round majesty of the band. These guys should be fecking huge but unfortunately probably won't get the mainstream recognition they deserve.

Iron fucking Maiden - First few songs were simply 'ok', from a crowd interaction stand-point (though that could be attributed to the songs being from A Matter of Life and Death, an album that opinion is somewhat divided). However, they were spot on (as sodding usual!) With everything they played. Bruce mentioned it's 25 years since Number of the Beast came out... so they played 'Children of the Damned' to commemorate the occasion!! (One of my favourites Maiden songs that they NEVER sing anymore).

They continued on with the set, eventually finishing with a shit hot rendition of Hallowed Be Thy Name. Oh, one highlight, for me, was randomly going mental and head banging to Fear of the Dark - despite no one else in my vicinity doing so. Was fucking ace.

Bruce then gave his post-show 'speech to encourage you as to when you'll see them again'. He said they'd be back sometime in 2008... as that's how long it'll take them...

TO BUILD A FUCKING PYRAMID!!!

YES! It looks like they are doing their "middle albums" tour! Bruce even hinter that they'd be playing Rhime of the Ancient Mariner.

All in all it was a fucking great week end and I'd recommend it to anyone. Not only do you get to see great bands,m but they dodgems... fucking DODGEMS!!! There's so much cool stuff to see and do, it makes £150 almost seem like nothing.

Bands of the weekend:

1. Iron Maiden

2. Linkin Park

3. KoRn

Honourable mentions:

1. Army of Freshmen

2. Parikrama

3. Turisas

Over rated wankery:

1. Lamb of God

2. Slayer

3. Shadow's Fall

Oh, and Keith fails for not responding to my text.

Oh, and how is the shoulder Summs?

Edited June 11, 2007 by Dragon-F'n-Force!

[Summers]

Bwahaha.

Badly bruised shoulder FTW. I'm not allowed to use it, and should be on medication. So.. you know, got drunk, used it, still kills now. I fence dived, landed badly, for those wondering.

Awesome weekend. Sorry about the lack of meet ups, but my phone full on died, and when I did manage to get it on, I only managed to send a text before it shut down - and that usually to a girlie.

The music was badass, true. But the real badassness? The Duracell tent, night club tent FTW. It was awesome. I was off my tree everynight, and had less than 14 hours, much less I believe, since Wednesday.

I had a great week, it was awesome to hang out with Ryan, Keith and Keith's mate - though sucks what happened to 'em - but yeah, it was an awesome night out. THE MAZE OF TERROR~! night was perhaps too badass.

Download 2007 = Happy Sum.

Gutted about the lack of a meet up, but my phone sucks the peen. Moreso gutted I didn't get to meet Nerfypants.

Korn & Maiden were the bands of the weekend, no doubt.

Turisas, Ill Nino, Stone Sour, Papa Roach and Bowling For Soup also hugely stand out for being immense.

I'd also put my cock in Paramore's singer.

Edited June 11, 2007 by The Summ

[Nerf]

Bands of the Weekend:

1. Motley Crue

2. Iron Maiden

3. Stone Sour

4. Shadows Fall

5. Megadeth

Honorable mentions: Dragonforce, Hellyeah, Bowling For Soup

Disappointments

1. Hardcore Superstar's cancellation

2. Missing Lez Zeppelin. That would have been so much fun.

3. Setting fires during Maiden in a big gang was fun as fuck, but people seemed to stop after security's 90th attempt at stopping us, so I went to get an early night. Found out this morning that it all kicked off again after I went to bed. I wanted to be a part of it again.

4. Papa Roach

5. Not meeting SummSumm ({)

Edited June 11, 2007 by Nerf

[K]

You are all wrong. The best band was Suicidal Tendancies.

[Summers]

We left our campsite on fire we left, the pool, three chairs all burning. One tent, too. There two tents left standing too.

I miss Donnington already. Ugh.

[Farmer Reil]

Dimmu Borgir - Only heard 2 or 3 songs as we again went for food and chilled out. For a black metal band they seemed quite good, and easier to listen to than on CD (where I find the vocals sometimes too harsh for my taste). Got a nice crowd going.

Edited June 11, 2007 by Farmer Reil

[Summers]

Oh yeah, apart from her being fit, Paramore are actually reaaally good.

[DFF]

Dimmu Borgir - Only heard 2 or 3 songs as we again went for food and chilled out. For a black metal band they seemed quite good, and easier to listen to than on CD (where I find the vocals sometimes too harsh for my taste). Got a nice crowd going.

You went for food in the middle of Dimmu?

I thought better of you than that

Dimmu and Turisas are the two bands I'll miss at Bloodstock. Damn you, Download! Bloodstock wouldn't have given Turisas 25 paltry minutes

Oh well, Testament, Arch Enemy, In Flames... I'm not complaining too much...

I was starving but, more importantly, I'd already agreed to meet some mates elsewhere for said food. Glad I managed to catch a few tracks though.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first ever festival and will almost certainly be going back next year.

[ravenjuice]

http://forums.downloadfestival.co.uk/tm.as...page=1&key=

A load of the webcasts of the performances if anyone wants them.

[Summers]

I just had a shower, my tan stayed on - so it wasn't aaall dirt.

My shoulder, however, still hurts.

I'm blaming Keith. Despite him not being there at all when it happened.

[Fitzy]

I just listened to the Killswitch Engage performance and it was great. I shall get Stone Sour next.