Words: Kate Allvey // Photos: Emma Stone and Download Festival

Unpeople

A reward for the early risers, Unpeople are here to show off the harsher side of their sound. We’ve got a brand new blast of joy in the form of unreleased track ‘Bottle It’ and angelic harmonies on ‘Moon Baboon’, all from the band who know full well that they don’t really fit into today’s lineup, and don’t give a damn about it. ‘Clouds’, the first single from their upcoming album, is both as light and as shady as its namesake; a good omen for the future from Unpeople.

Kublai Khan TX

No one can sleep through this set. Everything Kublai Khan TX do feels so necessary, whether its the infernal riffs of ‘Supreme Ruler’ or the circle pit that radiates from the first drop on ‘Low Tech’. Vocalist Matt Honeycutt flexes his muscles as we shake the last of the stiffness from our bodies. “About three days ago I broke my back in Prague”, he confesses, channeling his pain into a mighty growl that rips through ‘The Hammer’ before transforming his anguish into rage for new song ‘The Mountain of Corsicana’.

RØRY

RØRY lays her soul bare throughout a performance that sees many reaching for their tissues to wipe away their tears. ‘Anti-Repressant’ sets the tone for turning personal struggles into danceable anthems, and if we aren’t feeling something deep inside by the time she offers up ‘Alternative’ then we haven’t been listening hard enough. RØRY, on paper, makes for an unlikely main stage star, but the representation and sheer guts that she brings to the Apex today are beyond admirable.

Dogstar

The combination of getting to see Neo from the Matrix in real life while listening to some comforting Dad Rock proves an irresistible draw that overwhelms the Opus stage. The sweeping, grungy ‘Joy’ makes way for the Bowie-influenced ‘Exalted’, and we’re thankful for the calming, driving-rock respite that Dogstar offer.

Bloodywood

The IYKYK band of the weekend open with a roar from Jayant Bhadula and a blazing ‘Dana Dan’. Bloodywood are a powerhouse that opens pits which never close for their entire set. No one could have predicted a couple of years ago that Indian folk-metal would provide the Download moment that we’ve all been craving. ‘Berkhauf’ hides a serious message behind a thin covering of banging, unrelenting determination and ‘Nu Delhi’ is already an absolute anthem. Bloodywood will definitely be returning to Download by very popular demand within a few years, and likely far higher up the bill. 

Magnolia Park

They’re in their vampire era and moving far beyond their pop punk origins. Magnolia Park have sold their souls to the video game cutscene devil and now they’re producing darker, more intense and delightfully sinister metal in the form of ‘High’ and the dangerous, delicious ‘Cult’. As Joshua Roberts leads our voices from the pit, we realise that the signs of their dark turn were there all along, and they’ve now progressed to making music that is absolutely perfect for this festival and this space. 

Social Distortion

Mike Ness and co have circled back to their old school sound and the elder punks have still got the spark that made them great. Opening with ‘Born To Kill’, they focus on what they do best; raw riffs lit by drawling vocals which sound like the desert sun. ‘No Way Out’ meanwhile – their song about “growing up in a not-so-perfect situation” – is a blast of the energy that made their debut so striking all those years ago. In fact, when they mix the new tracks into classics, like ‘The Creeps’ and ‘Mommy’s Little Monster’, we realise we’re watching Social D as they always should have been, and it’s tremendous. 

Dinosaur Pile Up

Let’s keep it direct. We like fuzzy distortion and we like it when it’s really loud. That’s what Dinosaur Pile Up offer us, and considering they’re competing with the mighty Ice Nine Kills, the Avalanche stage is packed for ‘Bout To Lose It’. ‘Sick Of Being Down’ gives voice to an unrefined teenage desperation, and it’s perfect for the kind of song that you’d want to put on loud and mosh out to in your bedroom. ‘Stupid Heavy Metal Broken Hearted Loser Punk’ and ‘My Way’ are huge anthems for the disenchanted masses, maintaining the brilliantly elemental purity which sticks out in a crowded lineup. 

Ice Nine Kills

Who doesn’t love cinematic horror masterpieces featuring ska legends? Reel Big Fish’s brass section jump in for ‘Ex-Mortis’, a highlight in a show that never provides a millisecond without action. ‘The Great Unknown’ ignites the pit with dark euphoria, and there’s the thundering, hypnotic ‘Funeral Derangements’ to keep us going. Ice Nine Kills are possibly the only band with more costume changes than Axel Rose and while we love the anthem that is ‘The Shower Scene’, there’s a song even more surprising than seeing Spencer Charnas running around brandishing a knife. It’s their very straight, very devoted cover of NOFX’s ‘Linoleum’ that allows them to drop their masks for a second, and we are astonished by our glimpse behind the scenes. 

Tom Morello

A curated journey through the Rage Against The Machine guitarist’s life, politics and influences, backed by his son and bursting with hope for the resistance? What more could we want on a Sunday afternoon! Morello’s cover of Springsteen’s ‘The Ghost Of Tom Joad’ is a steely compassion for the common man, and while we’re kicking it to ‘Killing In The Name’, his heartfelt tribute to Chris Cornell during ‘Like A Stone’ is one of the most touching moments of the whole weekend. Morello believes in the power of the people, and delivering an intelligent and not-so-subtle anti-fascist message for half an hour fills us with the desire to make the world a better place. 

Mastodon

Emerging into the sunset like ancient gods, Mastodon open with the fiery, tunnelling ‘Tread Lightly’ .The heavy prog end of the metal spectrum always deserves representation at Download, and songs like ‘The Motherload’ flow like a timeless prophecy that keeps the Opus slopes enraptured. Newer tracks like ‘Your Ghost Again’ prove that after nearly three decades, the band are still able to craft thundering aural labyrinths that delight and provoke. Mastodon’s set feels like the bonus chapter to Tom Morello’s curated exhibition, and it’s one that we can’t get enough of. 

Letlive.

There’s always a place for in-yer-face post-hardcore, especially when accompanied by a hefty dose of class consciousness and almost-latin rhythms. ‘A Weak Ago’  is rowdy and inspiring, with Jason Butler’s satisfying growl making Letlive’s set feel purposeful and deliberate. There’s so much more to them than you’d expect on a surface level, and ‘Muther’ is oddly inspiriting and respectful in between the riffs. Letlive leave us with the impression that they’re a band raring to do good in the world and know just how they want to do it.

A Day To Remember

At this point, we’re split into three camps with each claiming the title of ‘the real closer of the weekend’. A Day To Remember prove to be strong contenders for the title, with ‘The Downfall Of Us All’ providing a lightning bolt of energy to open a set that’s simultaneously packed on and offstage. Their talent of being able to balance tough and fun sends our phones up to capture ‘Right Back At It Again’ before the huge rush that comes with ‘Bad Blood’. We wave as confetti falls, the ‘end of camp’ energy thick in the air, with crowd surfers stacked on top of crowd surfers, as the Opus explodes into one final mad jump to round off Download 2026.

Creeper

Of course, if A Day To Remember are just too jolly for you, then the Creeper cult are always waiting with arms open and fangs poised. Twice as many are in the crowd compared to their first set of the weekend, but now crammed into half the space, and ‘The Ballad Of Spook And Mercy’ has every single one of us eating from the palms of their leather-gloved hands. ‘Parasite’, or “one for the lovers” as frontman Will Gould calls it, has an even more majestic showing than before, and the outpouring of emotion from us all on ‘Prey For The Night’ shows the absolute devotion that Creeper are able to command.

Linkin Park

For the first time in Download history, a frontwoman is headlining the festival. There are few more worthy of that honour than Emily Armstrong, and Linkin Park’s set is one huge reminder that times are changing and we must evolve along with them. Of course, they drop iconic bangers that hit you right in the centre of the teenage heart but their mature, sensitive and heavily electronic set is one that’ll light up your synapses from back to front, especially when their entire ninety minutes onstage feels like a mantra for growth and change.

Opening with ‘The Emptiness Machine’ is a strong statement. We’re here for the new Linkin Park, and they’re ready to display their latest incarnation with maximum emotional release from the very start. Somehow, their constructed electronic direction feels more raw and real than we remember, and classics like ‘Crawling’, when stripped of their MTV gloss, hit so much harder. ‘Numb’ is enough to bring a tear to your eye, as it does for a fair swathe of us. Closing Download with the breathtaking catharsis of ‘In The End’ is as close to a perfect moment as we can hope for as we slam our demons away for another day, free from our pain before the long trudge back to camp. Linkin Park prove to be the “goldilocks” headliner; not too rough, not too slow, just right to end our weekend on the darkest depths and the most dizzying of highs. 

KATE ALLVEY

April and May sees Punk legends Social Distortion come over for a full tour. Unsurprisingly, it is based around their headline appearance at Groezrock on May 1st. The other dates are:
April
17 HAMBURG Sporthalle
18 BIELEFELD Ringlokschuppen
19 BERLIN Columbiahalle
21 VIENNA Gasometer
22 MUNICH Zenith
23 MILAN Live Club
25 ZURICH Loudfest At Komplex
27 OFFENBACH Stadthalle
28 COLOGNE Palladium
29 PARIS Bataclan
May
03 LONDON O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Social Distortion Facebook

and also from the band’s website:

http://www.voxbloc.com/share/social-distortion-album-stream

For the first half a million plays, the price on Amazon will drop by $1 every 100k plays.

Social Distortion – Machine Gun Blues by Epitaph Records