LIVE: Download Festival 2025

Victory fills the air as day three of Download dawns: we made it! We lived, laughed and slammed our way through the greatest weekend of the year, and the best part? There’s still another day to go.

Words: Kate Allvey // Photos: Penny Bennett // Korn Photo: Andrew Whitton

Harpy

Harpy makes an early morning start absolutely worth it. “There is no redemption, only damnation!” She screams, the sophisticated older sister to Bambii Thug, and strips off her coat to reveal her PVC lingerie. Her Download debut is an impressive one, with ‘Medicine’ casting witchy rave pop waves that enchant her new converts. She’s seductive and destructive in equal measure, whether she’s howling with rage or letting her magnificent voice take centre stage.

Bleed From Within

Bleed from Within rouse the lunchtime crowd in style, especially the ‘old school metalheads’ that they dedicate ‘Into Nothing’ to, their self-assured pit-noise containing a daring ring that bursts through the smoke to give us the first anthem moment of the day. Scott Kennedy fondly recalls his first visit to Download in the crowd twenty years before, dedicating a tumbling throbbing ‘I Am Damnation’ to those in the position he once was in. They make metal for the people, by the people, expressed in the most brutal style.

The Ghost Inside

The Ghost Inside are here to unite those who want to keep their day heavy, with leonine roars and seismic rhythms, a constant explosion of focused urgency. ‘Wash It Away’s’ tangled riffs send nods of approval across the hillside, a sense of motion and yearning connecting us. ‘Aftermath’ soars with refreshing melodic moments in the middle of the distortion, and we’re absorbed by a band who get stronger every time they visit the UK.

Jinjer

The complex sound of the Ukrainians is dominated by Tatiana Shmayluk, the vocalist with the hugest range of the weekend. ‘Green Snake’ brings sparkling intelligence and a prog tint to their expansive narratives, the vocalist skipping merrily as she growls like a raging beast, “I know from experience that you like hardcore,” she laughs before weaving ‘Fast Draw’s’ soundscapes from guitar riffs that sound like barbed wire wrapped in silk. A sea of hands grows as quickly as the ever-present dust is kicked up, fuelled by our love for Jinjer.

Alien Ant Farm

Alien Ant Farm’s appetite has been renewed since their last trip to the UK, and ‘Movies’ hits the sweet spot between nostalgia and summer fun, sending beach balls flying across the sky. Karaoke moment abound, fuelled by pop punk guitar squeals adding sparkle to ‘Last dAntz’. It’s Fathers’ Day, after all, so a “mosh pit for dads only” feels like a sweet gesture, and ‘These Days’ taps into the spirit of noughties youth. Of course, their version of ‘Smooth Criminal’ is iconic, and Alien Ant Farm truly have made it their own.

House of Protection

Let’s throw rave vibes into the best underground party of the weekend, shall we? House of Protection throw their hardcore influence into the controlled chaos of the Avalanche stage, ignoring genre boundaries with a protest attitude and vocals like shouted slogans. ‘Fuse’ wins us over with a classic hardcore bounce that bursts from tightly wound electricity and a surprisingly soft chorus. When you’ve got Fever 333 and the Cancer Bats on your group CV, you’re bound to make appealing noise, and House of Protection make rowdy, uplifting Rottweilers of songs that throw caution to the wind.

President

The crowd stretches so far beyond the Dogtooth stage for the most hyped band on the Download bill. It’s President’s first show, and sixty percent of it is made of new songs, a very bold move for the masked political hopefuls. The singalong for ‘Fearless’ breaks from an awed hush, before the long, lonely tones of ‘Dionysus’ betray a combination of Corey Taylor and Sleep Token on their playlist. ‘Rage’ has a rockier edge to drops that feel new and essential, and the huge scream on ‘Destroy Me’ jolts us into the President fandom. “Let it be known; this is merely the opening chapter,” announces the grandiose voiceover, and we truly hope it’s right. President have tapped into the zeitgeist with a sound that’s fresh and has already captured the hearts of seemingly half the arena.

Jerry Cantrell

For those not enraptured by President, the ex-Alice In Chains founder offers a comforting rock presence, his old school outlaw energy channeled into his iconic voice. His guitar feels like raking a zen sand garden at times, an essential approach that reaches out to fans go reworked rock with its solid steel grunge heart. ‘My Body Breathing’ proves his role as a hero to older rockers suits him, and each song on his set is a road trip through post modern Americana.

Spiritbox

We’re greeted with an instant blast from a band who can’t be expected to accept an afternoon slot for much longer. There’s an epic scale to Courtney LaPlante’s screams as she floats angelically in a white dress above us onstage, ‘Fata Morgana’ quenches our thirst for deep riffs, and our love of Spiritbox peaks with ‘The Void’, the beats shaking loose our inhibitions. We scream out the chorus to ‘Secret Garden’ as one before ‘Circle With Me’ hits like a sandstorm; grinding and beautifully destructive.

Lorna Shore

The award for ‘Band Who Started A Pit Before The Set After One Note’ goes to the majestic Lorna Shore. Taylor Barber of Die By My Hand joins for ‘Sun//Eater’, a song packed with drama, dignity and total savagery from a band in impeccably tailored suits. The air guitars are out in force for ‘Cursed To Die’, the bass heavy from a band who are a glorious contradiction, impressively absorbing for half of us and inspirational for the rest. Front man Will Ramos checks the pit with real concern, offering tips on hydration, before ‘To The Hellfire’ ignites the crowd, their blistering pyro adding to the wall of complicated deathcore.

Bullet For My Valentine

The Apex stage is rammed for a least fifty metres for Bullet For My Valentine, a testament to the band’s “heavy but super accessible” stance. We’re here to celebrate twenty years of ‘The Poison’, a record that’ll be played in full “for the last time in the UK.” ‘Tears Don’t Fall’, “the song that changed our lives forever” according to vocalist Matthew Tuck, feels fresh, with gorgeous playful pauses added for buildup and for crowd surfers to rise to the surface. ‘Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do)’ is rich and bright, a well-polished call to arms, a celebration of passion. Sometimes you just want to hear your favourite songs played incredibly loud, glazed with genuine appreciation and sincerity, and that’s what makes Bullet For My Valentine’s set so perfect.

Steel Panther

Steel Panther plot a taut set, as tight as the lycra on the exotic dancers onstage. Opening with ‘Eye Of The Panther’, they give us all the hair metal excess and guitar twiddle that we hoped for. In between the hopefully fictional anecdotes and jokes which all have homosexuality as the punchline, they’re doing what they do best: wailing, rocking out, and paying their own satirical homage to the greats. For the crowd who are into Steel Panther, ‘Asian Hooker’ is a massive highlight, and the newcomers exchange awkward side glances. At the top of the hill, one of the Festival Chaplains stares on impassively while the crowd go wild for the solos and smoke that flood ‘Friends With Benefits’.

Kids In Glass Houses

Meanwhile, down the hill, Kids in Glass Houses are projecting the polar opposite to Steel Panther. ‘Undercover Lover’ brims with optimism and sincerity, the warmth, layers and Lionel Ritchie sampling giving a weekend of the Avalanche stage a joyful send off. Their set feels like a graduation, as ‘Diamond Days’ flings out Springsteen energy, and ‘Sunshine’ could be a lesson in how to create softness without mush. Kids in Glass Houses project a buzzing brit energy that surely has lured half of the crowd to already book tickets to the winter tour.

Korn

Korn are an enigma. Despite staying out of the charts for decades, they’ve amassed a huge following, at least judging by the amount of ‘Got The Life’ tattoos spotted over the weekend. Every phone is in the air as Jonathan Davis lets out his first scream into ‘Blind’, a song that feels aggressive and vital. Korn have rid themselves of the trappings that come with the label ‘nu metal’, and we can see them as they were meant to be all along. DJ scratches have been replaced with even more guitar and we can see clearly what made them special enough to start their own sub-genre. ‘Here To Stay’ emerges fast and stormy, the bass stirring further and further as we are sucked into Korn’s set.

There’s moments of levity, such as Davis playing the bagpipes and silly lyrics on ‘Shoots and Ladders’, but Korn focus on the raw core at the heart of their sound that needed to be stripped of its baggage to be appreciated. ‘Y’all Want A Single’ has reached classic status, the swears screamed as a pressure release, a toy voodoo doll flung across the field to a huge groove and the trademark guitar echoes. It’s ‘Freak On A Leash’, slowed to a glacial scale, that provides the perfect close the weekend, each second stretched to significance to accumulate our voices before confetti releases us from the weekend. Korn have stamped out relic or nostalgia status to become the final headliners that we didn’t know we needed.