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It's a dark and broody day at the final day of Download. There's a strange aggressive tension in the air and that bubble is going to burst in the most volatile way. Fortunately, Limp Bizkit and Rammstein are waiting in the wings with a sweet release. In the mean time, things stay a little grim.
Coal Chamber and Parkway Drive draw a pretty impressive crowd to the main stage, but not even the generous sunshine can lift the spirits of the weakened masses, ruined by three days of madness. Hope emerges when Corey Taylor makes his second main stage appearance of the weekend after Slipknot made history on Friday, but Stone Sour's grunge-lite metal fails to come close to the standard he's already set so high.
Then there was Ghost - a doom-ridden band of Swedish goths decked out in priest garb. I know, right? The mood hangs like a heavy fog and doesn't really lift for Gaslight Anthem, which is a shame. Pulling in a pretty meagure crowd to the main stage, their Springsteen-esque power-punk is far from what Download has in mind.
Newsted, however, hit the spot with a pretty powerful punch. It's a short-sharp kick of thrash metal done properly, and it's just what Donington needs to shake off the cobwebs. A cover of 'Creeping Death' by former band Metallica counts for a hell of a lot more than good measure too.
A surprise victory comes courtesy of POD. Curiosity and nostalgia for 2001 drew most here, but an incredibly accomplished set of genre-defying aceness kept us here. Kicking off with 'Boom', Sunday gets off to a very late but pretty intense start before 'South Town' and 'Youth of the Nation' send Donington into a well-needed bounce.
Jared Leto and his stadium posturing acts as quite the lady magnet for a massive crowd when 30 Seconds To Mars prove why they're just a few years a way from becoming festival headline worthy. There's theatrics and anthemics and a whole lot of fist-pumping, but there's more of a buzz and rush around the other side of the arena...
"Oh, we'll just stay for a few songs," says just about everyone cautiously edging towards the Zippo Encore Stage for Limp Bizkit, but just a few seconds into 'Rollin' and it becomes outrageously clear that no one is going anywhere.
When Bizkit fell from favour and radio playlists around a decade ago, many hailed it as the end of an error, but tearing through 'Nookie', 'Hot Dog' and insane covers of Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name Of' and 'Faith' by George Michael, Fred Durst and co. kick irony in the face and and worm their way back into Seriously, don't judge - you had to be there.
With fear, fury and a whole lot of fire, Rammstein slam a pretty epic and brutal full-stop on the end of the highlight of the heavy metal calendar. All of the weekend's tension is translated into pure love as metal-heads rescue one another from the trampling of circle-pits to stumble home arm in arm. Rather than certain other major festivals where they just stick up a stage, book huge names and give folk a good excuse for a booze-up, people flock to Donington with no ulterior motive. That's the beauty of Download, regardless of trends and fashion they're here for the music and that alone. Until next year.
Check out our review of day one of Download here, and day two here.
