Day one of Download Festival, in classic British fashion, saw the likes of Lacuna Coil, Black Stone Cherry, Slipknot and more play through scorching sunshine only to switch into torrential downpour last night (Friday 12 June, 2015).
Fans were greeted at the festival gates yesterday with the promising glow of sunshine, as metal band All That Remains took the task of warming up the main stage in their stride.
Meanwhile on the Maverick Stage crowds turned out to see why supergroup of the moment Krokodil are causing such a stir in the metal ranks. One reason could indeed be the draw of an all-star lineup, with Radio 1 DJ Daniel P Carter trying his hand at guitar, joined onstage also by Simon Wright (Liber Necris) Laurent Barnard (Gallows), Alessandro Venturella (Slipknot), Dan Ford (Sikth) and James Leach. After debuting at Download Festival in 2013 their return was welcomed, as they played through decadent blasts of pure noise.
The sun kept on beaming down over on The Zippo Encore Stage for The Cadillac Three, who told the crowd that only yesterday evening they'd been playing a similar festival backdrop in their hometown of Nashville Tennessee, only to take a twenty hour flight and find that their guitars did not arrive with them. Luckily for all us, Black Stone Cherry stepped in to save the day, by lending the group their instruments. It's just as well, as their upbeat twists of southern rock during "Peace, Love & Dixie" surprisingly led to one of the day's unexpected highlights.
Meanwhile, over on The Maverick Stage, the crowds were excited and restless, beginning to chant the name of Beartooth. The band, who hail from Columbus, Ohio have spent limited amounts of time across the pond and welcome Download as their first ever UK festival appearance. This fact helped to spur the crowd on even more, as circle pits flewduring tracks taken from their debut album 'Disgusting', with 'Bodybag' and 'In Between' standing out as favourites.
As we all know, with anything related to British weather, all good things must come to an end. Standing underneath the tent of The Jake Stage to watch punk rock band Decade the crowd seemingly doubled all of a sudden, as torrential rain begins to pour. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise though, as Decade bounced through energetic songs such as 'Brain Freeze' and even treated us to new, unnamed material.
After the sudden outburst of rain and new material from Decade, we didn't think Download could hold many more surprises, but the best was still yet to come, as Dragonforce were joined by secret guests Baby Metal over on the Maverick Stage, for track 'Road Of Resistance'. The Japanese teenage girl, pop metal band, joined the stage as a warm up for Metal Hammer's Golden God's award show this Monday and thanked fans for the chance to perform at Download as a run through preparation.
As the rain continued to relentlessly batter down, the festival's spirits were dampened momentarily, as crowds dressed in shorts and t-shirts were left drenched from head to toe and were forced to scrabble towards the first poncho stall in sight. Download is a metal festival after all though, so with the promise of the festivals first Main Stage headliners drawing closer, fans stood through the muddy ground in anticipation for Slipknot.
Transporting the same stage setup as they'd been using on their recent UK tour, Slipknot were most definitely bringing their own meaning of the word asylum to Download Festival. "We should tell Andy Copping to rename the festival Down-Pour Festival 2015," lead singer Corey Taylor joked, continuing to tell us that: "this is close to being one of the rainiest festivals we've ever played."
The masked metallers, all clad in their menacingly unique getups, paced around the stage as they immediately tore into material from new album '.5: The Gray Chapter'. Singer Corey Taylor consistently does all he can to keep the crowd engaged, using his masked cover up as an excuse to create a mean and foul mouthed alter ego that the crowd can get fully behind.
The band played hits such as 'The Negative One' and 'The Devil in I' before telling the audience to sit down and "jump the fuck up" for track 'Spit It Out'.
If there's one thing we've learnt from today, it's that metallers can definitely be cheered up from the rain by a band like Slipknot, who battled on through the downpour to play to a very wet and dedicated fan base.
Download Festival continues today with performances from Funeral For A Friend, Faith No More, Andrew W.K, A Day To Remember, Marilyn Manson, Muse and many more.
