Download Festival 2009 Review

So here we go again. 2009 marked the 7th Anniversary of Download at the historic Donington Park. With few highlights last year (Kiss, Disturbed and Spinal Tap-esque backdrop malfunctions during Judas Priest aside) 2009 didn’t need to do much to surpass

Friday
Hollywood Undead – A suitably nu-metal opening to a day featuring the Bizkit, Korn and Faith No More. Everything about this band screams 1999, from the masks to the lumpen, downtune riffs and rhymes about bitches and hoes. Still strangely enjoyable though (3/5). In This Moment – The only interesting things about this band are the delectable Maria Brink and her mighty scream. Fact (2/5) Staind (3/5) Surprising heavy showing from Aaron Lewis and co, makes you wonder why they’re so fucking morose on record. Billy Talent (4/5) really enjoyed this band. Great tunes, new material sounds ace and they got the crowd pumping. KsE (5/5) Superb, tight as hell and that’s just Adam D’s hotpants. They would have been the band of the day if it weren’t for the acts that followed. Howard’s vocals weren’t always spot but with mass sing-along’s to belters like ‘Rose of Sharyn’ and ‘My Last Serenade’ it didn’t matter one bit. Limp Bizkit (5/5) Fucking superb they were. Was curious to see how this would go down but opening with ‘Break Stuff’ was the right move. It really was genuinely exciting to see the Bizkit back on stage tearing it up. Phenomenal. Korn (4/5) Tough act to follow but Korn delivered a set with their typical vigour and passion. ‘Thoughtless’ was a very nice surprise but the Pink Floyd cover was a bit of an energy sapping misfire, especially after the one-two punch of ‘Blind’ and ‘Got the Life’. Faith No More (5/5) A set full of heaviness and wonderful eccentricity. Watching Mike Patton go from charming crooner to screaming madman was totally enthralling. Seeing the lighters out for ‘Easy’ was awesome, as was a bizarre yet brilliant cover of Lady GaGa’s ‘Poker Face’.

Saturday
A heavy night of Donington partying meant that the first few bands were missed out. Bad times. But Hatebreed (3/5) and their hardcore racket made up for that. Made the hard choice to miss Down’s mainstage set in order to get a decent spot for Static X and in the process caught a very respectable showing from Charlie Simpson’s Fightstar (3/5). Their Deftones-esque noise might not be anything particularly new but they put on a set full of passion and decent tunes. Static – X (4/5) made their long overdue Download debut with a set that mixed old favourites like ‘Push It’ and ‘Black and White’ with choice cuts from their new record like ‘Stingwray’. The sight of the lovely Mrs Tera Wray Static bringing on shots for the band was quite awesome too ;). The Answer (3/5) offered something more akin to Donington’s rich heritage with their bluesy old school sound. Perfectly enjoyable but their sounds lacks variety and I couldn’t help but feel their set dragged a bit towards the end. You Me At Six (1/5) are tuneless, hookless emo pish, plain and simple. Nothing special or remotely interesting about them whatsoever, what a certain publications see in them I don’t know. Chris Cornell (4/5) A lot of faith was lost in the golden voiced one with his recent foray into hip hop with Timbaland, and things didn’t get off to a great start when he decided to open with one of those cuts, an admittedly catchy ‘Piece of Me’. Thankfully he saw sense after that and stuck to treating the crowd with classics like ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Jesus Christ Pose’. The Prodigy (5/5) brought the second stage proceedings to an end with a brilliant set, featuring a number of cuts from their superb new record ‘Invaders Must Die’. Standard bearers like ‘Firestarter’, ‘Breathe’ and ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ drove the crowd mental. Only disappointment was their space age stage set being wasted in the evening sunlight.

Sunday:
Trigger The Bloodshed (3/5) and Suicide Silence (3/5) both produced sets brimming with death metal venom that while wasn’t to this reviewer’s tastes, certainly woke everyone up on a hot Sunday morning. God Forbid (3/5) delivered a more straightforward but still crushing metal assault before Sevendust (5/5) tore the house down with a superb set that brought in one of the biggest crowds of the day. It was amusing to see everyone politely nodding throughout Journey’s (2/5) set, sit down, go mental for ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ then sit down and politely nod some more. Dream Theater (4/5) was much more interesting and lying down basking in the sun while they played ‘Pull Me Under’ was one of the best moments of the weekend. Shinedown (3/5) drew a huge crowd to the second stage for their set but blew it somewhat due to Brent Smith inane chat in-between songs. Great band but less cheesy Linkin Park-esque banter the better. Next it was over to the main stage to catch ZZ Top (2/5) who were disappoint dull so back over to catch Buckcherry (2/5) who were probably the biggest letdown of the weekend, due to Josh Todd’s endless strutting and pouting. Papa Roach (5/5) thankfully were much better, playing a blinder of a set which left closing this year’s proceedings to Trivium (5/5). They were very poor the last time they played but by god, did they make up for it this time around. The whole band seemed right up for it, especially Matt Heafy who was laughing and joking in a way never witnessed before. Even technical gremlins couldn’t stop them and they brought Download 2009 a close with a thrilling ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’. Great weekend.

Article by Timmy Ogilvie