Download Festival, Donington Park – Day 1: Friday 13th June 2025

18 June 2025

As the first major UK rock festival of the summer, when Download rolls around you know it’s time to break out the sunscreen and get ready for some seriously good music. After last year’s diverse bill, the organisers have thrown us another set of curveballs and with three fresh headliners the event now has a vibrancy that suggests it’s going to keep the multitudes rocking for many years to come. Four stages stacked with talent means there’s a lot of ground to cover so without further ado…let’s rock!

There’s perhaps no better way to be welcomed to Donington Park than with the sublime punky sounds of SiM. Fun, feisty and immediately getting the follicles flying, the band are a tightly wound ball of nervous energy who bounce around the stage with reckless abandon. Both punk and reggae are forms of rebel music and when combined with SiM’s trademark punch, never fail to hit the mark. The fact that they have explosive songs such as ‘THC’ and ‘Do The Dance’ in their arsenal doesn’t hurt and there’s not a soul present who hasn’t been infused by the good vibes the band radiate and in our age of fragmentation, that’s a real boon.

I’m always keen on bands who take care of their aesthetic (as long as it’s not a case of style over substance) and a good look can really enhance a band’s modus operandi and make for a more rounded, 360-degree experience. Case in point being Battlesnake, a collective who look like they’ve just stepped out of a ‘70s science fiction film who come armed with a sound that’s equally enticing. Closing with a cover of AC/DC’s ‘Let There Be Rock’, and the tomfoolery that accompanies it, adheres them to the crowd and forever emblazons their set onto the memory bank.

In the often hyper-masculine, testosterone-fuelled world of heavy music, Texan crew Gore. are a welcome addition. Bringing a distinctly feminine aesthetic to the genre, their songs come highly charged with a vulnerable edge that reaches deep inside the listener and tugs hard on the heartstrings. Of course, we all know that heaviness comes in different forms and the emotion that Gore. bring to their songs takes things to a whole new level. The band have achieved a lot in their short history and their latest single, coupled with an intense live show, suggests there’s much more to come.

With latest album Of The World From Dead Zones out in the world and garnering great reviews, plus a year of solid gigging in the bag, you could say that Riding The Low are in ruddy health. They’re no strangers to Download and make a triumphant return to the Dogtooth stage, coming loaded with some of their heaviest songs. Vocalist Paddy Considine is in particularly good form and dazzles the crowd with his impressive range, but the whole band are on fire and playing like their lives depend on it, which is surely the only way to go.

Not only have the organisers assembled a great line-up, but they’ve also ordered some sunshine and the crowd start to turn a lobster colour as things start to heat up. However, if there’s one band worth risking being burnt to a crisp for then it’s undoubtedly Rise Against. With a new album in the bag and primed for release, the band tear things up over on the Apex stage and the swirling pits they instigate kick up dust like bandits circling the wagons. The perfect blend of punch and panache, they wrap their songs in the good stuff and turn each track into a bullet that lands with ballistic trauma.

Graphic Nature are a band who put the ‘hard’ into hardcore. In fact, that’s not the only thing they inject as they also throw elements of nu-metal, electronica and drum ‘n’ bass into their skillet, and the result is as explosive as that admixture suggests. Their aggression is focused and tightly controlled and that means each song lands like a well aimed blow to the solar plexus. Not since Godflesh terrorised us with Streetcleaner have I heard such a sick set of jams and the live environment, with the danger that brings, only adds to their power. Their sonic assault has an accumulative effect and becomes more powerful as their set reaches its conclusion and leaves no one standing at its conclusion.

After the histrionics over on the Dogtooth stage, singer/songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Myles Kennedy offers a more measured experience on the Opus. Having collaborated with everybody from Slash to Halestorm via Sevendust and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, his versatility is beyond question and he serves up a set this afternoon which shows off every facet of his talents. It’s one thing to be a chameleon in the studio, but quite another in the live environment where there’s only one shot at glory. It’s my first time seeing Myles live, so I was intrigued to see how he’d fare, and the answer is very well. It’s a set that magnetically pulls all the stragglers towards the stage like a giant magnet, and this is one set we wish would continue in perpetuity.

Windhand are a band who don’t rely too much on fancy backdrops or big productions; there’s a strong focus on the music, and when the songs are this good, that’s exactly where it should be. They’re the perfect blend of the heavy and the lithe; a fuzzed-up, downtuned, bowel-loosening rhythm section is tempered by light and airy vocals and the two combine in strange and exciting ways, pulling the listener in different directions, not unlike a victim stretched on a rack. Formed in 2010, the band are only just starting to receive the plaudits their sound so thoroughly deserves, and judging by the rapt applause with which their set is rewarded, the sky’s the limit.

With their futuristic, Bladerunner-style brand of metal, Crossfaith are a band in constant evolution, a shapeshifting alien that can morph into any style and allows them to explore different musical textures whilst retaining metalcore as their steely heart. They haven’t travelled all the way from Japan to take prisoners and they are bang on point from the very first note. They demand that the crowd go crazy and those packed into the Avalanche tent are only happy to oblige, with each feeding off the others energy and when some of the band dive into the crowd for a touch of surfing, all pandemonium breaks loose. Having seen Crossfaith in a small club, I can testify that their show transfers well to the bigger stage and I wouldn’t be surprised if Crossfaith return very soon, next time on the Apex.

It’s obvious that a lot of attention has been expended on today’s bill; not only with the bands picked, but also to the running order and a prime example is Weezer. As the sun begins to set amongst the lush green fields that surround Donington, it feels as if Weezer are the perfect band for this place and time. Their slightly melancholic brand of pop punk sits easy on the ear and their songs have an irresistible sing along quality (even if you don’t know the words) and that makes for a shared experience. While certain artists are sowing division by making political rants on stage, there’s a universality to the Weezer experience that unites all present and makes their set a balm to soothe our troubled times. Digging deep in their discography and pulling out gems such as ‘Buddy Holly’ and ‘Undone (The Sweater Song)’ makes Weezer’s set a highlight of the day thus far.

While the world is certainly becoming smaller (I’m talking metaphorically, of course) there are still pockets and areas where life moves at a different pace and is impervious to fads and trends, places where bands can develop in their own unique way. That’s what happened with French band Alcest. Formed in the small town of Bagnols-sur-Cèze at the turn of the millennium, this band have been charting a course between light and shade, formulating a sound that’s equal parts eerie and ethereal. The thing what really hits you when first encountering this group is their depth. Each band member contributes to their sound and the otherworldly nature is akin to free-falling in a bottomless pit. Bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Neige has an equally captivating voice and in conjunction with the music creates the feeling of something so enormous it can barely be comprehended and that makes for an arresting experience, but good art should always be.

Some artists have such an extensive discography that it’s hard to know where to find the ideal entry point in their work and in such cases it’s best to initially encounter them in the live environment. That’s certainly the case with Faroese singer/songwriter Eivør, a veteran of countless releases, tonight’s set gives a perfect overview of a unique artist. She has covered everything from jazz to electropop, but tonight finds her in folk mode, delivering an enchanting set of the Nordic variety. Stepping into the Dogtooth tent is not unlike stepping into a Pagan ritual and we’ve all come to worship at at the alter of Eivør. Switching effortlessly between Viking drum and guitar, Eivør’s most impressive instrument is her voice and it fills every cubic inch of the tent and makes for a spellbinding event.

It’s hard to believe now but there once was a time when punk was dangerous, it was a genre full of spunk and spittle, and it’s adherents were probably best avoided. For better or worse, bands such as Green Day were responsible for making the scene cute and cuddly. Of course, that made the scene more open and inclusive and their brand of pop punk was more accessible than anything that came before. You could say they were ready for the biggest stages when they burst out of Rodeo, California in 1987. After several introductions that tease us and draw out our anticipation to unbearable degrees, when the band finally arrive to opening shot ‘American Idiot’ they look right at home, headlining main stage at Britain’s biggest and best rock festival. The crowd seem to agree and are in danger of drowning out the following ‘Holiday’ with their cries of affirmation. With a set list compiled from ten albums and reading like a “greatest hits” playlist…only with the added oomph of being played live. There’s a few surprises, such as a few bars of Tom Petty’s ‘Free Fallin’’ by way of an introduction to ‘Dilemma’. Those over a certain age will remember the chant of “You fat bastard” at gigs in the ‘80s (and was the title to Faith No More’s live album), but I’d completely forgot, but thanks to Green Day for reminding us and we require little goading to sing it at Billie Joe Armstrong to welcome in ‘Hitchin’ A Ride’. The only thing predictable about this gig is encore ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’, but it’s such an iconic song how could it not cap an iconic set?

Heavy metal has always had a penchant towards the classical (perhaps even more so than the blues); think Deep Purple’s Concerto For Group And Orchestra and pretty much all of Accept’s Balls To The Wall album, or any Judas Priest song worth its salt. Therefore it made perfect sense when Apocalyptica burst out of Finland and put a classical spin on Metallica’s tunes (and I’d wager it influenced the men in black to produced their S&M opus). Needless to say, metal lends itself very well to classical renderings and Apocalyptica’s set closing the Dogtooth stage makes the perfect way to end our first day at Download. It’s all Metallica covers and the most important thing to note is that the lack of vocalist is an actual boon. That role is given to the crowd and this creates a shared experience as the band and fans interact in an intimate manner and creates a bond between the two like I’ve rarely felt at a gig. It’s all Metallica covers that the band play and with songs such as ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’ at their disposal they barely make a wrong move over a tumultuous set and one which sends us back to our tents with visions for the sweetest dreams.