Download Festival, Donington Park – Day 1: Friday 14th June 2024

21 June 2024

With its most diverse line-up ever and an eclectic array of bands that cover the entire spectrum of heaviness, there’s a freshness surrounding this year’s Download Festival. There’s a vitality in the air that’ll ensure the festival will remain relevant and there’s no danger of things becoming staid as with its predecessor (the much lamented Monsters Of Rock). Anyway, with four stages bursting at the seams with talent there’s a lot of good music to take in so without further ado…let’s rock!

Over on the Opus stage things get off to a riotous start with Japanese metal band HANABIE. From the land of the rising sun to the home of the grey cloud, this quartet have a sound that travels exceptionally well and they add a splash of colour with their love of Harajuku fashion. They hit the stage with unbridled enthusiasm and their effervescence seems to ripple through the crowd. We’re no strangers to the band here at the Midlands Rocks having caught last year’s gig at Camden’s Underworld (reviewed here) and time has only increased their charms. They’re a bundle of energy and it’s hard not to get swept up in their sheer lust for life but who’d have thought a band with songs about sweets and anime would have won the hearts of a field full of metalheads? Not me!

There’s no better way to celebrate a tenth anniversary than a main stage appearance at Download and Welsh rockers Those Damn Crows are here to commemorate this milestone in style. The band aren’t going to let the torrential rain spoil the party and after a short introduction the band launch into ‘Let’s Go Psycho’ and a rabid crowd are only too happy to oblige. It’s a full-on, feisty performance that leaves no one short changed and with tricks in the bag such as ‘Takedown’ and closer ‘Go Get It’ they really can’t go wrong. The band are no strangers to Download having played three times over a weekend in 2019, but this set felt more special; short, smart and snappy, Those Damn Crows came, and they conquered.

Having formed just down the road in Derby, this set could be classed as a homecoming gig for The Struts, and they’re certainly playing like it. With plenty of spunk and chutzpah, the band immediately take ownership of the stage, which is exactly how it should be done. Opening shot ‘Primadonna’ is the perfect description of vocalist Luke Spiller as he struts around the stage like a peacock and demands that every pair of eyes are turned upon him. A strange amalgamation of The Darkness and The Stooges, this band are pure energy and you can almost see the sparks flying from the stage as they dance in the rain and their efforts find the clouds appearing and the sun coming out; and that’s the power a band such as The Struts posses.

Defects – Download Festival – 14th June 2024

There has been some shuffling going on with the bill and subsequently London and Birmingham based band Defects have been given a later slot, and thoroughly deserved it is too. They’ve pulled in a huge crowd and they have a magnetic force that attracts people from all over the site. With their album Modern Error out in the world and making ripples, the band are playing with a confidence that only comes from a band who know they’re onto a good thing. The crowd seem to agree and reward the band’s efforts with plenty of moshing and circle pits. It’s a bare-knuckle, take-no-prisoners affair and one that marks the band as future headliners. Watch this space.

Progressive rock was once thought the preserve of the real ale, bearded, chunky-knit sweater type and if that’s your perception then Polyphia are here to blow your preconceived ideas to smithereens. With plenty of noodling that would make any aspiring musician throw down their instrument in exasperation, this Texan crew deal in a type of organised chaos that pits conflicting sounds against each other and the fusion is explosive and highly addictive. Just like hypnotising chickens, there’s something so very appealing about this band that is very hard to describe. Their brilliance is making the complex sound simple and therein lies their genius; these songs shouldn’t be catchy and earwormy, but they are, and the crowd seem to agree.

Urne – Download Festival – 14th June 2024

Urne are another band who are no strangers to Midlands Rocks, we reviewed last year’s gig in Birmingham here and spoken to vocalist Joe here, therefore we were pretty stoked when they were added to this year’s bill. They’ve an earthy, organic sound which captures nature at it’s most raw, primitive and beautiful. It is tectonic plates shifting and Mount Vesuvius erupting and the result seems to dwarf the listener, and even more so in the live environment. They’ve worked their way up bills by sheer hard work and that graft is starting to pay dividends. Imaging lying under a slab of concrete while an elephant stands atop and you’d have an idea of the weighty nature of Urne’s sound. Impressive.

Those who already know VUKOVI will have an inkling of what to expect and those who don’t are in for a shock. Yet even those in the know are surprised when the band appear and dazzle us with their dynamism. Those danceable beats delivered with rock energy are totally addictive and when you have a vocalist in Janine Shilstone who bounds around the stage with unbridled energy, you have a live experience that threatens to take things off the dial. Operating as a three-piece, VUKOVI create a sound that’s far bigger than their constituent parts and in terms of energy levels, they’ve set the standard that others can only hope to obtain.

Vukovi – Download Festival – 14th June 2024

While Download festival is certainly spreading its wings and pulling different styles into its orbit, there’s still room for some good time hard rock, and that’s exactly where Black Stone Cherry step in. Established in 2001, the band have been painting our world with vibrant splashes of heavy metal and southern rock and that’s exactly what sublime opener ‘Me And Mary Jane’ serves up. With his oak-aged whiskey, Marlboro-croak, Chris Robertson’s vocals have an inviting, warm quality and their confessional tone creates an intimate tone which turns a festival crowd into a small, smoky club. Hard and bluesy, it’s impossible to stand still to cuts such as ‘In My Blood’ and ‘White Trash Millionaire’ and the band lock the whole crowd into their groove and get everyone bobbing in unison. Black Stone Cherry are throwing a party and you’re invited. Just bring a bud and a bottle.

Maybe it is a case of extreme times demanding extreme music, but if art does indeed imitate life then the kind of sound HEALTH deliver suggests things are getting pretty heavy. Originating from the underground Los Angeles scene, the band know how to make a dramatic entrance as blinding white light pours from the stage. As with their name and song titles, HEALTH deliver things in caps rage; it’s a full-on sonic assault and one that offers little in the way of redemption. The band tend to fade into the background; the emphasis here is on the music (which is how it should be), samples largely take the place of vocals and minimal space between songs renders their set one long violent beatdown (but in the best possible way). The natural successors to Godflesh? Undoubtedly.

Biohazard – Download Festival – 14th June 2024

Biohazard first played Donington in 1994 and their set turned into chaos when they invited the whole crowd on stage and three decades later, the band have lost none of their power. With the classic line-up together again, these Brooklyn bruisers are very much back in the game and operating with the same kind of aggression that characterised their early career. Band chemistry is a strange thing and when it fuses correctly something special occurs and the alchemy on stage tonight is pure gold. ‘Shades Of Grey’ is the opening shot and it’s the cue for all hell to break loose as Biohazard roll back the years and proceed to deliver a set that’s culled from their first three albums. The impact the band had on the 1990’s is only just being acknowledged, but if you want to know where groove and rap metal have their roots, then look no further. But mostly Biohazard deliver hardcore, and with the emphasis on hard; ‘Urban Discipline’, ‘Victory’ and ‘Love Denied’ all tumble from the speakers like street fighters. Music, or life in general, doesn’t get much better than this. It’s fitting that Biohazard are headlining the Dogtooth stage because no one could follow them, the energy expended proves this is no exercise in nostalgia and promises much more to come from this crew.

From legends of hardcore to legends of the desert rock scene, Queens Of The Stone Age make a welcome appearance as festival headliners and close the day topping the Apex stage. With the staged bathed in demonic red light, the scene looks set for QOTSA and there’s a tangible air of excitement crackling through the hallowed grounds of Donington Park as we await the band. When the band finally appear it is with little fanfare, just the caustic riff of ‘Little Sister’, and then the band are off, doing what they do best and delivering a masterclass is hard rock. Yet, QOTSA are a difficult band to pigeonhole, but whatever tag you want to put on them, stoner, alt or desert rock there’s no denying the quality of these songs and the feelings they generate in their fans. As with their understated entrance, there’s no great emphasis placed on stage production, the band preferring to place their songs centre stage and when the tracks are as good as ‘Go With The Flow’, that’s exactly where they should be. They’re a band blessed with a deep discography and they bury down to dig out some real nuggets and deliver a crowd pleasing set. In fact, as the sun sets and the grounds are shrouded in darkness is when QOTSA really come into their own; there’s a nocturnal quality to their sounds that suits darkness very well and the good vibes the band send out mixes with the fragrant smoke emanating from the crowd and the two combine to make the perfect receptacle for the band’s sound.