Not the biggest names on the bill, but you need to watch these bands at Download
Because we know there’s a lot of amazing music on the bill of Download Festival, we’ve helped whittle it down for you. Here are six of our top picks of bands to watch at Donington this weekend who aren't Def Leppard, Slipknot or Tool.
Avalanche Stage – Sunday 20:20
Enter Shikari are no strangers to Download at this stage in what’s already a glittering career. Swapping the dusky sunlight of their last couple of outings for the comparative darkness of a headline set in The Avalanche Tent, the fragile light of fifth LP The Spark will no doubt burn all the brighter. And it’ll be worth squeezing in to bask in the warmth of that glow. If you’re somehow one of the few people left yet to catch the all-sensory assault of an Enter Shikari live experience, then it’s never too late to put that right, and this looks like the perfect opportunity. This one has party written all over it.
Main Stage – Saturday 13:10
Are you of a fragile disposition? If so, perhaps it’s best to disregard this particular recommendation. For all the hard nuts in attendance, though, Texan crossover thrashers Power Trip are absolutely essential viewing. For anyone else simply in need of a mid-afternoon jolt after the festivities of Friday’s opening proceedings have taken their toll, this is the ideal way to shake off any pesky cobwebs. Still tearing it up in support of their outstanding LP Nightmare Logic, the five-piece’s main stage bow should see moshers tested to their limits. If they’re a new name to you, do yourself a favour and go see ’em.
Avalanche Stage – Sunday 19:10
When the hardest of times hit in life, that’s when real heroes step up, and nobody could deny that we are currently living in a terrifyingly trying period for humanity. Luckily, in ex-letlive. and FEVER 333 frontman Jason Aalon Butler, rock music has a hero worth treasuring. Where last year’s fleeting, call-to-arms debut ‘demonstration’ was an incendiary, eye-opening introduction to the trio’s none-more-fiery oeuvre, this year – in the wake of the trail blazed by debut LP Strength In Numb333rs – it feels like the time for the revolution to take hold. Join the cause and make your voice heard.
Dogtooth Stage – Saturday 18:35
If Behemoth have whetted your appetite for Polish black metal earlier on the main stage, make sure that you get your ass over to The Dogtooth Stage on Saturday evening. Their fellow countrymen Batushka are an act to be experienced in the flesh. Playing on the imagery of the Eastern Orthodox church yet neither explicitly Christian, anti-Christian or Pagan, they’ve got something of Ghost-like theatricality about them, too – just with much slower dance-moves. Ultra-mysterious, wholly enigmatic, crushingly heavy and a band unlike pretty much any other on the line-up, this promises to be a spectacle that has to be seen, heard and to immerse yourself in.
Avalanche Stage – Friday 18:00
Ska-punk is a genre apart: impervious to the whims of fashion and transient notions of what’s ‘cool’, it continues on its singular, positive course whether the wider world is on board or not. Tim Armstrong-endorsed LA quartet The Interrupters are an outfit dragging it in from the cold, however, leading the charge for that much-maligned genre with boundless infectious energy and a clutch of undeniable bangers in their growing arsenal. Buoyed by their star-in-the-making frontwoman Aimee Interrupter, and with tracks as joyous as She’s Kerosene in the set, even the coolest of customers will surely be skanking to this lot.
Avalanche Stage – Saturday 20:40
Any musical venture that features blink-182 legend Mark Hoppus and All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth is bound to be a little bit special. Their synthpop project Simple Creatures, though, is something else. “Pop-punk meets The Cure,” reads their succinct synopsis. And if that’s difficult to get your head around, best check them out for yourself. They’ve only got a handful of live shows under their belts so far, but with the obvious pedigree in the ranks this headline set over on The Avalanche stage shouldn’t provide any problems. We’re not even entirely sure what to expect and well, isn’t that unpredictability extra exciting?
Download Festival takes place at Donington Park from June 14-16. Get your tickets now.
