Points will not be accumulated on the portion of any transaction that was paid for or credited by using or redeeming My Rewards or other discounts or promotional codes. The Glaswegians steal the entire weekend in a death metal fury met with crowd-surfers aplenty.Points and rewards have no monetary value, may not be redeemed for cash and are not transferrable to any other individual or entity. While they complement the opulence with standard and concise pop rock, Maiden are more compositionally flashy thanks to giants like Hallowed Be Thy Name and Fear of the Dark, but repeat costume changes and invasions by their mascot, Eddie, still create compelling heavy metal theatre.īritish youngsters Phoxjaw collide sludge metal with gravelly Britpop and ignite their tent, and Bleed from Within sound similarly seismic, despite being downgraded from the main stage slot they enjoyed last year to the smaller Dogtooth. Gene Simmons et al flaunt all the visual splendour money can buy, from fire-spitting to sky-high platforms. “I don’t want to remind them of that I want them to dance.”įriday and Saturday headliners Kiss and Iron Maiden share that crowdpleasing mentality, both gleefully overindulging during their respective two-hour sets. “People lost people during the pandemic,” frontman Benji Webbe tells me ahead of his band’s hour of reggae-infused joviality. Skindred played the main stage at last year’s pilot event, and appear again this year. Photograph: Jason Sheldon/REX/ShutterstockĪ torrent of party-minded metal dominates the festival.
It’s infinitely more invigorating than Theory’s misogyny-laden jock rock. The increased manpower lets them fill up the main stage, giving them the visuals for arena-level success, and their tunes show similar promise, especially when Black Flame triumphantly darts between singing and roars. Representing the more melodic end of the genre outside are Bury Tomorrow, who’ve recently expanded to a six-piece lineup. The elation to be back is palpable as industrial metalcore hellraisers Heriot open the Dogtooth tent on Friday: their arrival prompts mass chanting, while their screeching riffs incite the first circle pit of the weekend. It was a welcome comeback after 15 gigless months, but it wasn’t the real thing. The usual 80,000–110,000 capacity was slashed to 10,000, the number of stages was halved to two and every attendee needed proof of a negative PCR test. It’s been three years since rock music’s biggest annual blowout graced Donington Park in its full glory: after being cancelled in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic, Download returned last year as a shrunken, government-backed pilot event.
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