And so in due course, the final day of Download Festival 2017 was here. Another early morning start was needed in order to prepare for the day ahead, which involved me seeing another 10 bands on top of System of a Down, Prophets of Rage, Biffy Clyro, Suicide Silence, A Day to Remember and the numerous other acts I had seen thus far.
The day started with Fozzy on the main stage, who in complete honesty I forgot were playing until about half an hour before. A quick hurry to the festival arena, and I was ready to go. Of course, the big draw was that WWE icon Chris Jericho is Fozzy’s lead singer and general main man, but irrespective of that, the band’s music seemed to translate well with the audience even if it was not the most stupidly exciting performance I had ever seen – a decent way to kick off the day for sure.
Orange Goblin directed followed Fozzy on the main stage, and I imagine a lot of people in the UK rock scene will be aware of their frontman Ben Ward’s contribution to the British metal media in terms of assisting TeamRock and Metal Hammer in their difficult times at the end of last year. Fozzy was completely watchable, but Orange Goblin definitely leveled things up a notch. There was much more crowd participation from the audience in terms of sing-a-longs as well as circle pits (not bad for so early in the day). It was a really impressive performance from a band that deserves all the recognition and praise for doing what they do, and they pulled a good crowd as well, which was ace to see.
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And now, for what was in my opinion the most unexpected surprise of not just Sunday but perhaps the entire weekend at Download Festival. Last summer, I went to Bloodstock Festival (also in the UK) and saw Heart of a Coward really put the effort in and wow me, and Red Fang at Download was this weekend’s equivalent of that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band excite and entice a crowd into having so much fun – the genuine glee of the people watching Red Fang was almost immediately apparent, which made me enjoy it more. They played later on that day on one of the smaller stages (the Firetooth stage, I believe it was called) which I ended up getting a few glances of while getting food. But honestly, that first performance on the Zippo Encore stage was something else, and a true testament to how much fun a festival can be.
Sunday essentially revolved around me bouncing back and forth between the main and second stages at Download, but for now, I resided at the second stage after Red Fang’s fantastic performance to finally see DevilDriver. Festivals are great because of the variety of bands on display: progressive and instrumentally flashy acts like Devin Townsend, Mastodon, Sikth and The Contortionist all performed across the Download weekend, but sometimes it’s just nice to kick back and watch a band simplify things like DevilDriver where it’s just plain and basic heavy metal. “Clouds Over California” was the obvious staple highlight of the set, but the whole thing in general was just a great way to spend part of your afternoon. Big up DevilDriver for being one of the most fun live bands in metal today.
After DevilDriver, I managed to catch a little bit of Swedish melodic death metal legends In Flames, but if I’m being honest, the performance lacked genuine sincerity and it looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. This could possibly be down to the fact that I missed some of their set and am also not mad keen on their studio output as it is. But what I saw definitely appeared quite flat, and at one point, singer Anders Friden began rambling on about Anthrax for some reason. I’m not quite sure why, but if anyone knows, I’d be enlightened to discover the reasons.
What I just said about In Flames was the complete opposite for the next couple of bands. Australian hard rock heroes Airbourne, a band who have grown to significant levels of success, took to the main stage and performed some of their best known material – “Down on You”, “Rivalry”, “Girls in Black” and various other songs were concluded with a performance of their debut album’s title track “Runnin’ Wild”. This kind of hard rock generally isn’t my vibe (I like AC/DC though, who doesn’t?), but that didn’t stop me from understanding why this band are held in such high regard by the Donington masses.
And again, another band that is held in even higher regard by the Donington masses appeared. Steel Panther is always a home run booking when it comes to Download Festival line-ups, following their acclaimed performances in 2012 and 2014. They are undoubtedly THE perfect festival band for this demographic and their set at its best was so brilliant, but it definitely felt a bit up and down. But with “Community Property”, “Just Like Tiger Woods” and all those other songs, you just can’t go wrong with Steel Panther. And it was my first time seeing them live too, so that’s that box ticked.
Another wander back over to the second stage allowed me to briefly catch a bit of Opeth, who are a band I do not know much about but feel like I probably should. Their mixture of instrumentally technical progressive metal with the musical history of frontman Mikael Akerfeldt is something that can definitely be appreciated by a music fan of a particular disposition, but it just so happens that Opeth are not my cup of tea. Their fans seemed to be enjoying it though, in the way that only they can enjoy Opeth’s music and live show.
SLAAAAYEEEEEEER! I’m going to try and be as unbiased as possible at this point, because anyone who knows me in real life knows I hold Slayer in the highest of high esteem. But first things first – the fact that they clashed with Alter Bridge and still managed to pull a sizeable crowd was pretty impressive, I must say. The setlist was pretty much perfect – an hour and 15 minutes or so of performance time gave way to the list of classics that you’d expect them to play, namely “War Ensemble”, “Seasons in the Abyss”, “Mandatory Suicide”, “Postmortem”, “Disciple” and more. But throwing in “Chemical Warfare” between “Raining Blood” and “Angel of Death” was something I did not see coming. Enough gushing from me now, but really, Slayer were one of the best performances of the whole weekend and one of the best ways to draw Download to a close before the very last band takes to the stage.
Aerosmith brought the 2017 edition of Download Festival to a close with a 2-hour performance that pretty much covered all the bases in terms of the constructed setlist. “Livin’ on the Edge”, “Love in an Elevator”, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”, “Janie’s Got a Gun” and covers of “Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac and “Come Together” by the Beatles paved the way for an encore of “Dream On” and “Walk This Way”. I stood quite far back towards the opposite end of the field, but the ability of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to make the vast expanse of Donington Park feel like a 100-person capacity room is so incredibly understated that their showmanship and general stage presence was something else. My only criticisms of Aerosmith is that the set definitely went through periods of brilliance before dropping down and then going back to greatness again, and I’ve heard that the performance lacked the spectacle that their previous headline slot in 2014 had. But all in all, it was a more than satisfying way to end the festival.
There’s something magical about Donington Park and what it means to the UK rock community that allows Download Festival to become the single definitive event each year for people of our musical demographic. I saw 27 bands across the festival weekend, and it is a true testament to the quality of that place that I found not one of them disappointing in any way. Three world-class headliners in Biffy Clyro, System of a Down and Aerosmith plus Slayer, Prophets of Rage and a multitude of other awesome bands led the best possible first time I could’ve had at Download Festival.