Bloodstock yesterday, Reading & Leeds last night and now Download this morning! It’s hard to keep up if you’re interested in the world of UK rock and metal related festivals in the last twenty four hours. But after two of their competitors made big announcements yesterday, Andy Copping & The Download Festival HQ Team have come out swinging, with a whopping thirty eight bands added to the bill for this year.
Topping off this latest announcement are Charlie Simpson and Fightstar. With the band recently reactivated after a several year hiatus, Fightstar will be taking to the hallowed Donington turf for the first time since 2008 when they headline the Pepsi Max Tent on the Friday night. Charlie Simpson has had this to say about returning to Download:
We are incredibly excited to be playing our first festival appearance in five years at this year’s Download Festival. Download has always been one of our favourite festivals in the calendar and this year is going to be the best yet! We can’t wait to hit the stage again and enjoy the mayhem.
Metal legends Igor and Max Cavalera will also be returning to Download with the mighty Cavalera Conspiracy to cause chaos for the first time in seven years. Joining them are another band who haven’t appeared at Download since 2008, Finnish metal cellists Apocalyptica. Finland is providing a double dose of additions to the line up this time around as celebrated melodic death metal masters Insomnium will finally make their long awaited Download Festival début. Duff Mackagan’s daughter Grace is also taking a major step in following in her Dad’s footsteps when she brings her band The Pink Slips to the UK for the first time for Download 2015.
In addition to Fightstar, there is a brilliant variety of British talent joining the line up. Dubstep rock fusion group Modestep are back at Download for a third time, in what could be one of the heaviest sets of the entire weekend. British alt-rockers “A” are back up and running again, and playing their first Download in a decade. Modern thrashers Sylosis are making what will be a very popular and welcome return to Donington, and making his Download début is blues rock seventeen year old wonderkid Aaron Keylock.
Ginger Wildheart is known for taking a different music turn or two over the years, and his latest project the glam rock outfit Hey! Hello! will be making a Download début in 2015. Then there’s also The One Hundred, Purson, E!mpre, Iconic Eye, God Damn, Hyena and the brutal riffs of metalcore favourites Heart Of A Coward. Want more British bands? Ok then. There’s also post-hardcore rockers Decade, pop punks Roam, genre benders AllUsOnDrugs, stoner rock from Dolomite Minor, northern rock from Sirens In The Delta and more pop punk from Trash Boat and Love Zombies.
Deep breath. Ok now on with some more bands! Texan stoner doom metal favourites of many (including Lars Ulrich) The Sword will be heading to Download Festival in 2015, as well rapidly rising southern rock favourites Blackberry Smoke. The Sword’s fellow Texan’s American Fangs will also be heading over from the US for Download, as will rockers Pop Evil, blues rock from Crobot and what could prove to be one of the sleeper successes of the weekend in the shape of Code Orange. Rounding off this Download Festival announcement are The Dead Daisies, Ghost Town, New Years Day, Aussie echo-metalcore outfit In Hearts Wake, their Canadian brothers in metalcore Counterparts, electo rockers Ghost Town and all the way from New Zealand are the punk rock offerings of Rival State.
All of the above join headliners Slipknot, Muse and KISS plus the likes of Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch, Faith No More, A Day To Remember, Motley Crue, Slash & Myles Kennedy, Lamb of God, Black Veil Brides, Marilyn Manson, Black Stone Cherry, Enter Shikari and dozens more at the 2015 installment of the Download Festival live at Donington Park on the 12th – 14th of June (campsite opens 10th June). Tickets and other information can be obtained at the official site www.downloadfestival.co.uk.
Yet more bands will join the line up between now and June so keep your eyes on Rock Sins for more announcements.
