Many a sore head can be found at Donington Park on Friday morning; The masses of the campsites of Download Festival 2023 recharging after a brilliant first day of the event (for those yet to do so, please check out our full review of the first day of Download 2023). With a huge variety of acts to look forward to over the next ten hours or so, and with the warm weather showing no signs of going anywhere, it was onwards to Download 2023 day two!
Building a reputation for being the most fun death metal band around right now, Undeath (8) lived up to the hype in the Dogtooth stage. If they keep up their stellar run of releases, there’s no doubt that this band will always have a great base of love and support from the UK and they showed up for their band at midday Friday. As straight up death metal as it gets, Undeath can riff with the very best of them but what separates them from the pack is the celebration of all things death. From the minor details of the backdrop to the onstage charisma to the music itself, Undeath are having a blast being exactly the band that they want to be and the energy is contagious. KD
Arriving at an overflowing Avalanche Stage, unfortunately it’s the very end of Redhook’s set. That does however mean catching Bad Decisions, which is one of the catchiest songs of the year – Rock Sins recommends to all our readers to a spin when you are able.
When you’re only given a 25 minute set, what do you do? If you are As December Falls (9), you deliver one of the tightest, upbeat life affirming sets possible. Frontwoman Beth Hunter is a whirlwind, streaks of blue in her hair flying as she belts out note perfect renditions of new songs Mayday and Carousel (which has a mighty meaty riff courtesy of guitarist Ande Hunter). The set is over before you know it started after a sprint through Ride, and the overflowing Avalanche Tent bellowed in unison for one more song. A towering success for Nottingham locals As December Falls. Stay tuned for our hilarious exclusive interview with them too! JG
From one tent to another and a sizeable crowd greet Brlgian post-rock favourites Brutus (8) with a huge roar on their Download Festival debut. Drummer / vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts is a one woman phenomenon of drumming power and vocal force and beauty in equal measure. Bassist Peter Mulders and guitarist Stijn Stijn Vanhoegaerden are equally on top form. In particular the songs from new album Unison Life are enchanting, and it is another set that is over way too soon. Brutus return to the UK later this year. If post rock is your thing they are a must see. JG
It’s been quite a while since Aussie drum and bass outfit Pendulum (7.5) have graced the main stage here at Download. Packing a full live setup and with the summer sun on their side, a third victorious outing at Donington should be all but guaranteed. However despite starting
off strong with Driver and an immense remix of Voodoo People, their set begins to lose a
little momentum after the first few tracks.
Their reliance on backing tracks during songs like Self vs Self doesn’t help matters. However
it’s the omission of anthems like Hold Your Colour, Slam and Tarantula that really takes the
shine off an otherwise solid set. The arrival of Matt Tuck from Bullet For My Valentine, who lends a much needed raw edge to the bands latest single, Halo is a welcome addition too. In the end it’s too little, too late though and what could have been one of the day’s stand out performances falls a little short of greatness at the final hurdle. HL
It has been a long time, far too long in fact, since Architects (8) played Download Festival so having their return be in support of Bring Me The Horizon’s headliner slot made perfect sense. In that time, the band have changed a lot and throughout this set, you could feel it. At the same time, they’re bigger than ever with songs that are ready made for festivals and that makes it impossible to compare them with their previous Download appearances. As proven by their UK arena tours and the live version of 2021’s For Those That Wish To Exist, Architects still pack one hell of a punch live and anyone thinking otherwise will have had their skirts blown up in their faces by opening track Nihilist. From that point on, the setlist is built off of their three most recent releases and that’s understandable with how many big choruses and riffs are packed in. Highlights go to the two tracks that really bookend their transition as a band, those being Doomsday and Animals.
As always, they’re in fine form as a live act with Sam Carter maintaining his place as a real anchor for the band that represents the connection that the fans have with their music. With guitarist Josh Middleton leaving the band in the build-up to their appearance, Download felt like a real bookmark in their transition. That’s not to say it’s been a quick process but with the band not playing the festival in such a long time, they returned as a new version of themselves. One that feels like a fresh start in many ways. It’s a good sign of things to come that through everything, Architects still get such a great response but it does feel like some errors were made in not having them appear throughout the undeniable run of records that made them into the UK’s metal sweethearts. KD
Hidden amongst the swathes of bands on the Donington line-up, Ville Valo played a low key affair on the Avalanche stage. Under his VV (8) moniker, the former HIM mastermind treated those in attendance to a setlist perhaps unexpectedly awash with HIM classics much to the delight of those attendance.
Neon Noir’s (2023) ‘Echolocate Your Love’ and ‘The Foreverlost’ kicked off proceedings with Valo’s trademark smooth and soothing baritone vocals leading the charge. But it was when VV stepped into HIM territory that the magic and air of nostalgia kicked in as no less than six back-to-back fan favourites came next. Swarms of lurking punters moving between stages rushed in from the outskirts the moment classic HIM hits ricocheted beyond the tent canopies and out into the fields. ‘Poison Girl’ set the scene before the likes of ‘Buried Alive By Love’, ‘Right Here In My Arms’ and ‘Join Me In Death’ were spectacularly wheeled out. The heartagram spotlights lit up the tent walls and THAT riff came next with ‘Rip Out The Wings of A Butterfly’ sounding just as good nearly 20 years after its release back in 2005. Valo returned one last time as the sublimely epic tones of Neon Noir closed out a thrillingly intimate headliner set before the tent returned to darkness. If you missed it, you missed out. CF
The entire Rock Sins team attempts to go see Evanescence headline the Opus stage. However the team is collectively and literally stopped in its tracks by the biggest crowd any of us have ever seen at Download’s second stage in all our years of attending the festival. Unable to get close enough to even hear Amy Lee and co, it’s time to get ready for a certain band from Sheffield playing one of the biggest shows of their career….
Bring Me The Horizon’s (9) ascent to Download headliners was long in the making. Many, this reviewer included, thought after their headline appearance at All Points East a few years back led to tickets being given away for £2.50 that this day would never come. Others wondered whether they were up to the job, could they put on a show big enough? Oli, Jordan and Co responded by making all the doubters firmly eat their words.
With a Metal Gear Solid / Resident Evil-esque storyline running throughout, this was very much a show, not just a concert. The staging, a cavernous Church Of Genexis, was up there with anything previous headliners had utilised. Launching straight into AmEN! and with a very early House Of Wolves, it was abundantly clear Bring Me The Horizon had not come to fuck around. They’d come to claim the throne they felt was rightly theirs. And claim it they did.
With (Parasite) Eve playing the Red Queen role ala Resident Evil, the story develops throughout the show. While it had been enjoyable up to that point, Shadow Moses dropping around half an hour into the set is when business seriously picked up. Somehow a decade old already now, it remains Bring Me’s perfect mix of melodic and heavy as a Challenger tank, and it sent the fields of Donington into mayhem. Nova Twins coming out to add their trademark combo of silk and steel to 1×1 also went down a storm. Recent single Lost sounds rapturous live, cleaner and less cluttered than on record and that chorus is one to stick in the head all Download weekend long.
When Evanescence and BMTH were announced to be on the same day of Download 2023, many hoped Amy Lee might join the boys from Sheffield. Wishes do come true as she joined Bring Me for part of their Post Human track ‘Butterflies, which morphed brilliantly into Nihilist Blues, with Amy filling Grimes shoes in brilliant fashion. The fields of Donington are close to a full on rave at this point and while the god awful Die4u temporarily brings things back to earth with a bump, Kingslayer arrives to take things back firmly into party territory. An acoustic Follow You ends the main part of the set in understated fashion, allowing Eve to rage against the success of the rebellion I thwarting her plans for world domination.
As encores go, Drown into Throne into Can You Feel My Heart has got serious credentials. It’s the cherry on the icing on the cake that Bring Me The Horizon have served up over the past 90 minutes. They’ve answered every legitimate criticism that’s been thrown at them. Oli’s voice, so often their weak spot, holds up fantastically; he sounds great. The production is brilliant throughout. They hold the attention of a huge crowd, many who were predominantly there for Metallica and/or Slipknot. Long time fans clamouring for tracks from pre Sempiternal are going to be disappointed, but it’s not a major surprise it doesn’t happen. This is an overwhelming success for Bring Me The Horizon and for Download. They’ll be back, but for now BMTH just rocked Donington’s world. JG
So Bring Me The Horizon (finally) wrote themselves into the Donington history books. The party continued long into the night in District X as Mr Daniel P Carter had the Doghouse bouncing with a mixture of old favourites and new hits. Eventually it was time for a few hours sleep, and then onto day three!
Whether you were there yourself or if our reviews have been enough to convince you to go next time, early bird tickets for Download Festival 2024 are on sale now from Ticketmaster! Get them while you can at this years’ prices.
Reviews by Jamie Giberti (JG), Hank Leyland (HL), Kyle Dimond (KD) and Claire Frays (CF). Photos by Jemma Dodd except where credited.
