Ahhhh, Download middle Saturday. The time when everyone is nicely settled in. Middle Saturday at Download 2025 has a very eclectic feeling. In fact, we put it to Download’s Senior Promoter Kamran Haq that it just might be the most eclectic main stage line up a day at the festival has ever had! Following on from our Download Festival 2025 Preview, the Rock Sins team has another ten bands picked out for prospective Donington attendees to read about and enjoy. We don’t have a single band on the Avalanche Stage this time, not that there aren’t good things to be seen there, we just had too many other bands to write about on the Apex, Opus and Dogtooth stages. So, without further ado, lets get to our masked headliners, and nine other bands….
Apex Stage:
SLEEP TOKEN (9:00pm)
Enigmatic, mysterious and among the hottest properties in the industry right now. Sleep Tokens rise to the top of the bill at Download Festival has been nothing short of meteoric. Claiming a headline slot just six years after their debut album hit store shelves. Meaning that whatever you might think of Vessel & Co, they are clearly doing something right.
Richard Osman may have recently earmarked them as the least metal thing he’s ever heard. However, we’d take the advice of a man whose books flesh out the 2 for £9.50 deal in your local Tesco with a pinch of salt and give the masked mystery men a chance when they make the Apex Stage their own this weekend. (JL)
POPPY (2:15pm)
Eclectic art / noise laden songstress turned metalcore powerhouse on her last album Negative Spaces, Poppy has come a long way from first attracting attention on YouTube satirising the Interweb. With a voice that is monstrous one second and silky sweet the next, if she’s on form it’ll be a vocal performance to anyone else on the Apex stage over the weekend. We’re particularly looking forward to some of the tracks from Negative Spaces like New Way Out and The Cost Of Giving Up. Could be one of the stand out performances of the day. Here’s hoping. (JG)
HATEBREED (1:05pm)
One of the O.G’s of American metal flavoured hardcore, Jamey Jasta and the Hatebreed crew are back at Donington once again. They always receive a rapturous welcome, and that’s because they are among the very best at what they do. They’ve been churning out quality riffs and breakdowns for a quarter of a century, and songs like Live For This and I Will Be Heard are still as fresh and as relevant as they were when first released. Hatebreed are very much still As Diehard As They Come. (JG)
Opus Stage:
SEX PISTOLS Feat. FRANK CARTER (7:35pm)
Frank Carter is no stranger to Download. The mighty Sex Pistols, on the other hand, are making their debut on one of the grandest music stages of all, where it’s quite possible at least 50% of the audience won’t have seen the band before. Sure you can quibble over the line up “isn’t the Sex Pistols” if you want, but let’s not forget Sid wasn’t actually the original bass player and those songs are fucking brilliant whoever’s playing them, so nevermind the bollocks, get your best snarly face on, spike your hair and get over to the headline slot of The Opus Stage ready to sing along to Bodies, Holiday in the Sun and whatever else you know the words to! (GL)
THE DARKNESS (6:10pm)
Give them a D, give them an ….arkness! Lowestoft’s finest catsuit wearing, guitar shredding English gents The Darkness are back at Download once again, and this is a great thing. Having recently sold out theatres and arenas across the land celebrating the 20th anniversary of the iconic Permission To Land, and then done it all over again with their new album Dreams On Toast, it could be argued this is the best run Justin Hawkins and the boys have been on in almost two decades. We’ll let the bands’ long term fans make that call, but we want to hear all the Permission To Land favourites, as well as newer classics like Solid Gold and Heart Explodes. Maybe the least serious, yet potential to be the most fun set of the day, if not the entire weekend! (JG)
SOPHIE LLOYD (12:05pm)
You have to tip your hat to Sophie Lloyd and Kiki Wong – they absolutely nailed using the medium of TikTok to further their own careers. Kiki now plays with The Smashing Pumpkins and Sophie Lloyd has released an absolute belter of an album in the form of Imposter Syndrome, which can only be described as the hard rock equivalent of Santana’s 1999 multi-collaborative album Supernatural. Hitting the Opus Stage approximately noon, with so many Download Alumni making an appearance on this record we can only hope that a few of them make guest appearances, especially with that RUMOURED Trivium secret set the Download Family is praying is true, but whether Matt Heafy is there or not Fall of Man will tear the field a new arsehole, while Do or Die will keep those good vibes going. (GL)
Dogtooth Stage:
HOLY WARS (3:00pm)
Technically a duo, Holy Wars are an LA based band that refuses to pigeon hole itself into one genre, but no matter how people want to describe them one thing is true – they rock. With elements of dance, punk and pop scattered throughout their music Holy Wars are almost certain to tear up The Dogtooth Stage, but will no doubt be back again within 2 years on one of the bigger ones and no one could deny them that with such tunes as I Feel Everything and My Drugs Are Digital. (GL)
THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT (4:40pm)
Also on The Dogtooth Stage today is The Funeral Portrait from Atlanta with their post-hardcore, post-emo, post…it music. They have the look, they have the tunes, they have the lyrics and at the midway point of the festival they will no doubt be aiming to show the assembled throng they have the show to back it all up. Fans of MCR, The Used and even Creeper should definitely take the time to check them out and get ready to shake what your mama gave you to big hitters like Dark Thoughts and You’re So Ugly When You Cry – the latter being originally recorded as a duet with none other than The Used’s own Bert McCracken. (GL)
ANAAL NATHRAKH (5:30pm)
The heaviest act on the bill across the entire weekend (sorry Meshuggah) and up there as one of the heaviest bands ever to play Download in its history, Anaal Nathrakh are legends of British extreme metal. Some of the harshest, nastiest metal ever created on these fair isles has come from Dave Hunt and Mick Kenney – and we very much mean that as a compliment. It’s going to be slightly surreal seeing them at half 5 on a Saturday afternoon, but at least it’ll be in the somewhat darkened confines of the Dogtooth Stage. The kind of band that one feels like could summon a torrential rainstorm just by playing a few bars. Whatever the weather, if you like your metal raw and unfiltered, look no further this weekend than Anaal Nathrakh. (JG)
SYLOSIS (7:25pm)
The shredding from Reading are back at Download in 2025! Having churned out two excellent albums since their full reformation a few years ago, Sylosis are a most welcome return to the Donington turf. With the band once again Josh Middleton’s full time concern, and drummer Ali Richardson flying with both Sylosis and Bleed From Within (see them on Sunday), it’s slightly perplexing that the Berkshire natives find themselves in the Dogtooth Stage. Expect a packed tent bellowing the likes of I Sever, as well as maybe an old favourite or two like Teras or Conclusion Of An Age. (JG)
Limited day tickets for the Saturday of Download Festival 2025 – as well as last weekend tickets for the whole festival are still available. If you want to join the annual Donington party, you can grab yourself last minute tickets – either for a day or for the whole event on this link!
Words by Jamie Giberti (JG), Greg Latham (GL), John Layland (JL).
