My Day At Sunday Download Festival 2025

Its been six years since I last visited Donnington! What has the pandemic robbed me of? My hesitancy to return to live music feels like a lost opportunity, yet to experience such magic to begin with is a blessing. Magic is what my Sunday at Download gave back, a much needed reminder of the incredible times live performances muster. The day started with Kneckbreaker in the tent, Orbit Culture and Bleed From Within on the mainstage. I caught Municipal Waste and Malevolence too, however the follow were the real highlights of my day.

Amira Elfeky
One from the current wave of BMTH inspired Djent Pop Metal, Amira immediately caught my ear with her pristine voice. I found myself unsure of her authenticity, listening carefully to her breathy articulations between singing. It was no backing track. She just sounded like a studio recording live. Utterly impressive and with such easily enjoyable music, it made for a great show to follow up on.

Power Trip
My first mosh of the day. It had been a minute since I last heard there revival Thrash stomps! With pounding drums and choppy guitars chugging in perfect synchronicity, their grooves were infectious! Not to mention new vocalist Seth Gilmore did a fine job as their new frontman.

Meshuggah
God of metal, masters of my primordial rhythmic soul, It doesn't matter how many times I've seen them, it never feels like enough. This was my "loose yourself" moment, a feeling adored many times over the years. Go wild and bang your head and disappear. That will always happen with Meshuggah. Lethargica on the setlist was a niche touch and ending with Demiurge had me hyped up!

Spiritbox

Seeing them for the third time this year blunted the excitement a tad but that mid day sunshine can be brutal! Melting in the sun, I found myself watching other go wild and having a great time. I got my slice of that earlier in the year. The performance was excellent, It feels like they are on track to become one of metals premier names if they keep pumping out gold.

Lorna Shore

There is nothing quite like an impressive performance to win you over. I liked these guys, but seeing the musical virtuoso in the flesh was something else! The dazzling fluorescent sunburst guitar of Adam De Micco highlighting his incredible melodic through lines. It was also a delight to see them take my least favoured aspect of the music seriously. The breakdowns, exchanging cheeky grins at the sheer absurdity of these stunts was nice to see they don't take themselves seriously.

Novelists

Spotify had recently exposed me to this group. They have some charming songs. With a delayed start, I was delighted to catch them in the tent. Camille Contreras has a lively stage presence and hearing a few familiar tunes between others made for an entertaining set.

Fit For An Autopsy

New to my ears, this band absolutely slapped. You could tell from the crowd reaction they had something to offer. The rhythmic chops caught my ears, an amazing chemistry between guitar and drums that had be head banging like mad. To my unaccustomed ears, they sound like a Post-Deathcore crossover with Lamb Of God and splashes of Gojira. Really impressive, I will be getting into this one!

Korn

Fortunately, I'd seen Korn just last summer, otherwise my heart would of been torn. One of the few bands that always tug hard on the heartstrings, I caught some of my favorite songs in the first seven or so I stuck around for. I could have easily spent my night in the pit, loosing my mind again but alas there was one more act to see. They were phenomenal, a powerhouse ready to put on a show. It sounded great, I rocked out hard but had to move on.

Sikth

Legendary within my friendship circle, Sikth were a one of a kind local band who we saw at our very first Download Festival before they parted ways shortly after. I caught them sound checking at the beginning of the day. They sounded great. It felt only right to see them conclude the night in the tent, putting on a mightily energetic show to a meager crowd of less than a thousand peeps. I thoroughly enjoyed it. No regrets!

Lorna Shore "Pain Remains" (2022)

 

With the huge springboard of viral success from last years To The Hellfire single, Lorna Shore have ample opportunity to stake claim in Metal's legacy with this new full length, Pain Remains. Leaning heavily into their breed of attention grabbing breakdowns, the lush orchestral thematic extremity on display gets smitten by sudden barrages of unmitigated brutality. Opening with a symphonic piece echoing Death Cult Armageddon vibes, its dark fantasy orchestration swiftly falls mercy to sporadic, murderous crashes of cold and cruel aesthetic abuse. Brazen pummels of lightning blast beats and unearthly demonic gutturals intrude, lunging its musicality into blunt, primitive howls. Carnal and crude in nature, its offering are slim past its inception.

And thus a truly interesting elevation of symphonic extremity gets subverted. The mighty, triumphant and mercilessly aggressive union has its fantastical themes abruptly diminished by these unconnected inhuman roars from an unforgiving abyss. Identity is lost as synths are stripped out, so to do melody and rhythm fall wayside to simplistic noise barrages. Seeming worlds apart, the immersive lather of strings, trumpets and horns integral to world building, slips into a void, in favor of brutal tropes.

For this listener, a sense of identity and direction for these songs failed to manifest. Where progressing with musical ascends and crescendos might be expected, all I found was the sudden dissolution of magic in the wake of its breakdowns. This was likely the intent, that all roads lead to their ugly abandon of over the top extremity. For me its a novel trope that undermined everything else. Fortunately its final three part title track ads a little saving grace, the best songwriting on the record where they have an opportunity to shine. But at the end of a grueling slog of intensity, it too wains.

Rating: 4/10

Lorna Shore "...And I Return To Nothingness" (2021)

 

In the coming weeks there will be entries here moaning my pains about the dull, repetitive state of modern Metal. Coincidentally, I decided to finally check out one band garnering a lot of attention within the scene. Lorna Shore have had viral success with their abhorrent demonic breakdown ending To The Hellfire. Bloated by filth, absurd screams and obnoxiously rapid blast beats, the monstrous conclusion was simply an obvious increase of Deathcore extremities that came before it to my ears.

My reluctance to dive deeper has not been without warrant. The breakdowns are the least appealing presence presiding within this EP. Each song finds a couple of breaks to murder tempo, unleash beastly gutturals and assault with nihilistic percussive blasts that sounds like precision machine gun fire. Its execution is exquisite with octane aesthetic however the trendy technique is just flash in the pan for this "Deathcore veteran". When new and novel, its a riveting blast but any meaning seems knee deep.

Fortunately, everything else to my taste. Shades of Blackened Death Metal collide with evil symphonic theatrics in the vein of Orchestral Black Metal, once pioneered by Dimmu Borgir. While I'm name dropping, this record felt like an aggressive succession to Shade Empire's brilliant Arcane Omega. Foul winds blown over fantastical landscapes flirting between devilish darkness and Tolkien like fantasy realms.

The production is sublime, letting a lot of densities dance as its instruments throttle alongside luscious symphonies. The tandem is extreme, hanging in a balance other bands might butcher. Yet they navigate the fantastical landscapes with an aggressive flight that's exhilarating in its stride. Melodies are sweet and adventurous, balancing out extremity and developing theme. Its terrific chemistry backed by great songwriting. I'm left rather excited for their next album, set to drop in a month and a day!

Rating: 5/10