Review by Sheri Bicheno for MPM
Back for another year of returning killer music in a huge gathering of celebrations in the rock and metal world, Download Festival brought (most of) the sunshine for 2025’s edition along with a refreshing line up.
This year whilst championing the nostalgia and growth of music, we were given some fun twists and some new bands to catch amongst some returning favourites.
Headliners Green Day, Sleep Token and KoRn headed up the finale of each day and what an amazing year it’s been this year!
Kicking things right off on the Friday, Pennsylvianian rock giants, CKY opened up the main stage with winding proggy riffs seeping into groove rock melodics and chuggy bassnotes.
CIG appears with a grin sprawled across his face and Friday’s first “HELLO DOWNLOAD!” stretches out across the field.
Frenetic Amnesic in it’s live setting serves as an almost psychedelic grunge number with the inputs of guitar sections amplified which give off a more raw version to the original studio crisp and clean version.
Flesh Into Gear is right where it’s at with that chugging groovy bass listening. Vernon Zaborowski’s return after 23 years away from CKY back into bass duties for their third Download saw to it that this offering had bounce and equal measures of slabs of depth.
A way into the track, the bass and guitar merged into a vortex of synth infused notes along to the upbeat skills of Jess Margera’s kitwork, painting some colours with that stoner rock vibe that CKY harbour.
Speaking of which, Escape from Hellview had a stunning delivery.
With a melodic harmony entwined with some sludgy tones and atmospheric whispers of riffs and skippy drum exchanges, this track is more anthemic in places and gives space for CIG’s vocals to display songful and clean notes.
Finishing on 96 Quite Bitter Beings, this was a favourite of the crowd who had gathered and starting chanting CKY CKY CKY to the stage.
Chunky riffs and hard hitting, this track had more heaviness going on it in it’s live version, with the crowd headbanging and singing along.
Announcing a tour in November, CKY finished the main stage with a tonne of good vibes and warmed up the crowd for the rest of the day…
Heading over to the Dogtooth stage, Texas extreme outfit Gore. – who seemed to have just come straight outta nowhere and knocked everyones block off.
Taking to the stage with airy clean vocals chiming into the crowd with subtle beats and upbeat atmospheres, Angels Like You flowed seamlessly through a breath of fresh air into shimmers of heavy riffs and groove infused drum beats.
Haley Roughton let’s out a chilling guttural towards the end to top off the dark tones within all the light notes of the track.
Pray creates a metalcore infused thunderstorm within the Dogtooth.
Scratching riffs amongst chuggy tech bassnotes between Alex Reyes and Devin Birchfield work alongside eachother to deliver a pit inducing frenzy of heaviness and topped off with the killer screams of Haley before melting into some stunning atmospherics, we’re in for an absolute roller coaster of heavy moments with some really striking moments of emotions.
“We’re gonna calm it down for a second” Haley addresses the crowd and urges everyone to get their flashlights on their phones out to create a vision.
Heaven Is Above Me shifts the mood into a beautiful and sombre few moments of keys and stunning clean vocals that talks to us of a turbulent parent – child relationship. The moods grow with the riffs and drums that turn the track into almost a beautiful ballad turns metalcore.
“This next song just came out and is the heaviest track we’ve ever written… we’re not gonna start til we see a wall!”
The crowd divides as commanded and Haley starts off visceral vocals before the absolute carnage of newly released Sepsis unleashes its facemelting breakdowns.
Bodies flying everywhere, arms and legs all over the pit, the chunky riffs of Alex and Devin absolutely crush the crowd into a furious pile of chaos.
Injecting moments of clean vocals that soar and bend in between the heavy spaces, Haley tops the track off with some stunning tones.
These guys are gonna keep churning out killer tracks and stunning shows… and are not to be missed!!
Staying at the Dogtooth stage, seeing some talent coming from my home place on a Download stage is mega exciting! A roar of welcome from the crowd amomgst ringing sirens and proggresive synths cut through the air.
A battering ram of groove laden riffs smash into the crowd and introduce Nu Metalcore outfit Graphic Nature.
Locked In delivers bone crunching beatdowns that annihilate the stage right from the getgo and Harvey Freeman unleashes furious, gnarly roars through his delivery of hardcore infused vocals.
“When I say the words, I want you, Download to repeat back to me…” Harvey interacts with the crowd and soon the whole tent is chanting back “Its making me sick”
Sour is just as unhinged and displays the speed and depth of how these guys switch between neckbreaking breakdowns and tempo changes of groovy tech infusions of both strings and drums.
Pete Woolven and Matas Michaliovskis work together to deliver an enormous energy between riff and rythym that edges along the backbone of Charlie Smith’s bassnotes.
Jack Bowdry is an absolute powerhouse on drums here. The tempo changes entwined in groove directions pushing and pulling together set the pure rawness of the pace here and puts all the guys energy into a bomb of fury exploding all over the stage.
Harvey’s vocals are vicious and gives the dangerous tone in this live track an extra stomp of depth.
With the crowd singing back the lyrics, the energy here is absolutely incredible!!
Killing Floor is my favourite Graphic Nature track and in its live setting, it is just pure bloodthirsty.
The chonky riffs and skills behind the kit gets you in the mood to go absolutely feral.
The breakdowns in this track is exactly what you’d want from a core band. And the lads did not disappoint, delivering a blistering plethora of tech infused slabs with whiplash. Harvey’s vocals are on point here and display a range that utterly slaps – from a criss cross of rap to gnarly gutturals, he annhilates the stage and with the guys energy in tow, leaves the crowd in a complete mess.
Time for something a touch less extreme and so over the way, everyone’s favourite father of rock, Myles Kennedy takes to the sun drenched Opus Stage.
“Good afternoon”
Like… such a chill dude here.
Met with a roar of welcome, he plays and settles into a beautiful harmony of strings before launching into a bouncy riff that catches along with the drum beats.
Nothing More To Gain kicks off his set with a hard hitting, powerful message talking to us about the pursuit of happiness and being content.
With his signature vocals, the power and upbeatness in his soaring range covers the field whilst the guitars grind together to deliver a huge energy that mesmerises the crowd.
“This year is the 20th anniversary of playing Download with Alter Bridge”
A huge roar of cheers.
Devil On The Wall sparks a silence across the stage and introduces an acoustic style of strings and a hazy melody rings out.
Flashing a smile, Myles steps into an upbeat tone and fun fuelled track with catchy drum beats and incredible guitar solos.
A Thousand Words dedicated to “my beautiful Selena” serves as a truly beautiful capture of emotions with uplifting ripples of strings and winding harmonies that crash into a huge and warm energy, invoking good feeling and heartfelt moods.
A really beautiful feeling sweeps over the crowd for Miss You When You’re Gone and looking around, smiles and people dancing to the awesome vibes from this live track are a thousand fold back to the stage
Heading back over to Dogtooth Stage for atmospheric post hardcore favourites Svalbard who have recently announced they’ll be heading into their last year as a band.
I’d seen these guys support Enslaved a while back and it was nothing short of stunning so I had to get back over for my potentially last opportunity to see these guys perform.
A beautiful melodic intro struck out and Svalbard took to the stage with huge energy, interlacing a beautiful ethereal opening amongst blackened vocals.
Faking It rang out in its blackened shapes with a headbanging range.
Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan work together with stunning duo melodics shimmering through the track on top of an absolute inferno of Mark Lilley’s double kicks behind the kit with ever-changing technical tempos.
Serena’s vocals are ground moving, with a hardcore range fliting between blackened growls.
The guitars showcase harmonies interspersed with tempo shifts that flow through the vocal pauses – I’ve said it before but the essence of this track is truly breathtaking.
Open Wound has an ambience that paints colours of light amongst the extreme corners of this song and the crowd is drawn into this play of different tones.
Epic guitars notes amongst synth style keys blend into the hard hitting drums, creating a dreamscape with bouts of heaviness and barking vocals.
Matt Francis lays down some subtle but powerful bassnotes in this live setting that drives the pace of the drums with slabs of raw heaviness underlining the epic light shades of the guitars.
“This is our first and last time at Download” Serena addresses the crowd and is met with a surge of cheers. She urges us to never give up on our dreams, not knowing that forming a band would lead to playing at Download and all the incredible experiences in life music has offered and the band have grafted at.
A huge swell of emotion and applause from the crowd drowns the stage before Svalbard launch into Eternal Spirits.
Straight off, slamming the crowd with bullet speed blackened guitar riffs amongst the spectacular blast beating of the kit, we’re taken into a dimension of raw and powerful tones that talks to us of loss and honouring those that left behind a lasting inspiration.
A stunning performance- get your tickets to see these guys on their last tour before they disband!
Another wander over to the Opus Stage where Swedish prog masters Opeth were about to start. Red hues of the stage set the crowds anticipation into full swing.
§1 introduces the set with oceanic melodies rippling out from the stage before crashing into skippy prog infused riffs and winding harmonies. Mikael Åkerfeldt displays death metal growls amongst blends of epic proggy riffs and groove drums.
“Friday 13th!” Mikael banters with the crowd. “Half my shit is working. I’m sorry we’re late, its not my fault…” and you hear roars of laughter from the crowd.
Launching into a monstrous riff alongside an annihilation by Waltteri Väyrynen’s blast beats, Master’s Apprentice offers around ten minutes of pure unfiltered progressive meets death.
Unravelling into some epic light and dark moods, the synths keyed by Joakim Svalberg opens up some atmospherics in the track which gives way to Martin Méndez display some stunning backbone of bass notes to underline all of the wierd and wonderful things along the way.
“We’ve tuned down our guitars a little bit” Mikael readies the crowd for In My Time of Need, which is one of my favourite Opeth tracks. In its live setting, it brings out all of the raw beauty that Opeth carve through their delivery.
Fredrik Åkesson bleeds depths of melodics with Mikael’s rhythmic sections that are magnified by the synth keys that subtly nestle in between the guitars and low ebbed bassnotes.
Listening to this in it’s raw ambience in a field, eyes closed and absorbing it in was a little bit magical…
Staying at Opus to catch a piece of symphonic metal giants Within Temptation, an ethereal vocal spreads across the field and launches into a beautiful synth drenched sonic assault.
We Go To War sees the stage bursting with pyro and smoke on drum queue and out walks a masked Sharon Den Adel adorned with golden detailing chiming her beautiful notes into the mic.
The energy is catchy, guitars are soaring and the keys run the synth droplets throughout, creating a beautiful soundscape against the hard hitting beats of Mike Coolan.
Bleed Out churns beautiful atmospheric keys before plunging us into a stunning tech groove breakdown on the strings.
Sharon’s vocal range is stunning with delicate beauty that melts into higher notes and atmospheric tones which gives this live track more celestial moods amongst the depths of heaviness in the guitars and bassnotes.
In The Middle of the Night smacks straight into the energy of the crowd – the anthemic, uplifting vibe see’s people headbanging and filling up to the front throwing horns and shouting along to the lyrics whilst Stand My Ground is a powerful dedication to the conflict that Ukraine still faces.
“This next song is for people who want to be whoever they want.”
Paradise (What About Us?) offers an empowering message and focuses on standing up to injustice. Chugging guitars with an intriguing solo lays over the soaring energy of this track in its live setting admist power ballads injected in places to bring the drums to the forefront.
Always such a fantastic show!
I was really excited to see another Nordic music artist booked this year at Download. I’ve always wanted to see Eivør as shes is such a prominent feature in my playlists and is somewhere i go to ground myself on occasion. The Dogtooth stage drowned in blue lighting and a chill aura came over the space upon entering, like stepping into a completely different dimension of the day.
Jarðartrá – an absolutely stunning entry to the set. Entwining dark and celestial moods together with pulsing drums and subtle keys, Eivør has one of the most beautiful ranges in her harmonising vocals in music today.
Watching the set is like feeling part of a connection through nature and music, where you’re taken off into mystical forests and tranquil landscapes.
“This is my first time at Download and I love it!” Eivør beams at the crowd and is met with a huge welcoming cheer.
With the stage falling silent, mesmerising ambience flows through her echoing vocals introducing Enn to the set.
This track has a more electronic than rustic feel to it with the beautiful ripples of synth tones and keys amongst the traditional subtle drum beats that dont over power the ethereal feel to the delivery of this beautiful track. Eivør is absolutely captivating in her vocals that range between dreamlike pop to haunting tones that touch deep into your core.
The first track that got my attention when I started listening to Eivør is Trøllabundin… and experiencing it for the very first time live is truly hypnotic.
With a Sámi drum in hand starting with subtle beats, her vocals are at first soft and then flows beautifully into powerful echoing melodics before some building up into entrancing throat singing.
The tones for Falling Free went right through me took me away out of the tent and into another world…
This was an absolute experience and I came away feeling grounded and happy.
In full swing for our Friday headliner, I made my way to the Apex Stage where Pop Punk legends Green Day were turning up the tone, upbeat and bouncing for a packed out Download.
Welcome To Paradise drove the nostalgia in HARD and let me tell you, Green Day are still showing the same energy and production just as fresh as they did in the 90s and early 2000’s.
The crowd around me are non stop moving and shouting the lyrics, beach balls are bouncing around the horizon of the crowd and crowdsurfers make their way down to the barriers.
“Are you ready!? Show me!” Billie Joe Armstrong turns his mic to the crowd and is met with a deafening roar over the chuggy guitar notes anticipating what’s coming next…
“You know what i haven’t heard for a really long time? We’ve been coming here for 30 years playing festivals and back in the 90’s people used to say You Fat Bastard… I think i need to hear that.”
…and within no time at all, the crowd was chanting “You Fat Bastard” before Hitchin’ A Ride started chugging in.
Somewhere down the front, a human rowboat line was made in the middle of the pit before Billie Joe counts to four and his guitars and Tré Cool’s drums smashed everybody in to jump up and get moving.
Brain Stew injected some raw and unfiltered slabs of punky riffs and slow, hard hitting drums.
Mike Dirnt slaps in some heavy and low frequency bass notes under the crashing of guitars, giving the edge of this track some serious attitude.
Doing a little surprise rendition of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ teased us into the glide for a low strumming intro to Dilemma.
Billie Joe’s vocals take on a higher and rougher tone here in parts which displays his dynamic vocal range. Upbeat and full of fun pace, the vibe gets the crowd jumping and the pit hits different with less aggression and more bounce before melting into anthemic, guitar solo packing 21 Guns.
Basket Case saw the crowd almost drown out the stage singing back the lyrics and once that harmony section kicked in, stage sparklers went off and pushed the energy higher (if that were at all possible.)
Somber and quiet, the beautiful first bars of Wake Me Up When September Ends pulled in a roar from the crowd as we all watched in pure awe. Billie Joe commands the weather with “here comes the rain again falling from the stars” – in an unbelievable twist of fate, the heavens opened up on the spot.
This only creates more ambience to this wonderful song and for a few minutes, everyone shares what is going to go down in history of Download, a pretty special moment.
Ploughing through a chunky riffed Jesus of Suburbia and an injection of melodics in newer track Bobby Sox with the verses swapped around, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) beautifully encores the set.
A last time, the crowd sings back to Billie Joe and this one feels special. A wholesome and emotionally charged moment shared between stage and crowd with Billie Joe smiling into the audience whilst standing alone with the acoustics.
Tré and Mike stand beside him in the final moments of the song with the last guitar strumming used with Tré’s drumstick before a firework display launches from behind the stage into the skies.
This was an amazing day for music and id had the best time. Day 2 expectation was on a high set bar…
A short walk into District X and I was getting prepped for Saturday.
Photography by Pete Key for MPM
Green Day Photos – Download official
