Top 10 Download Festival Performances So Far (2004-2009)

In my six years of going to the UK's main rock and metal festival, there have been a very wide mix of performances from the fantastic to the bloody awful. After much careful thought and deliberation, here is my top 10 (well 11, I couldn't drop one) performances that I have been witness to (which unfortunately disqualifies me from including Metallica's secret show on the second stage in 2003).

Honourable Mentions: Devildriver 2006, Saxon 2008, Testament 2008, Faith No More 2009, Sylosis 2009, System Of A Down 2005, Black Sabbath 2005, Megadeth 2005, Machine Head 2007, Lostprophets 2008, Dream Theater 2007, Dimmu Borgir 2007

10 - Trivium - 2005
11 O'Clock on the Saturday morning of 2005 and approximately 50,000 people descended on the main stage to see what all the fuss was about. Trivium had only reached the UK for the first time the previous month, doing a 20 date + tour with Still Remains and 3 Inches of Blood on the Roadrunner new bands tour. A tour that started off with rotating headliners, and had Trivium headlining every show after the first 4 or 5 dates. Matt Heafy & co may have been surprised at the turnout but it did not daunt them, ripping through tracks from the then brand new 'Acscendancy' and igniting circle pits left right and centre. After a crushing set closing "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr", it was official. There was a new star rising in metal, and it was called Trivium.

9 - KoRn - 2007
In 2006, shortly before KoRn were due to second headline the main stage under Metallica, singer Jonathan Davis was hospitalised with a blood disorder. This resulted in the infamous "KoRnioke" with singers such as Dez Fafara from Devildriver, Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour) and Trivium's Matt Heafy joining Fieldy, Munky and co for a rather unorthodox (but very good) KoRn performance.

As a result, KoRn returned to Download in 2007 to headline the second stage in the tent on the Friday night while My Chemical Romance headlined the main stage (what a mistake that was, but I digress). The atmosphere inside the Dimebag Darrell stage was fantastic as KoRn opened with Here To Stay and the atmosphere and performance both stayed at that high level for the next 75 minutes, with Coming Undone and Somebody, Someone sounding particularly good. By the end when Blind kicked in I do not think there was a single person standing still as a rammed tent bounced along to KoRn's biggest (and first) hit. They are by no means my favourite band, but seeing them in the Dimebag tent was something well worth watching.

8 - Slayer - 2004

Slayer were supposed to play the main stage in 2004, in between Machine Head and Slipknot (so they were in good company). Slayer arrived at Donington on time, however their equipment did not. Therefore some hasty rescheduling led to Slayer being given a slot in the second stage tent later in the day (As a sidenote, this was a great bonus as damageplan were promoted to the main stage, so I got to see the genius that was Dimebag Darrell in person). Seeing Slayer in a tent is not something that can really be described, other than to say it was like letting a nuclear bomb off in a small enclosed space. Bodies flew everywhere, heads banged all around and it was definitely a case of "Show No Mercy". About an hour later I caught up with my friend Matt, who had gained a bruise the size of the left side of his face, yet he had the biggest grin. Very few experiences would provide that combination, but this was one of them.

(equal) 7 - Def Leppard - 2009
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm a big Leppard fan, something I often take abuse for. Imagine my glee when they get announced to close the most recent of Download Festivals. Having taken a good spot down the front, I waited excitedly with my friends Elwyn, Matt and Steve. I was a little unsure how they were going to go down, but since a) it was classic rock Sunday and b) the garbage that was Whitesnake (or David Coverdale + about 10 session musicians, worse than the modern "Guns N'Roses") were very popular, so I thought they'd do ok.

As soon as "Rocket" kicked in, it was obvious they were going to do a lot better than ok, with a setlist that trawled their entire 25+ year career and pulled out some unexpected gems for the hardcore Leppard fans (Too Late Too Late and the awesome Switch 625 which even Matt thoroughly enjoyed). The last 40 minutes or so was Def Leppard gold as Animal,Armegeddon It,Photograph and Pour Some Sugar On Me blasted through before Joe Elliott rightly halted proceedings to remind everyone that it was 23 years since Def Leppard's last appearance at Donington (with Ozzy and "the scorps", as Joe put it). That day in 1986 was Rick Allens first performance back after losing his arm in a car crash, and 23 years later they were here doing it all again, so Rick deservedly got a huge round of applause, and got quite emotional, as one would expect really. They then closed with Rock of Ages, before the encore which was finished off with a fantastic "Let's get rocked", 60,000 people in Donington Park's main field certainly did want to get rocked.

(equal) 7 - Judas Priest - 2008
Having committed something of a heavy metal sin in that I only really started taking proper notice of Judas Priest when they were announced for Download, despite having had the Angel of Retribution album on my shelf since it came out, I very quickly became a massive fan and was looking forward to this immensely. Amongst my group of friends, Download 2008 is commonly accepted as being the worst in terms of lineup, but this was undoubtedly the highlight for myself and many of the others. A fantastic looking set was well used by Rob Halford and the guys as they started off with "Prophecy" from their latest release "Nostradamus" before following up with a pair of classics in "Eat me alive" and "Metal gods". I think there were alot of people in the audience not that familar with Priest, but they were quickly won over with such belters as "Between the hammer and the anvil" and "Judas Rising". Painkiller, arguably their heaviest song, really needs to be seen live, purely for the drum intro if nothing else for it's sheer epicness.

An encore of "Hellbent for leather", "The green manalishi" and closer "You've got another thing coming" went down a storm, the British Metal legends having pulled off a show worthy of Donington's rock legacy and earning themselves a boatload of new fans into the bargain. Just bloody brilliant.

6 - Devildriver - 2007
Having annihilated the Snickers Tent the previous year, Devildriver returned to Donington armed with new album The Last Kind Words and proceeded to tear the place apart like never before. New material combined with old thrilled everyone, before the unofficial attempt to create the worlds largest circle pit with Meet The Wretched stretched around every single support pillar in the Dimebag Darrell Stage from front to back, creating a tornado of bodies. An awesome performance capped off by a few moments of sheer, utter chaos.

5 - Metallica - 2004
As Metallica are my favourite band, this was pretty likely to feature highly in any related top performances list to do with Download. However when the band were over an hour late, everyone was pretty worried. Rumours had been circulating all afternoon that Lars was not at Download, and Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Joey Jordison from Slipknot would be filling in for him. Lars' non appearance was confirmed by mssrs Hetfield, Hammett and Trujillo when they appeared about 90 minutes late to explain what had happened, before going backstage and the opening strains of battery kicked in. Watching Dave Lombardo hammer through Battery at breakneck speed with the rest of Metallica trying to keep up is something I'll never forget. The same goes for watching Joey throw double kick drum fills into Creeping Death on top of the normal beats and the general all around epicness of it. The fact that the set was only 1 1/4 hours or that the set was mainly from the Black Album mattered not, it was a historical, never to be repeated evening and I'm very glad I was there.

4 - Machine Head - 2004
In 2004 I was still largely in my infancy of discovering metal bands outside the music channels of Kerrang or MTV2 (remember when MTV2 played metal?!). Seeing Machine Head at Download in 2004 was something of a metal awakening for me and I think its when I truly got what it was all about, and for many years was my second favourite performance ever (the first being seeing Metallica in Dublin the previous year). The sheer pandemonium caused by Robb Flynn and co on songs such as (then nearly brand new) Imperium, Old and Take My Scars was amazing to me at the time and a joy to behold. However, when set closer Block kicked in (and my accompliss Matt turned to me and mentioned "we're going to die") and the biggest circle pit I'd ever seen in my life appeared around me, I was terrified but loved every second of it at the same time. This experienced turned me into a die hard machine head fan and opened my eyes to the possibilities of what metal can do, something I'll never forget.

3 - Strapping Young Lad - 2006
Before this performance at Download back in 2006, I think its fair to say that Strapping Young Lad, whilst having an ardent cult following, were not that well known to the metal masses. They sure as hell were after this performance. Devil Townsend's intermittent comical monologues providing genuinely side splitting remarks interlaced with some of the heaviest songs ever to grace the Donington main stage. The likes of All Hail The New Flesh, Love and In The Rainy Season went down an absolute storm during a performance excepted by most SYL fans as the bands finest hour. If you haven't seen this, download it, find it on youtube or buy the bands greatest hits album (its on the accompanying DVD). An absolute must see for all metal diehards and a wonderful 50 minutes. I just hope one day they get back together and do it again.

2 - Slipknot - 2009
We all knew this was going to be good. It was just a question of how good. The fact I flew about 20 metres to my left and I couldn't put two feet solidly on the ground for the first four songs set the tone for a near two hour performance of magnificent chaos. Corey Taylor commanded the stage about as well as it has even been commanded by a frontman in 30 years of rock and metal greats performing on the main stage at Donington. The performance of every song was near-flawless, but even if they did mess up you wouldn't have noticed for the wall of noise emanating from the crowd and the unadulterated madness of the circle pits. Spit It Out was equally wonderful and terrifying as an entire field "Jumped The F**k Up" on command, bringing to an end one of the best metal performances I have ever seen in my life.

1 - Metallica - 2006
It was always going to take something truly epic to keep Slipknot off the top spot in this top 10 after that performance. Well, as far as I am concerned, you don't get much more epic than Master of Puppets in its entirety. A truly historic evening for Metallica fans and general metal fans alike saw the band hammer through their (arguable) Magnum Opus from start to finish pausing only to interact with the crowd a couple of times. On top of that we got other classics like Creeping Death and Wherever I May Roam and the now obligatory One, Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman before Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold gatecrashed the encore for a very out of time Die Die My Darling before things were finished off in classic Metallica style with Seek and Destroy. Truly one of those "I was there" moments, and my favourite memory so far from Donington Park.