The Monsters of Rock lay down their arms as a rabid dog approached the battlefield looking for a pat on the head. The Download Festival was born.

Why “Download”? Because at the time, people thought that downloading was killing music. So to label a music festival against such a force of evil was a daring move, presumably. Because that’s what metal’s all about: SHOCK. But it raises the question: If the Download Festival were started in 2023 rather than 2003, would they have called it the Streaming Festival?

I’ve only been once, and even then I only went for one day. It was 2019, and the opportunity to see Tool and Smashing Pumpkins on the same day was too good to miss. It was a beautiful day. Everyone was friendly, and everyone was there for the music. I saw more devil horns than smartphones held aloft, and the bars had the Iron Maiden Trooper ale on tap.

Also, Download has a mascot: The Download Dog. He started life looking like an unfortunate victim of experiments in canine ESP. Over the years, he’s also appeared as a sort of FrankenDog, as a snarling pink puppy, and as a skeleton. When he makes public appearances, though, he’s a giant red naked bodybuilder with studded bracelets who, despite his leer and his bulging muscles, looks to be quite cuddly.

All festivals should have a mascot. The Glastonbury Wizard. The Reading Bookworm. The Latitude Accountant. In fact, every business and brand in the land should have a mascot. They help, in a way.

So I’m down with The Download Festival. And that’s why I decided to listen to every band and artist that ever played Download Festival. What else am I going to do with my Spotify subscription?

I couldn’t do it. I listened through each line-up until 2011 or so, skipping those who had played before. And yes, I had some good times. But eventually it all got too much. Too heavy. I am in awe of anyone who can listen to such loud and aggressive music all day, every day. It takes something that I don’t have.

I had every intention of persevering, because I hate leaving things unfinished. But travelling back from a recent surprise trip to Avebury, I put The Incredible String Band on. I felt the deep tugs, the soul surge, and the welling. I saw the face of my father appear in the clouds. “Remember who you are,” he growled. Particularly unnerving, given he’s still alive, and he’s not a lion.

Still, this experience has helped me to understand exactly what sort of metal does it for me. My favourite kind of metal is the sort that unironically sings stories of myth, legend, battles, dragons, swords, wizards, and castles. The sort that has album covers that people describe as “well metal”. To immerse yourself in such sounds is to channel a higher power. The more ridiculous, yet earnest, the better.

My second favourite type of metal is the sort of metal that concerns itself with how metal it is. Some bands sing songs about the majesty of rock, the ministry of roll, the redemptive qualities of the mosh, and the considerable joys of heavy drinking and partying. They know that metal’s supposed to be fun, so they have fun playing it, which of course makes them a lot of fun to listen to.

I’m less keen on – yet still somewhat partial to – the sort of metal that tries as hard as possible to go as hard as possible. The aggressive, misanthropic kind. The sort that indulges in vulgar displays of power, with songs about blood, violence, death, violence, blood, death, violence, and blood.

My least favourite kind of metal, I’ve learned, is the kind that pairs pained wailing with the occasional SCREAM, with the guitars following suit: First tediously trebly, then loud, yet oddly restrained. It’s all so tiresome, and the exact opposite of fun. The musical equivalent of a tantrum, or of holding your breath until you get your way. Metalcore? More like MetalBORE! Amirite?

What Happened To Download Festival?

It’s a curious story. Usually, these things peak, then decline. Download, though, never declined. It plateaued.

I recently listened through to 20 years worth of Reading Festival lineups to try and pinpoint the moment it began to decline. I narrowed it down to 2006, but there were some early signs of rot setting in. In 2000, for the first time, every band that appeared on one day of the mainstage had previously played before.

Of course, we cannot expect festivals to give us unique lineups year after year. But Reading had a very good run. Every lineup between 1989 and 1999 featured a majority of bands that had never played before. It made things feel fresh, as though there was a thriving underground from which to pluck talent like chocolates from a Milk Tray.

But it would take Download Festival just three years to repeat a headliner. Metallica actually made their debut playing a secret set at the inaugural festival in 2003. They would then headline in 2004, only to do so again just two years later, in 2006.

From this point on, the main stage lineups start to feel like a carousel, with a broad selection of bands taking it in turns to play every other year. For a number of years, it felt like the headliners were simply alternating between Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and System of a Down, with a wildcard here and there to help us distinguish one year from another.

Is this fair? Let’s take a look at the numbers. Between 2003 and 2023, Metallica would headline five times. This includes the 2023 20th anniversary event, which they actually headlined twice. Slipknot matched their record, also headlining five times. So did Iron Maiden, though they were also due to play the cancelled 2020 event.

Other familiar faces include Linkin Park, who would headline three times, and most likely will do so again before long. System of a Down, Kiss, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Avenged Sevenfold, and Black Sabbath have also headlined three times. Biffy Clyro, Tool, and Rammstein have each done it twice.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Download is, after all, a rock and metal festival, and there are only so many bands out there. It’s commendable that the festival’s stayed true to its roots after all these years. And even if one gets a sense of deja vu when scrolling through successive lineups, it’s hard to deny that every iteration of Download looks like it could have been a cracking good time, if you like this sort of thing.

Also, Download Festival isn’t as risk-averse as it might first appear. Over the years there have been many bookings which I’d describe as experimental, or even daring.

Many will remember the “indie” day from 2005. Looking at it now, the only group that really feels out of place is The Others. Feeder raised some eyebrows, I believe, and I’ve read accounts of how they struggled to win over the crowd. But were Feeder really such a strange choice to headline Download? Sure, at the time they were touring their soft and soaring Pushing The Senses album. But they still had a number of pop punk masterpieces in their arsenal, and their debut is just as crunchy and shouty as anything else from the early 00s British rock stable. Feeder are more Hell is For Heroes than A Time For Heroes, and I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid were they to appear again.

Genuinely daring, though, was the decision to book Lethal Bizzle in 2008. “We got set up,” said Bizzle, as he was pelted with bottles and rice pudding. Poor guy. I doubt, though, that Bizzle was “set up”. I think they were testing the waters. Who says you can’t headbang to grime? Had he gone down well, more may have followed in his footsteps. But it wasn’t to be, and Download is perhaps the sole UK festival that Dizzee Rascal will never play.

The Prodigy, too, were a potentially risky choice. But in the words of Louder: “Anyone bemoaning the idea of The Prodigy playing a festival like Download simply hasn’t seen The Prodigy.”

Evidently, the organisers saw the joyful mayhem their set inspired, and thought, hey! There’s an appetite for dance music at Download! Get in! Pendulum would appear a few times, but the organisers flew too close to the Sun when they booked Chase & Status to play before The Prodigy’s 2012 headline set. “Chase and Status are going to win people over!” said the boss. “They’re going to throw piss at us!” said Chase & Status.

Alas, I can find no record of how they were received. But I think it’s telling that there would be no further experiments in heavy electronic music. And I dimly remember watching Kerrang TV in 2013, as they announced the first wave of the lineup, and some wag suggested that they rename the main stage the “We’re Sorry For Booking Chase & Status” Stage.

It’s easy to tut at a seemingly close-minded metal crowd, but I think there’s a much more positive takeaway here. The Download Festival tries something new, and if it doesn’t work, they don’t do it again. They pay attention and iterate accordingly. And if this results in a somewhat repetitive headline roster, so what? Give the people what they want.

And it seems that the powers that be have listened to those who complained about predictable lineups, too. The 2025 festival will be headlined by three bands who have never headlined before: Green Day, Korn, and Sleep Token. People seem to be grumbling about Sleep Token, but such people would probably complain, too, had they booked Iron Maiden for the sixth time.

The latest lineup is solid beyond the headliners, too. These days, most festival lineups just look miserable to me. Hopeless, even. But Download 2025 looks like a genuinely good time. I dearly want to go, even if doing so would cost me dearly.

A Psychedelic Prognosis

If they wanted to, Download could keep the headliners fresh for years to come. There are many big names from the rock and metal pantheon who haven’t yet played Download in any capacity, at least not in the UK: Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters. Plus, think of all those big names who have played multiple times, but never headlined: Sabaton, Trivium, Gojira, Ghost, Nightwish, Deftones, Evanescence, and so on, and so forth. Korn’s 2025 headline set was a long-time coming. Who else is due their stint in the biggest and brightest spotlight?

Finally, though they don’t do it as often as other festivals, Download will occasionally give a “smaller” band a boost, letting them headline relatively early in their career. I understand that people questioned their decision to let Avenged Sevenfold headline in 2014, and apparently even Slipknot were a controversial choice for headliner in 2009. The grumblings about Sleep Token seem to concern whether or not they’re “worthy” or “ready”. I hope the noise doesn’t deter them from making similar bets in the coming years.

My dream, though, is that they realise the transcendent potential of psychedelic rock.

The scholars have written about the similarities between black metal and shoegaze. Plus, many other heavy music festivals have dabbled with psychedelics. The 2022 Psycho Festival in Las Vegas had the likes of Holy Wave, Church of the Cosmic Skull, The Black Angels, Liars, and Allah-Las rubbing shoulders with Carcass, Mayhem, Wolves in the Throne Room, Suicidal Tendencies, and Mercyful Fate.

The Flaming Lips were booked to play Sick New World Festival 2025, alongside Metallica, Linkin Park, Mastodon, and more. Imagine an Embryonic-heavy set, alongside resurrected early wig-outs like Mountain Side and Unconsciously Screaming. It would work. It was not to be – the festival’s now been cancelled. But it would have worked.

Elsewhere, London’s Desertfest had the brass to book Ozric Tentacles. And France’s Hellfest often dedicates entire stages to heavy psych sounds. True, not everyone will think of the likes of Green Lung, Orange Goblin, and Graveyard as “psych”. But trust me. They’re out there.

Is the Download Festival brave enough to add similar psychedelic sprinklings to their lineups? Yes, it’s easy to imagine a sea of bemused and disinterested faces as Spiritualized glide through an early evening set. But it’s also easy to imagine a riotous circle pit erupting as Gong tear through their Master Builder riff.

One can but dream. But if Download simply keeps doing what Download does best? That’ll probably make a lot of people happy too.

Dog on Wheels

I made a playlist of almost every band and artist that played Download. I followed my usual rules: Everyone gets one song each, and the song must be something they could conceivably have played at their first appearance.

The playlist covers every festival from 2003 to 2011, when I gave up. But I added almost every headliner that appeared after that. I’ll probably resume it at some point. Maybe when the final 2025 lineup comes out.

Some groups weren’t on Spotify, and there were a few who I simply didn’t want to include. This could be for personal reasons (ask me why I never want to hear NOFX again!), for moral reasons (Lostprophets), or simply because the band in question played the worst music I’ve ever heard by anyone, ever (see if you can guess who!).

There is some truly dreadful music in this playlist. But it’s mostly fun and energising. Nod along furiously here:

And that’s enough metal for me, for now. I’m going to listen to Steeleye Span for a bit.