Download 2018

[devilman]

1 hour ago, battleborn said:

Parkway will be headlining next time they play Download

Incorrect. Headlining 2nd = 3rd down on main. They'll get sub slots first. They deserve it more than BMTH for me though. A far better band.

[Andre91]

Synyster Gates is the only genuine guitar hero of the 21st Century. He is absolutely outstanding. 

Edited June 13, 2018 by Andre91

[Red Day]

9 hours ago, devilman said:

I thought A7X were outstanding. There was no flat spot for me. BVB sound was a bit crap but only watched half as went to see Thrice who were outstanding. GnR were tremendous. Yes Axl can't hit all the notes he used to but the whole collective performance is brilliant. Ozzy similar. The way Wylde nailed Mr Crowley will stick with me for a long time. Avatar set the bar ridiculously high for the weekend and nobody I saw were far below it at all. When you watch Greta van Fleet you just know you are watching greatness in its infancy. They will be huge. There's no 2nd stage slots left for those boys going forward. 

On the festival itself:

There were no urinals in camper vans, not really an issue for me as there is a very long fence but others grumbled. There were lots more showers.

Only queued for a beer for a short time on Fri as people were slower sorting out cups. Even saturday I didn't wait long at all.

Toilets had no queues at all which was great.

It was as busy as 2010 but didn't feel as bad.

I'm buying next year's ticket tomorrow.

I met Moey! He's nice. I was a bit pished and feeling a bit groovy when he found me so I wasn't as talkative as usual. I didn't meet Red Day, which must be the 1st festival in 5 years he hasn't found me at

Bizarre thing is, I was probably at most of the same things as you.  Overall a brilliant weekend and I'm going next year

[FloorFiller]

£5mill for GnR apparently. Wowza.

[devilman]

£5m for the 3 European Downloads.

[FloorFiller]

7 minutes ago, devilman said:

£5m for the 3 European Downloads.

That makes more sense!

[KingPin]

What an awesome weekend. 

I agree with the sentiment that Avenged were amazing, and probably the headliner of the weekend, but I was seriously impressed with all 3 and thought they all brought their a game. My other bands of the weekend were Alexisonfire, Rolo Tomassi, Milk Teeth, The Hives and The Fever 333. My biggest disappointment was Rise Against, I've never been as bored at a punk gig in my life before, what a load of shit they are live, and I really should have fucked them off half way through the set to watch all of The Hives.

[KingPin]

36 minutes ago, battleborn said:

 

What are you on? That's the cleanest they've sounded live for donkeys years. Were you stood right at the back? From reports online those of in front of the soundstage seemed to love it and those behind it were bored to tears, so can only imagine the sound was badly mixed or the atmosphere nearer the front carried the gig a fair bit. 

Parkway Drive were band of the weekend. 

Guns N Roses didn't bring their A Game and never will until they accept they aren't a covers band, as good as they were when they played their own songs.

I was on the left inside the barrier up until Welcome To the Breakdown where the kick drum and bass massively overpowered the mix. Then I went for a piss and a beer as I couldn't stand how shit it sounded, and after that I was just a touch infront of the sound stage on the left, and whilst the sound was a bit better it still wasn't right and they were still boring to watch. Never been so disappointed in my life by a band I was really looking forwards too.

[KingPin]

2 minutes ago, battleborn said:

We seem to have been hearing entirely different things out of the same sets of speakers....

To be fair I'd gone in with the expectation they'd be dog shit and was pleasantly suprised. In terms of their actual stage show it was pretty boring I'll give you that and the preachy stuff was overdone but I don't think the actual sounded as bad as your making out. Welcome to the Breakdown was the only song that sounded really really dodgy though. 

I'm sorry mate but it sounded awful, where were you standing?

[devilman]

Rise Against were waaaaaaaay better than last time they played. I thought they were ok but were the band I least enjoyed on that stage that day. GvF, Turbonegro, Thrice and Alexisonfire all whooped their ass

[KingPin]

Just now, battleborn said:

Slightly to the left hand side; right behind the second barrier. I get the feeling we genuinely were hearing different things; or maybe I was just so glad to finally see them I didn't notice (which is probably more likely as I've been a fan since they released Endgame and for various reasons never managed to see them. 

Tbf if it's not done well (and I genuinely don't think the guys doing the sound on second were doing their job properly at all as it sounded ropey all weekend long on that stage) a 20m difference in where ones standing can cause vastly different experiences in sound. 

Like for example when me and my mate was watching Milk Teeth we were right at the front and it sounded spot on, but then when our other mates saw us and met up with us from the back of the tent they thought it sounded awful with too much high end causing a ringing sensation in their ears (I've seen similar reported else where about this set).

[devilman]

Ok here's my review:

Friday:

Avatar 8 great start to the festival. They just make me feel happy.

Dragonforce 6 Had to see them. Have now. Probably won't again. Just feels too eurovision to me.

Marmozets 7 Who wears pink breeks though? 

Volbeat 9  Great band and they nailed it. Again.

A7X 10 Haters gonna hate but Gates is right up there with the other headliners axemen. Their Floyd cover blew the GnR version out of the water and I thought they were brilliant.

 

Sat:

Whisky Myers 6 Nice mellow start to the day.

Monster Truck 7 Very under rated band. Really enjoyed them.

Thunder 7 Solid performance but it's an old man doing dad dancing. 

Black Stone Cherry 8 You forget how good they are because they are on too often. 

GnR 9.5 If Axl hadn't whined his way through a couple of songs these would have been band of the weekend. He can't do it anymore but overall they are still amazing. I had no issue with the covers but A7X did Wish You Were Here better. 3 hours felt like 15 minutes to me. Didn't even go for a pint or a pish.

 

Sun:

Dream State 8 Big surprise, this is what Paramore and the Marmozets should sound like. Hopefully a big future for these.

Greta Van Fleet 9 Greatness in its infancy. I get the feeling this lot will never be on a 2nd stage ever again and will likely headline. Awesome vocals done effortlessly but the rest are super talented too.

Turbonegro 9 By this time the awesomeness was overloading. They were amazing and fun. Why have I never seen them before.

Puppy 7 Caught last few songs. Good band but more chilled out than the previous ones so I was able to prevent a critical burnt out 

In This Moment 7 Sound was crap to start. Bit surreal at that time of day but I like their stuff and it was ok mostly.

BVB 4 I wanted to like these. They sound ok if you don't look at them. I looked and the sound was really poor. Sacked them off for..........

Thrice 9 Had a real moment watching these in the sunshine. Brilliant performance. Will be checking out all their stuff now rather than just the few spotify tunes I had listened to.

Myrkur 8 A complete contrast to everything so far and pretty amazing. Has to be experienced. Made my pal go into some kind of trance.

Alexisonfire 7 One of the bands I was most looking forward to. Wasn't all I hoped. Dunno why, just felt a bit flat.

Rise Against 8 Better than the last time on main but not as great as I was hoping. I'm going to have to go to one of their own indoor shows aren't I? 

Ozzy 9 Held it together well enough. Enough now though. Zakk was mesmerising. Overall a great show but I'd hate to hear it without the crowd drowning Ozzy out  

Band of the weekend A7X. No you fuck off.

Sunday was best day.

Food of the weekend Duck fat roasties. Again.

[Andre91]

10 hours ago, devilman said:

Ok here's my review:

Friday:

Avatar 8 great start to the festival. They just make me feel happy.

Dragonforce 6 Had to see them. Have now. Probably won't again. Just feels too eurovision to me.

Marmozets 7 Who wears pink breeks though? 

Volbeat 9  Great band and they nailed it. Again.

A7X 10 Haters gonna hate but Gates is right up there with the other headliners axemen. Their Floyd cover blew the GnR version out of the water and I thought they were brilliant.

 

Sat:

Whisky Myers 6 Nice mellow start to the day.

Monster Truck 7 Very under rated band. Really enjoyed them.

Thunder 7 Solid performance but it's an old man doing dad dancing. 

Black Stone Cherry 8 You forget how good they are because they are on too often. 

GnR 9.5 If Axl hadn't whined his way through a couple of songs these would have been band of the weekend. He can't do it anymore but overall they are still amazing. I had no issue with the covers but A7X did Wish You Were Here better. 3 hours felt like 15 minutes to me. Didn't even go for a pint or a pish.

 

Sun:

Dream State 8 Big surprise, this is what Paramore and the Marmozets should sound like. Hopefully a big future for these.

Greta Van Fleet 9 Greatness in its infancy. I get the feeling this lot will never be on a 2nd stage ever again and will likely headline. Awesome vocals done effortlessly but the rest are super talented too.

Turbonegro 9 By this time the awesomeness was overloading. They were amazing and fun. Why have I never seen them before.

Puppy 7 Caught last few songs. Good band but more chilled out than the previous ones so I was able to prevent a critical burnt out 

In This Moment 7 Sound was crap to start. Bit surreal at that time of day but I like their stuff and it was ok mostly.

BVB 4 I wanted to like these. They sound ok if you don't look at them. I looked and the sound was really poor. Sacked them off for..........

Thrice 9 Had a real moment watching these in the sunshine. Brilliant performance. Will be checking out all their stuff now rather than just the few spotify tunes I had listened to.

Myrkur 8 A complete contrast to everything so far and pretty amazing. Has to be experienced. Made my pal go into some kind of trance.

Alexisonfire 7 One of the bands I was most looking forward to. Wasn't all I hoped. Dunno why, just felt a bit flat.

Rise Against 8 Better than the last time on main but not as great as I was hoping. I'm going to have to go to one of their own indoor shows aren't I? 

Ozzy 9 Held it together well enough. Enough now though. Zakk was mesmerising. Overall a great show but I'd hate to hear it without the crowd drowning Ozzy out  

Band of the weekend A7X. No you fuck off.

Sunday was best day.

Food of the weekend Duck fat roasties. Again.

Greta Van Fleet are going to blow up something ridiculous. They will be mid main stage next time they play, I would wager on it. 

[thewayiam]

What's this about Dream State.....what Paramore and Marmozets should sound like?, why?

[Andre91]

26 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

What's this about Dream State.....what Paramore and Marmozets should sound like?, why?

Weird comment. He just prefers dream State. I listened to Dream State after some guys camped behind us kept going on about them but I don’t like them at all. They’re just Tonight Alive from a few years ago. 

[devilman]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

They’re just Tonight Alive from a few years ago. 

Can see why you'd say that. Tonight Alive only have one song for me though.

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

Dream State are great 

[thewayiam]

4 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Weird comment. He just prefers dream State. I listened to Dream State after some guys camped behind us kept going on about them but I don’t like them at all. They’re just Tonight Alive from a few years ago. 

I'm not knocking him for liking them, but they are two different bands with different sounds.

Isn't it stranger to want a band to sound like one you like?

I didn't get Tonight Alive from them myself, they are a reason I wish I'd gone slam dunk last year though.