Download 2024

[FloorFiller]

1 hour ago, JimMacVeigh said:

I can see Sleep Token playing high up next year now. 
Selling out Wembley Arena in under ten minutes…Jesus. 

That’s very impressive for an act of their size. Clearly making big waves.

I find them so odd. One minute they sound like pure dumb but fun butt rock (which I kinda enjoy) and the next they’ve gone all awful RnB (which I find pretty lame) so I’m very torn on them, but yeah I’d expect them to have a pretty prominent slot next year. 

[Andre91]

Sleep Token will headline Download before the end of this decade, I’m sure of it. I think they’re nailed on for Second Stage headliner next year, followed by an arena tour. 

[JimMacVeigh]

3 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

That’s very impressive for an act of their size. Clearly making big waves.

I find them so odd. One minute they sound like pure dumb but fun butt rock (which I kinda enjoy) and the next they’ve gone all awful RnB (which I find pretty lame) so I’m very torn on them, but yeah I’d expect them to have a pretty prominent slot next year. 

They aren’t particularly my thing. I feel for every banger they’ve got, they’ve got a fair few duds. I can’t enjoy a full album, it becomes very samey. 
 

however, they’re clearly going to get bigger, and it wouldn’t shock me to see them high main stage/second stage headliner next year. 

[Andre91]

Avenged Sevenfold’s new album is absolutely phenomenal. Get them headlining next year. 

[FloorFiller]

12 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Avenged Sevenfold’s new album is absolutely phenomenal. Get them headlining next year. 

I was very much expecting to hate listen my way through it and never return, but yeah I think it’s great. Weird as hell and I imagine a lot of older fans aren’t gonna be able to get their heads around it, but really admire them for flat out saying ‘f**k it’ and going full avant-garde/prog. Even the two singles which I disliked sound so much better in the context of the album.

[Andre91]

2 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

I was very much expecting to hate listen my way through it and never return, but yeah I think it’s great. Weird as hell and I imagine a lot of older fans aren’t gonna be able to get their heads around it, but really admire them for flat out saying ‘f**k it’ and going full avant-garde/prog. Even the two singles which I disliked sound so much better in the context of the album.

100% my feelings too, especially that last part about the two singles. It’s a phenomenal effort and yeah, you’ve got to respect a band as massive as they are completing going all in on something so odd. 

[Hazz]

I’d love the rock orchestra to be at download it’d be incredible. If you haven’t heard of them already check them out on YouTube absolutely amazing and their live shows are so good

[Hazz]

I’m going to post a controversial comment …
There needs to be new headliners. Repeating AC/DC , Iron Maiden etc fine but they’ve all played so many headline slots and they aren’t getting any younger. I have the greatest respect for all these bands but what about. ..
Enter Shikari ? bullet for my valentine? Parkway drive ? They are all ready to take this step up and need to have the chance . There said my bit…argue amongst yourselves

[gabrielomachado]

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE / Enter Shikari / Turnstile / Bad Omens

Sleep Token / Spiritbox

__

AVENGED SEVENFOLD / Five Finger Death Punch / Trivium / Beartooth

Sabaton / Amon Amarth

__

TOOL / Gojira / Lamb Of God / Anthrax

While She Sleeps / Bury Tomorrow

[Jericode]

10 minutes ago, Hazz said:

I’m going to post a controversial comment …
There needs to be new headliners. Repeating AC/DC , Iron Maiden etc fine but they’ve all played so many headline slots and they aren’t getting any younger. I have the greatest respect for all these bands but what about. ..
Enter Shikari ? bullet for my valentine? Parkway drive ? They are all ready to take this step up and need to have the chance . There said my bit…argue amongst yourselves

1. I personally don't think this is a controversial take, I've had it as a complaint against Download for years.

2. That said, for me, Shikari and Bullet shouldn't be on that list, and if you want to argue they should be, it shouldn't be before Ghost or Architects.

[FloorFiller]

It took Download like a decade longer than it should’ve to give BMTH the headliner gig so, despite it being an incredibly popular and well received set the weekend just gone, I struggle to think who Download would realistically bump up next, especially after having the likes of Ghost and Architects play lower slots this year. I don’t think they’ll have a new bump up for at least a couple of years tbh and think next and probably the year after will ‘business as usual’ with tried and tested headliners, then maybe 2026 they’ll give it another go with Ghost or something.. although knowing Download, also probably not. 

And yeah, Bullet fumbled their rise to headliner a good long while ago, and Enter Shikari aren’t realistically getting any bigger than they are right now and it ain’t headliner sized.

[Jericode]

There's a whole host of first-time headliners they can still go for, they could easily have a new headliner every year for the next decade, availability permitting.

[BrutalLegend]

Green Day 20th anniversary of American Idiot next year isn’t it?

[Andre91]

Architects did nothing to stake their future headliner claim. It was the second time in a row seeing them that I’ve felt underwhelmed. They’ve lost their shine recently. 
 

Parkway Drive on the other hand… THAT’S how you do it. Ghost are also a 100% headline act the next time they play. Both acts grabbed it by the horns and smashed it. Architects did not. 

[FloorFiller]

2 minutes ago, Jericode said:

There's a whole host of first-time headliners they can still go for, they could easily have a new headliner every year for the next decade, availability permitting.

Examples? I’m struggling to think of another rising rock/metal act making even slightly similar waves to BMTH at the moment, apart from those mentioned that already played the festival this year.

Although of course there’s always the option of getting a new old act in who has yet to headline - plenty of them about, as much as Download manages to constantly miss them for whatever reason (maybe they just don’t want to play a strictly ‘metal’ festival? Not sure). 

[JimMacVeigh]

Would it be fair to say that maybe a band like Enter Shikari could headline the Friday if download had two proven headliners? 

Ive always looked at the Friday as a good day to test the waters with a “fresh” headliner. 
 

Of course, doesn’t have to be ES, could be parkway drive, could be architects, could be ghost, could even be Evanescence or something like that. 

[FloorFiller]

Just now, Andre91 said:

Architects did nothing to stake their future headliner claim. It was the second time in a row seeing them that I’ve felt underwhelmed. They’ve lost their shine recently. 
 

Parkway Drive on the other hand… THAT’S how you do it. Ghost are also a 100% headline act the next time they play. Both acts grabbed it by the horns and smashed it. Architects did not. 

Architects have just gone down a very bland path music-wise and I don’t really see them breaking out of it. Maybe time and age has taken its toll on Sam’s voice and their general outlook on heavy music, but a lot of the new stuff just sounds like they’re late to the party with the Linkin Park inspired alt-metal that BMTH dabbled in with TSP, except Architects version is far less fun and far more drab.
 

Agree that they seem unlikely to make the step up now, although Download getting desperate for headliners is growing ever nearer so maybe they’ll step up through default of there being nobody else to do it. 

[FloorFiller]

Just now, JimMacVeigh said:

Would it be fair to say that maybe a band like Enter Shikari could headline the Friday if download had two proven headliners? 

Ive always looked at the Friday as a good day to test the waters with a “fresh” headliner. 
 

Of course, doesn’t have to be ES, could be parkway drive, could be architects, could be ghost, could even be Evanescence or something like that. 

Copping just seems reluctant to book anybody who isn’t already a certified mega headliner, which is why Download just recycles the same few every couple of years as the pool is increasingly thin. He could do this, and although it may initially receive some groans, it would soon become the norm, but he just clearly doesn’t want to and only wants the big big headliners. Like, if he booked KoRn to headline one year I’m sure it would go down really well - they’ve got the history, the tunes, the live show - but instead he’ll just have them sub Slipknot every few years. 

[JimMacVeigh]

1 minute ago, FloorFiller said:

Architects have just gone down a very bland path music-wise and I don’t really see them breaking out of it. Maybe time and age has taken its toll on Sam’s voice and their general outlook on heavy music, but a lot of the new stuff just sounds like they’re late to the party with the Linkin Park inspired alt-metal that BMTH dabbled in with TSP, except Architects version is far less fun and far more drab.
 

Agree that they seem unlikely to make the step up now, although Download getting desperate for headliners is growing ever nearer so maybe they’ll step up through default of there being nobody else to do it. 

Just guts me how bad that last album was. I feel like when they dropped the Here and Now, it wasn’t so well received, but it didn’t dent their momentum. They managed to recover and obviously they blew up. 
Now though…I feel like this record has done some damage. 

[JimMacVeigh]

1 minute ago, FloorFiller said:

Copping just seems reluctant to book anybody who isn’t already a certified mega headliner, which is why Download just recycles the same few every couple of years as the pool is increasingly thin. He could do this, and although it may initially receive some groans, it would soon become the norm, but he just clearly doesn’t want to and only wants the big big headliners. Like, if he booked KoRn to headline one year I’m sure it would go down really well - they’ve got the history, the tunes, the live show - but instead he’ll just have them sub Slipknot every few years. 

KoRn would be an incredible headliner. They headlined the Paris version in 2016 and absolutely smashed it out the ballpark. 

[Jericode]

1 minute ago, FloorFiller said:

Examples? I’m struggling to think of another rising rock/metal act making even slightly similar waves to BMTH at the moment, apart from those mentioned that already played the festival this year.

Although of course there’s always the option of getting a new old act in who has yet to headline - plenty of them about, as much as Download manages to constantly miss them for whatever reason (maybe they just don’t want to play a strictly ‘metal’ festival? Not sure). 

New Old is what I meant really, you've got Foos, Green Day, QOTSA, Fall Out Boy and Paramore (Copping keeps mentioning them) and older ones like Bon Jovi and Van Halen (both mentioned by him recently)  but that's six you could alternate with promoting Parkway, Ghost, Architects, FFDP and whoever else grows in that time (Sabaton? Sleep Token if they keep the hype? I'd even give it to Machine Head before BFMV). Korn and Alter Bridge have both been overlooked plenty and could be a "weak" headliner one year.

[FloorFiller]

1 minute ago, Jericode said:

New Old is what I meant really, you've got Foos, Green Day, QOTSA, Fall Out Boy and Paramore (Copping keeps mentioning them) and older ones like Bon Jovi and Van Halen (both mentioned by him recently)  but that's six you could alternate with promoting Parkway, Ghost, Architects, FFDP and whoever else grows in that time (Sabaton? Sleep Token if they keep the hype? I'd even give it to Machine Head before BFMV). Korn and Alter Bridge have both been overlooked plenty and could be a "weak" headliner one year.

It is strange that there’s this wide net of huge acts who seem to evade Download and I feel like there must be something to it, especially with them all falling on the lighter side of rock…

Both Foos and Pearl Jam have seemingly been within arms reach at certain points before imploding for whatever reason, so hopefully Copping is still trying for them rather than giving up and sticking to old reliables, although I do think Paramore would be a strange match these days and think they’ll just stick to Reading/Leeds where they’ll be much better received. 

[JimMacVeigh]

2 minutes ago, Jericode said:

New Old is what I meant really, you've got Foos, Green Day, QOTSA, Fall Out Boy and Paramore (Copping keeps mentioning them) and older ones like Bon Jovi and Van Halen (both mentioned by him recently)  but that's six you could alternate with promoting Parkway, Ghost, Architects, FFDP and whoever else grows in that time (Sabaton? Sleep Token if they keep the hype? I'd even give it to Machine Head before BFMV). Korn and Alter Bridge have both been overlooked plenty and could be a "weak" headliner one year.

I feel like Machine Head COULD do it, just. They should’ve arguably done it in 2012.

I feel like the ship has sailed on BFMV now. Even as a second stage headliner. The venues are getting smaller, the momentum is truly screeching to a halt. Maybe if they announced they were doing the Poison in it’s entirely or something, they’d headline the second stage again (have they headlined it before or am I wrong? Was that Sonisphere?).

[Jericode]

If BFMV released another actually good album and attached it to an album anniversary show they might get away with it? 2025 would Time nicely to give them a 20 year show and then forget the exist or make them a subsequently "strong" second stage headliner.

[BrutalLegend]

Could Muse be in with a shout to headline next year or do we think that was potentially a one off?

I’d love to see Blink 182 or Green Day headline it, something like Blink/Avenged/GNR.