Elliot Leaver

In the lore of Download Festival, a wet year was due – the last one was 2019, after all – but the weather served as only part of the reason why this year’s festivities at Donington Park were more difficult than usual. From band dropouts in the week leading up, to a well-documented food poisoning outbreak and (as we’ll get to), technical difficulties plaguing a number of bands, there were plenty of challenges besides the mud and rain.

Pirates are metal, that goes without saying. The likes of Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham terrorising the seas of the 18th century have spawned legends, fantasy films, innuendo-filled cartoon series and, as is well known, a group of bands under the power metal banner dedicated to regaling listeners with tales of the ocean, battles with mythical beasts and down time in the tavern with copious amounts of grog. Austrian/Dutch band

The rumours are already beginning to swirl. Just Google the word ‘BLACKGOLD’ and the fourth result is from social media site Reddit, a thread dedicating to trying to work out exactly who the hell is behind the masks adorned by the British nu-metal upstarts. Yes, trying to figure out the identities of band that intentionally hide their face isn’t new, but it’s indicative of the buzz that surrounds this mysterious outfit barely two years after their first single It’s Art dropped on Spotify. Frontman Spookz, however, isn’t fazed by the speculation.

The time between LAMB OF GOD ’s third and fourth albums was a little under sixteen months, yet what happened in that period was the rise of one of the most prominent bands in a movement fast being dubbed as ‘The New Wave of American Heavy Metal’. 2003 record As The Palaces Burn ended the year atop both Revolver and Metal Hammer ’s Album of the Year charts, while the band undertook tours in both the UK and North America, opening for ANTHRAX and taking part in the inaugural Headbangers Ball tour alongside KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, SHADOWS FALL and GOD FORBID.

Uncommon, but certainly not rare, albums that are sisters or sequels to previous releases are generally conceived intentionally – two of the biggest examples are the Use Your Illusion twins and the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy. As such, when symphonic metallers VISIONS OF ATLANTIS announced their follow up to 2022’s Pirates would be titled Pirates II – Armada, it was clear that this was deliberately planned…right?

When Dutch singer/songwriter CHARLOTTE WESSELS departed symphonic metallers DELAIN in acrimonious circumstances back in February 2021, she wasted no time in building her own entrancing empire. With the world still largely in lockdown, she carried her momentum onto Patreon, recording and releasing music from her home studio that, initially as singles, wound up becoming the first two volumes of

This is one of those nights where you wished you’d packed armbands – earlier on, the nearby Premier League game between Leicester City and Everton had its second half delayed due to the thunderstorm that hit during the afternoon, however the two hours or so it took for the adverse weather to travel north to Nottingham had led to a false sense of security; as the evening wore on, the confines of

For an Autumn evening, the air is mild and dry in the East Midlands tonight, providing a welcoming atmosphere for those who have hopped on the tram to the Bodega. One of Nottingham’s most beloved venues with a rich history behind it, the Bodega has seen some truly exceptional bands cut their teeth on its stage over the years –

Until September of this year, Danish death metal upstarts NECKBREAKKER didn’t have a single song on Spotify, yet had generated such hype through nothing but their incendiary live shows that they were being courted by the world’s biggest metal label. Between September 5th and November 6th, they released one song a month from their debut album and, as of today, that trio has nearly 120,000 hits combined. It’s a seriously impressive number, but such is the excitement that surrounds the young Scandinavians. Now, the other half-dozen tracks on inaugural record Within The Viscera are ready to be heard, and they’re all coming via the excellence of Nuclear Blast Records.

The 2000’s were all about the birth and rise of the reality talent show in the UK. It began with Pop Idol in 2001, which not only put the spotlight onto the format but also brought to the fore music mogul Simon Cowell, whose ‘Mr Nasty’ persona would give televisions audiences the perfect ‘love to hate’ individual. It evolved into