Download or Sonisphere?

I am told that the sun is breaking through in the UK so thoughts automatically turn to Summer and take advantage of the nice weather. More to the point live some life experiences to tell the grandkids one day!

In the UK we are spoilt with a plethora of high quality music festivals, whatever your taste there is something for everyone. So turning our back on the pop music festivals in the world of Rock and Metal we have the Download and Sonisphere festival juggernauts going head to head. 

Its worth mentioning that this summer also see's two other rather large Heavy Music festivals, High Voltage and Bloodstock. These look very strong this year but are more niche tastes, if Slayer are a bit on the light side for you Bloodstock is a given and if you are of the more discerning nature then perhaps High Voltage is the one for you. 

I will try to be objective as possible and not become too biased on this as i must confess i have a Sonisphere ticket but will not be in the country for Download. I will try and stick to facts as much as possible and leave emotion at the door. But Opeth do come into this so i may get a little excited towards the end, i apologize in advance.

Firstly i think its worth mentioning the sites. I went to both festivals last year, Download first. I really did not like the site, it was dirty (even for a festival) The walks between the car parks and camping were ridiculous and then from the camping to the arena were too long, a clever ploy perhaps as by the time you had walked from your tent to the arena you had sobered up and need to buy beer tokens for the over priced pints £3.75 from memory. I had been to two previous downloads and the arena was in a different location, a better one, with the famous Dunlop bridge in the background and the big hill, i think due to the extensive work going on they had to change the location of the stages (probably why we had to walk so bloody far). The walk wouldn't have been so bad as well if it wasn't over the rubble left behind by the builders. On the plus side no faggy flag wavers. Sonishere site is really really nice! The grounds of the castle are well kept, i camped next to a crypt in true metal fashion! The arena is nice the Bohemia area nice to stroll around and the stages opposite each other with no clashes work really well, you don't have to miss any of the markee bands if you have the energy. The posh showers are the best £2 i spent all weekend as being dirty is not cool, the showers at Download put me in the mind of a scene in Schindlers list, no more explanation needed. The only complaints i had about Sonisphere was that the food was crap nothing had an ounce of moisture which you desperately need in any form when dehydrated and the pesky flag wavers were there. grrrrr anyone who reads this and is the take a flag to a festival and stand in front of the stage type, fuck off!!!!! you are below child molesters, no one gives a fuck which part of the world you come from and you just ruin everyones day. Luckily i believe they have banned flags this year, so that pleases me and the rest of the human race a lot. Bloody Flags!!!!

The usual suspects, Welsh, Irish, Skandinavians, Gays, Devon.....NO ONE CARES, GET OUT THE WAY!!!!

So the two big ones have seemed to be battleing it out. Before Christmas there is the sabre rattling as the first few headliners are announced. The bands that initially prick every ones ears into buying a ticket early! 

Sonisphere announced Slipknot and Download announced Linkin Park and Newly reformed System of a Down. shortly after Sonisphere announced Biffy Clyro. I am not entirely sure of the exact time line of these events and its not that important but safe to say these were not the best announcements. 

I have issues with System as a headliner, with out a doubt they have a lot of fans but and there is a huge but, they haven't released very much material and more to the point not all of it is very good. I remember buying the debut back int he late 90s and loved it, then the follow up was pretty good not all the way through good but some classic songs on there, a little commercial but as a friend of mine says never begrudge a man a fuck or a buck. After that the odd good song on some wishy washy albums, hardly the back catalog for a headline act. I only hope they do the same as last year with Rage Against the Machine and Deftones and extend the support to the headliners slot. I thought this worked well last year, i was excited to see Deftones, Diamond Eyes was excellent the songs sounded brilliant live and the extended time ment more classics as well, plus again Rage don't have that many songs, a two hour set would have to be padded out considerably. 

Linking Park next, personally i hate them. Loved the debut album again buying it when it came out in the late 90's then it was all a bit crap. I am struggling to find something witty to say about them as they just went a bit limp wristed. Hugely commercially successful i have seen them twice live and they have done nothing for me. Overly produced on record and that goes through to the live set. Chester has a great voice and is the one stand out, the guitarist has the easiest job in rock surely, watch how many times he strums a song! 

So could Sonisphere do any better? Well Slipknot!!! Hell yea! I remember seeing Slipknot on TFI Friday, i was having tea with my mum and on they came, did Wait and Bleed and left the place with mouth wide open, as were myself and my mum. She didn't really like them but incidentally has expressed some like for some Stonesour songs. Slipknot however i must admit did not grow on me, i thought them a bit of a gimic at first, its important to remember when they came out the whole "nu-metal" thing was in full swing and it was not hard to think that the masks was a way of drawing attention to a genre quickly running out of ideas and obese with an overabundance of mediocre bands. Second album Iowa i wouldn't have got into had it not been a member of my family buying it for my birthday, pretty much the same as before a bit more polished with some decent tracks. Come the third album the band gave the producer the push and got in Rick Rubin, how the man does it i don't know but he really gets the best out of bands and Vol.3 is one hell of a record, Brutal, Melodic, Corey's singing is amazing, the guitar solos are unlike anything before its a definite 9.5 out of 10 for me. The next album All Hope if Gone shocked again and saw the band grow further as song writers, as the band grew so did my love for them. Its not until i saw them live on the Vol.3 tour that i thought "i get it" it just all clicked for me. A truly explosive live band well worthy of a headline slot simply for being huge for the last decade. Together with the loss of their bass player should prove to be a pretty emotional roller-coaster of a live set. Thumbs up Sonisphere

BIFFY CLYRO!!!! OH DEAR!!!!! I nearly cried, how could they get it so wrong! OK OK try to be positive, credence to the organizers for giving a band a break and a British one at that. They do have a following as well but not really the people who go to Sonisphere. They are supposed to be good live as well and there is always the super positive attitude of well its always nice to try something new. I bought an album the latest one and thought well i better give it a go and learn a bit before i go, i barely got past track 3. I guess there is a heavy influence there somewhere but i cant help think its the generic indie crap that would be better off at Reading. Also last year the Saturday headliners were Rammstien possibly the finest show on the planet, no pressure guys. I could moan about this forever. The fear was that last year Sonisphere only utilized the small stage on the Friday and headliner was Alice Cooper (really enjoyable from what i remember from my drunken haze!) Sonisphere really needed to pull something big out the bag.....

December Sonisphere announced the BIG 4!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!! Soniphere you have saved the festival, Click Buy, are you sure? you are damn right i am! i can always drink through the Saturday headliners and not remember it! For those that don't know the Big Four are the original Thrash Metal Bay Area bands. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, basically a whole day of fun! This is the first time in the UK. Ive seen all the bands before and throughly enjoy them all plus i believe Metallica to be one of the biggest bands in the world so any chance to see them has to be taken. In fact not seeing them for two years i am starting to get withdraw.

More metal than the scrap yard! 

A few weeks ago Download left it late announcing there third headliner, Def Leppard. If i had a Download ticket it would be on eBay by now. The organizer of Download has said he had the chance to get Metallica at his festival but choose not too as they are too boring. Maybe he doesn't want to sell out his event??? and he defiantly hasn't seen them lately. And if its a case of not having a new album to pus then surely fingers can be pointed at bands on the Download line up. When you look at last years headliners AC/DC, Rage and Aerosmith there is unquestionable quality in all three acts. AC/DC huge band! Aerosmith Americas greatest rock band and Rage Against the Machine who make people do funny things! The two years do not compare, Def Leppard without question were big in their day but they are no Iron Maiden they haven't kept interesting and quite frankly the stuff int he 80s sounds incredibly dated. Read a review by renowned Metal critic Martin Popoff about Hysteria the bands most famous work! 

So the under card. Rob Zombie!!!!!!! i think he is trying to avoid me. not only does it appear the creepy one is saving Download but also a shocking line up at Rock Am ring see's Rob Zombie saving the day there as well. Cant argue with Avenged Sevenfold (great album Nightmare) and Bullet for my Valentine are very popular, British and quality live. Alterbridge are a great rock band, Disturbed were great this winter when i saw them although prone to bad performances apparently. I find it hard to get excited about Korn now they are looking quite threadbare and the latest album was OK, hard when you have some true greats to live up to, i really hope they return to their best as in tact they would headline surely! From the rest i am most upset about not seeing the Devil Wears Prada i was really hoping they would be at download, they are a great young band and hopefully have a big future. Bring me the Horizon are the band metal lovers love to hate, i remember seeing them some years ago in my home town support Lostprophets i really enjoyed them then and thought the Lostprophets were dreadful so i have never had a problem with them, they do their thing if you like it great if you don't then don't bitch about it, any British band doing well should be supported. Down are a big band that stick out and a few of the other like Black Stone Cherry, Kvelertak, All That Remians, Gwar and Rise to Remain all worth a a watch. One band on there sticks out more than the others however, the Plain White T's, correct me if i am wrong but didn't they write the god awful Delilah song? What are you thinking Mr Download?

On to Sonisphere: I shall try no to dwell on the Saturday, it looks like its shaping up to be a pop punk main stage, i am interested in seeing weezer listening to them since the 90's i hope they are good. the Mars Volta are a good shout as i have never seen them their albums are always a bit different so should be good. What saves Saturday for me is the genius of putting One Minute Silence in Bohemia, i hope Soniphere have a big enough tent i am sure there will be plenty of people wanting to get in there to avoid Biffy! Saturdays highlights include rising stars the Architects and the Gallows whose performance i am told last year was a highlight of the festival. The Sunday looks to be a great day. Motorhead are great value and any chance to see an iconic legend should be snapped up, they truly rock! Mastodon seem to play every festival and i am a little bored of them however when they hit the riff to Blood and Thunder it does make me feel somewhat funny. Limp Bizkit are coming this year with a new album to promote so will be interesting to see what they have, i cant say i have enjoyed them before, Wes Borlands simplistic riffs delivered with such punch as only a guitarist of his caliber could do being one of the only high points for me, nevertheless i will watch them. Airborne sound like AC/DC and do it well, there version of hard rock is really enjoyable throw in the dose of unpredictability they bring they should be great value! 

Now we get to my particular joy. When they announced In Flames i was over the moon, i love In Flames, and then they announced Arch Enemy k not a huge fan but after a Saturday of Pop Punk i think we will all need some Death Metal! Then the master stroke! OPETH!!! There is a god, i havent seen them at a festival and with a 40 minute slot should only fit in 4 songs if we are lucky but i still cannot wait! I last saw them in the Royal Albert Hall and it was a great night, i am a huge fan so any chance to see Mikael has to be taken! Worth the ticket money alone? Pretty Much! Of the rest there are some interesting bands, Protest the Hero, Black Dahlia Murder, Gojira, Watain, Periphery, Firewind (with Gus G???) and Alestorm rousing my interest.

So as i have already said i have no choice which i go to, but if i had the choice Sonisphere is a definite winner for me. Both the Festivals have there weaknesses and i am sure like anyone we would like to mix around a few bands. I have written alot more here than i wanted to. Festivals are expensive but attend one or all if you can, they are great fun you get to see acts you would never normally see and come away with soem great memories. Support the music!

I must stress that this is just my opinion, any opinions you might have please leave its all about sharing....