Download 2005: Sunday Snickers Stage

United Kingdom | | 12 June 2005

Following in the shuddering steps of Saturday's metal fest, the Snickers tent has another heavy weight line up for the final day.

Eagle-eared festidians soon swoop in to gawp at the gravity-defying vocal gymnastics from The Mascara Story, which blasts forth from the Snickers tent. Edgy crowd-pleaser 'Episode' proves this power punching three-piece are deserving winners of the Kerrang! unsigned competition. Feverish guitar handling and Irish charm can only satisfy.

Send More Paramedics gatecrash Download to spread the zombie plague in an impressively bloodthirsty fashion. Long-limbed bassist Xundead thrashes his way around the stage in a relentless delivery of thrash metal infused hardcore punk whilst B'Hellmouth on vocals sends us all to the depths of the underworld screaming 'cannibal' as we go.

Playing for the first time in the UK and opening his set to an initially confused crowd, Gizmachi's vocal powerhouse Sean Kane soon manages to secure our attention in a brutal bulldozer of a performance. Screams to wake the dead seem to be his speciality. Not to be taken lightly.

As I Lay Dying rape our ears in an incredible demonstration of punk-metal mayhem at its finest. Circle pits and flailing limbs swamp the entire tent in appreciation as perhaps the most exhilarating band of the weekend drive their moshing mission home with ferocity. Many bands can only dream of generating a similar crowd response. Spectacular.

Unlike Caliban who sound like 20-tonne lorries playing dodgems and are keen for their audience to act in the same way. Frontman Andy Dornor divides the kids into left and right and then makes them run at each other like a Braveheart battle scene to turn the Snickers tent into a cross between line dancing and bare-knuckle fighting - a furious tempest that's fitting for Caliban's brand of metal-core. Fantastic.