Download 2004: Prologue...

Two huge headlining bands and a whole raft of quality support encompassing all genres of heavy music alongside the fairgrounds and urban sports make for thunderstorm of a weekend, even if the rains hold off.

Whatever music you want from the weekend, you can't be disappointed.  Traditional Metal obviously takes the lion's share, starting off with the legendary Metallica.  Over the course of three decades they have changed the face of hard rock and metal completely.  From masterful underground records (Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets) to the biggest selling metal album of all time (the 'Black' album). Simply put, Metallica are metal. 

Nu-Metal is represented by three of the genre's most important bands, of which Linkin Park is undoubtedly the biggest name. They will struggle to fill a headline slot with little over an hour's worth of music, but their impressive collection of huge anthems will ensure the MTV2 crowd are happy. 

Progenitors of the scene Korn will be anxious to prove that their star has not faded and in turn, Slipknot will be desperate to upstage them.  The upstarts of new metal are here too, check out Soil and Static-X especially.  Punk fans will be waiting for the appearance of Brody Dalle's Distillers and of course the immense Iggy And The Stooges.   The Stooges are likely to be the pick of Saturday's lineup, as the band kick-started American Punk. 

On top of all the great bands there's even a burlesque show being put on by the Suicide Girls, a troupe of high-quality amateur strippers.  Whether many men will give up the opportunity to grapple with other sweaty guys in favour of nubile half naked girls is a moot point but still...we'll see.  It promises to be a weekend packed with sex, drugs and rock and roll, and that's just in Andy Future's tent.

Click here to see how it all panned out!

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