The highlight of the short set is surely ‘Bury me in smoke’ (surely a festival anthem?!) but ‘hail the leaf’ and ‘pillars of eternity’ are also storming tracks which highlight the skill and inventiveness of this doom-laden monster band. Phil Anselmo is, and always has been, a devastatingly charismatic frontman and as he stalks the stage, laying down the law over the band’s taught groove, the crowd are hypnotized by the immensely psychedelic experience the band provide, Down’s swamp-inspired brutality a perfect match for the oozing mud only just beginning to appear under foot.
In contrast Down offer the sort of festival experience that make you grateful you braved the weather. Time has not been overly kind to Coby Dix and company, and whilst a sizable crowd had amassed by the time the band departed the stage it was only really uber-hit ‘last resort’ that seemed to truly get things going.
Looking at the line-up there seemed to be something of a nu-metal renaissance going on this year, what with Limp bizkit, Korn, Coal Chamber, P.O.D and Papa Roach all gracing various stages over the weekend, and it was Papa roach whom we caught on the main stage first, bathed in watery sunshine following a downpour that seemed briefly biblical in its intensity. A classic rock band in every sense, tracks like ‘easy livin’’ will surely never get old. Kicking off the year with a trip to the second stage, Uriah Heep did a grand job of rocking with a ferocity unmatched by bands half their age. Following the mud-soaked shenanigans of 2012 it could all have gone so wrong this year, what with the random deluges drenching the festival goers through Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but for all the mud and chaos that comes with it, Download 2013 went off with a bang thanks to some truly searing performances, a hell of a lot of work on the side of the dedicated team of organisers and a spirit amongst the crowd that, aside from a miserable few, remained resolutely undaunted throughout the weekend.
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