Aussies Attack Download Festival 20

Download Festival is returning to Donington Park this June for a four-night special edition of the event to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Headlined by Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot, and Metallica, the latter will perform two completely unique sets with no repeats on Thursday and Saturday nights. 

Over 60 bands were revealed for the first line-up announcement. 

Also appearing at the festival will be Australia's own biggest metal band Parkway Drive and the metalcore group Polaris; Architects, Evanescence make their Download debut; Disturbed, Placebo, Ghost, and Alexisonfire; electronic rock icons Pendulum; symphonic metallers Within Temptation, Polish extreme metal band Behemoth, Belgian rockers Brutus, I Prevail, Lorna Shore, Nova Twins, Soul Glo, the reunited Welsh band The Blackout, and many more.

As well as Parkway Drive and Polaris, more Aussies have joined the line-up in the form of Sydney rock music chameleons RedHook, Stand Atlantic and The Amity Affliction.

RedHook dropped their epic debut album, Postcard From A Living Hell, on Friday. Smashing together elements of metalcore, pop-punk, nu-metal, alt-rock, and classic metal with trap, EDM and pop, RedHook are primed for audiences in 2023 - there are surprises, left turns, and no dull moments.

In February, Stand Atlantic released a ripper new single, kill[her], which has received significant airplay on the triple j Top 20 singles chart in recent weeks. 

Vocalist Bonnie Fraser commented on the band's first new song of 2023, "Self-sabotage is a bitch, self-doubt kills and denying good and genuine parts of yourself because you’ve been conditioned to think they’re not good enough is a form of murder. It's a reminder to myself not to give in to that shit. Personal growth is important but don’t deny who you are. Sometimes I find myself thinking back to who I used to be and missing that person."

Earlier this week, The Amity Affliction released another single from their upcoming album, the title track: Not Without My Ghosts.

The “softest” song on the album, Not Without My Ghosts ft. Phem is based on the acoustic guitar, with swelling strings and a harmonic electric guitar riff accompanying Ahren Stringer’s clean vocals. Joel Birch comes in with some screams as soon as the song quietens, with a keyboard leading to crushing guitars and further grieving yells towards the end of the track.

If you want to fly overseas to attend Download, you can buy tickets to the festival here.