Donington Park. Hallowed, sacred and holy turf. Rock and metal’s very own Promised Land, where generations have come to kneel at the altar of bone rattling riffs, fireworks, and face-melting fretwork. For decades – generations even – Download Festival has been the high church of the old gods. Your Maidens, your Metallicas, your Guns. The usual suspects who have dominated our ears from vinyl collections to Spotify playlists. The denim-and-leather-and-spandex Mount Rushmore of riff. And rightly so. These were the titans who helped shape the genre, and for a long time, no one else was deemed worthy to stand atop the Download Main Stage with a clenched fist in the East Midlands sky.
But the times they are a changing.
For the better part of a generation, the festival’s headliner rotation was tighter than a Slayer snare. You could set your watch by the Metallica/Maiden/Slipknot/Def Leppard axis of annual carnage. Maybe with a side order of AC/DC, Rammstein or System of a Down if we were lucky, and an occasional flyby from Aerosmith or KISS before they went full Vegas residency. And let’s not even pretend we didn’t love it. We did and we still do. We think we need a legends band every summer at Download. But eventually, even the mightiest and the greatest need a nap. And while the big names still bring in the masses, there’s been a whisper, a murmur, a rising roar in the back of the pit for years now: “What’s next?”
Step forward Download‘s festival bookers – let’s be honest, a team with balls of steel and the patience of saints. Because trying to please the Download crowd is a full-contact sport. But in recent years, you can see the shift – the evolution, the gamble, the slow but seismic rotation of the festival’s headliner wheel.
And it all really started in 2017 with three lads from Ayrshire.
Biffy Clyro, with their shirts off and their hearts on sleeves, became the first band of the new era to be handed the sacred headline torch. Cue dramatic intakes of breath, wails, and the inevitable armchair gatekeeping from the internet’s moaniest corners. “Not metal enough!” they cried. “Too radio-friendly!” they wrongly scoffed. But Biffy more than justified their chance on that stage. They shut the doubters up with a set so tight it practically ripped the seams off the Donington skies. That was the moment the door really creaked open.
That followed Avenged Sevenfold, another move that initially ruffled the crustier end of the Download faithful, but again — they smashed it. Like a sledgehammer to a stained-glass window. From the second the intro tape rolled to the final pyro-pocalypse, they proved the future of heavy music didn’t just belong to the past.
And if the online moaning was loud back then, it was even louder when Bring Me The Horizon
Now, no one’s saying you throw the legacy bands out with the bathwater. Iron Maiden headlining will always be an event. Metallica dropping a two-nighter like they did in 2023 is unmistakably unmissable magic. Yes please, and thank you, take my money. But when it comes to planning for the next 20 years of festivals, you’ve got to seed the soil. And that’s exactly what’s starting to happen.
Take KoRn. A band who, by rights, probably should have headlined in the early 2000s but were always left waiting in the wings, just shy of the big one. But something shifted. A tidal wave of TikTok-fuelled nu-metal nostalgia mixed with a healthy reappraisal of their cultural impact suddenly made KoRn hotter than they’ve been in years. The kids love them. The old heads love them. And now, finally, Download loves them enough to give them the top spot.
And sticking with nu-metal lets talk about Limp Bizkit. Fred Durst and co. pulled off the festival-stealing set of Download 2024 — a nu-metal riot, a nostalgia trip, and a chaotic, stadium-sized party that had even the most cynical scene veterans grinning from ear to ear. Their UK tour was sold out, sweaty, and totally unhinged in the best possible way. If they don’t headline in the near future, someone’s missed a trick. Mark our words and dig out those red caps because Bizkit are coming.
But perhaps the boldest, ballsiest booking so far came in the form of a masked, enigmatic cult known as Sleep Token. The sort of band you might expect to play to 1,000 candle-wielding devotees in a church, not command 100,000 fists in the air at Donington. But command they did. Since their promotion to headliner status was announced, Sleep Token have dropped Even in Arcadia, a record that didn’t just debut at number one in the UK but topped the Billboard chart across the pond too. That’s history-making, and suddenly, the booking doesn’t look so risky – it looks visionary.
Which brings us to the next wave. The bubbling under. The “when, not if” class of future Download royalty.
Ghost – theatrical, melodic, heavy in all the right places, with just the right amount of hooks dipped in sugar sweet melodies. Their recent Skeletá album is practically begging to soundtrack a headline slot in 2026. Papa Emeritus atop the Apex Stage is not just inevitable; it’s practically preordained. Ghost will headline next year or I will eat my muddy hat. It’s a prediction but maybe a spoiler too – although I stress I have no insider knowledge, just an educated guess.
Elsewhere, Spiritbox are riding a tsunami of buzz. Courtney LaPlante’s vocals alone are enough to make you believe in something again. Add to that the musicianship, the songwriting, the rapidly swelling fanbase – it’s only a matter of time.
Parkway Drive have been banging on the door for years. Their pyro budget alone rivals Rammstein’s, and their emotional, aggressive, heartfelt sets have become legendary.
Architects have carried the torch for intelligent, intense British metalcore, evolving with every release. A headline set could be the crowning moment they’ve more than earned.
Volbeat, with their Elvis-meets-Metallica swagger, have always had headliner potential. And if we’re going to throw a wildcard into the mix? How about Creeper. The UK’s goth-punk-glam heroes have both the ambition and the fanatical following to make something very special happen. Maybe not next year or even the year after. But 2028? Maybe, just maybe for one of my absolute favourites of the current rotation.
Bad Omens are quietly — or rather, not so quietly — becoming one of the most talked-about bands in modern heavy music. Their breakthrough with The Death of Peace of Mind wasn’t just a critical darling; it was a cultural moment. A slick, sultry, brooding record that married Nine Inch Nails industrial moods with arena-ready choruses and post-hardcore bite. And live they’ve gone from club shows to sold-out theatres to dominating festival stages in record time. With a fiercely loyal fanbase, a sound that bridges the gap between metalcore and mainstream alternative, and frontman Noah Sebastian’s magnetic presence, Bad Omens are starting to feel like a band destined for headline status.
And we think you also have to mention Electric Callboy. What started as a tongue-in-cheek, synth-soaked metalcore outfit has exploded into one of the most riotous, crowd-commanding live acts on the circuit. Their blend of turbo-charged riffs, Eurodance absurdity, and absolute refusal to take themselves too seriously has created a live atmosphere unlike anything else in the scene. Just look at the scenes when they hit Download in 2023 — inflatable flamingos, mass singalongs, synchronized chaos. It’s metal, but it’s fun again. And that’s exactly what a headline slot could use. If Download wants to throw the biggest party Donington’s ever seen, Callboy might just be the perfect new addition to crash the top tier.
Of course, legacy bookings won’t – and shouldn’t – vanish. There’s always a place for the icons. In fact, here’s a prediction: Appetite for Destruction turns 40 in 2027. If Guns N’ Roses can be persuaded to play the full thing, we might be looking at one of the greatest festival moments of our entire lives. But imagine pairing them with Foo Fighters on one night and Loathe or Gojira the next. Past, present, and future all sharing the same field of dreams.
The truth is, Download is changing. Slowly. Carefully. But undeniably. It’s not just about what’s selling tickets now – it’s about building the scene, the industry, and the culture for the years to come. Because if we don’t, the future will be nothing but tribute acts and cover bands on the big stage. And that, friends, would be a tragedy.
Instead, what we’re seeing now is a festival willing to take a few punches in the comment section, to back its instincts, and to start passing the torch. Not to just anyone – but to the bands that have earned it, proved it, and continue to climb.
So here’s to the old gods, the new blood, and the brave souls in the booking office who are reshaping the future of heavy music – one thunderous headline slot at a time.
Because the future of Download doesn’t just look good. It looks loud and it looks proud.
