Month: March 2019

Download Festival 2018 was the first on Aussie shores and had one date in Melbourne. Organisers expanded the festival for 2019, taking it to Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse and Sydney’s Parramatta Park in March. Visit the Snap Scene page for the individual band galleries.

There are few heavy metal bands that have managed to scale the heights that Judas Priest have during their 40-year career. Formed in the early ’70s in Birmingham, England, Priest were one of the first metal bands to exclusively wear leather and studs – a look that began during this era and would eventually be embraced by metal heads throughout the world. JUDAS PRIEST went on to change the face of heavy metal.

Ghost are a Grammy® Award-winning rock band from Linköping, Sweden. The bands critically acclaimed third full length, Meliora and its accompanying EP Popestar, elevated the Swedish rock band into the pantheon of rock greats and resulted in a Grammy Award for ‘Best Metal Performance’. Their current album Prequelle delves into the plague, the apocalypse, and dark ages – with a stage show to match. Entertainment Weekly declared them: “One of the most dynamic loud bands on the planet.” Fans have come along for the ride for years, not knowing for certain who was behind the anonymous band…Not to be missed!

In January, thrash titans Slayer devastated metalheads across the globe, announcing they were calling it a day, along with a mammoth good bye world tour. After thirty-seven years, twelve studio albums and countless shows, Slayer’s place in music history is secure as one of The Big Four (alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax): they helped define the thrash-metal genre. Even amongst peers of that quality, Grammy Award winning Slayer still proudly stand alone and remain one of the most influential bands in heavy metal history.

It’s rare that a career gets a second shot, let alone a whole second act, but then Anthrax isn’t your average band. Formed in New York in 1981, the group that would go on to sell over ten million records and become the living embodiment of America’s hi-top wearing, riff-spitting, ear-thrashing answer to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal has undergone not one, but two complete eras – but that isn’t their real achievement.

Polish death metal band Behemoth are no strangers to blasphemy. Over the course of the last 27 years, they’ve pushed the boundaries of black metal and heresy alike. Behemoth have been pivotal in the establishment of the Polish extreme underground metal scene. Time and again, the government of their native Poland has charged them with various “crimes” such as tearing up a bible onstage in 2007 and using the Polish coat of arms on a Behemoth t-shirt in 2017. We welcome their sacrilege with open arms to Download 2019!

The Amity Affliction will be landing at Download off the back of their fourth consecution ARIA #1, for their latest LP ‘Misery’. Gympie’s much-loved metalcore sons are loved for their passion, integrity and unflinching honesty. Their latest release weaving electronic elements and even bolder hooks into their signature sound, reinventing the bands anthemic songs. Amity have carved out an international career off the back of their raw, exposing lyrics, wrapped in a package that allows fans to take in the heaviness, still leaving with a smile on their face.

Over the course of their remarkable career, Alice In Chains have garnered multiple Grammy nominations, sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and amassed a diehard international fanbase whose members number in the millions. They remain one of the most successful and influential American rock bands of all time. Touring in support of recently released album ‘Rainer Fog’ which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock, Alternative and Hard Music Charts and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock Album Chart.

Since Alien Weaponry released their debut album ‘Tu in June 2018, fans, bloggers, the music industry and the media worldwide have raved about the trio’s unique blend of thrash metal and their native language, Te Reo Maori, earning them the deserved title of heavy music’s ‘Next Big Thing’.