Our 10 Favourite Download Festival 2014 Moments

Download Festival 2014 has come and gone in a dizzying blast of metal riffage, moshpits frenzies and surprisingly kind weather. The weekend was packed with memorable moments and stand-out performances but we decided to pick our ten favourite moments that truly epitomised the spirit of rock 'n' roll and getting dirty in that legendary Donington field.

Download Festival 2014: Awash With Rock, Not Mud.

1) Black Stone Cherry's Secret Set

If you had thought that the mysterious "???" slot on the Saturday afternoon was the name of an unknown, obscure and slightly pretentious new band, you would have been sadly mistaken and probably missed out on one of the most exciting, intimate and unmissable sets of the Download weekend. Thousands of fans spilled out of the far beyond capacity Pepsi Max tent to catch even a fleeting glimpse of the Kentucky southern rockers who rattled through a lamentably short set with gusto. Crossing heavy metal with blues, the band, which is fronted by the gravelly voiced Chris Robertson, gave a performance to remember with singalong hits old and new.

The Fans Asked; Download Answered. Dying Fetus Tore Up Their Morning Slot.

2) #WhyNotDyingFetus?

Why not? Indeed: ask and you shall receive. The backlash against the perceived softening of Download's line-up as well as a lack of the heavier metal subcultures at the festival culminated in the half-joking hashtag "#WhyNotDyingFetus?" being created and used to badger the festival organisers every time a new act was announced. The DL team eventually caved, resulting in the Maryland death metallers being booked and appointed as the main stage openers at the very un-rock 'n' roll time of 11am on the Saturday. They came, they riffed, they growled, and they managed to summon the most sizeable crowd we've ever seen at the challenging morning slot. "Thanks for helping put death metal on the map," roared lead John Gallagher, who surely helped convert a few to the dark side with the brisk but brash half hour show.

Next Page: Steel Panther call for boobs, headliners A7X explode, and a washboard solo steals the show.

3) Steel Panther's Lady Parade

LA hair metal group Steel Panther were a major main stage draw on the Sunday afternoon, bringing their loud and lewd live show to the Donington grounds. The extravagantly dressed, '80s rock parody four-piece were on filthy form, persistently encouraging the girls in the crowd to get topless and even inviting 17 of them onstage during the ode to sexual stamina, '17 Girls In A Row.' Lead singer Michael Starr bumping and grinding with umpteen women all at once may not have been particularly PC but it definitely made for a scene to remember. Oh, and we were pretty tempted to give diva bassist Lexxi Foxx's many pouts and hair flicks a whole bullet point of their own.

Big Hair, Spandex & Lyrics That Would Make Your Gran Faint: It Can Only Be Steel Panther!

4) Fireworks For Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold had a tough challenge to accomplish, headlining the festival's opening night and convincing their many doubters that they deserve a place at the top of the most famous rock festival on Earth. The Californian heavy metal quintet had both rock charisma and performance bombast in spades, bringing an enormous and elaborate stage set and filling the whole park with their dramatic, ground-shaking and rather evil-sounding rock. Ear-crushing metal riffing was placed alongside mellower, lighters-out moments with a seemingly constant heavy artillery of fireworks and eyebrow-singeing pyrotechnics. Without a hint of exaggeration, the lengthy set saw A7X position themselves as the successors to the stadium rock power of the likes of Metallica or Iron Maiden.

Avenged Sevenfold Proved Themselves Worthy Of The Title "Rock Titans" At DL2014.

5) The BossHoss' Washboard Solo

If you had torn yourself away from the main stage on the Saturday afternoon, you may have caught The BossHoss on the Zippo Encore stage. Unconcerned with having played the exact same slot and stage in 2011, Germany's greatest country punk rock outfit were back to have a ball at DL2014. Assembling no less than ten musicians onstage, the Berlin kings of "country trash punk rock" invaded the airwaves with ferocious, fist-pumping country, and a foot-stomping cowboy party. The highlight of the show came when each of the musicians was given a chance to showcase their skills with a solo during 'Word Up,' leading to Hank Williamson showing off a mind-blowing washboard solo whilst lead Boss Burns poured beer down the rippled steel. The washboard: all the cool kids will be getting one for Christmas '14.

Next Page: Skindred get the crowd moving, Killswitch encourage safety, and Rob Zombie sings into a skull.

6) Skindred's "Newport Helicopter"

Despite Skindred having played Download five times and never having migrated to the festival's top billing, the Welsh reggae metal team were back for another bite of the apple. Debuting tracks from new album Kill The Power, Benji Webbe and co. gave another of their trademark energetic, involving and occasionally hilarious live shows. Looking dapper in a Union Jack suit, Webbe told the crowd to "F- off" when they didn't cheer loud enough, got everyone to crouch down on the floor à la Slipknot, and orchestrated a mass "Newport helicopter" session whereby the audience were ordered to take off their sodden shirts and whirl them round their heads in time to the music. Thousands of rock fans flicking their sweaty T shirts around in the air? Yeah, it was a pretty scene.

Guitarist Mikey Demus' Angular Beard & Benji Webbe's Tomfoolery Made Skindred's A Performance To Cherish.

7) Killswitch Engage Act "Responsibly"

The Download festival organisers really pushed for crowd safety this year by upping checks for glass bottles, deploying hundreds of eagle-eyed stewards in their high viz tabards and warning punters not to engage in that most primal of pastimes, moshing. The fest's big-wigs had also apparently instructed bands to neither incite such violence nor whip their crowds into a foamy-mouthed frenzy. Some bands, Bring Me The Horizon for example, ignored this warning with frontman Oli Sykes at one point politely requesting something to the tune of "I wanna see all you f***ers in the pits losing your f***ing minds." Whereas Killswitch Engage decided to exert a little social responsibility (wink, wink) and asked their loyal fans to "dance responsibly" to appease the DL gods before one particularly heavy breakdown. "Dance as responsibly as you can," said bearded frontman Jesse Leach with a glint in his eye. Oh, they did.

They Look Like They Smell Terrible But We Couldn't Tear Ourselves Away From Rob Zombie's Metal Horror Show.

8) Rob Zombie's Microphone Change

One of the best and most unsettling acts we saw on the Friday, Rob Zombie, gave the kind of performance that gets under your skin and takes hold. Assembling his scarecrow-like band of eerily painted musicians, Zombie drove a dark and demonic machine of industrial metal through the heart of the Download festivities. As well as an impressive combination of a creepy stage set and haunting costumes, Zombie brought along his famous and enormous Nosferatu microphone which was swapped for an even bigger, even more terrifying six-armed skeleton mic halfway throught the set. Rob shook the mic as he sang; the hellish incarnation swaying ominously above the sea of awed supporters below. Spooky stuff, but will it catch on?

Next Page: Linkin Park relive history, and Aerosmith make it a night to remember.

9) Linkin Park's Entire Performance

It would be hard to select just one aspect of Linkin Park's Saturday headline show that we loved above all others. We had treated the band's initial billing announcement with apprehension, even when it was announced that they'd be playing their seminal 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory, from start to finish. But after some of the mundane tosh they've come up with in recent years, was it really possible to revisit the glory days? The Californian nu-metal unit's set was a sleek beast, delivering Hybrid's crisp, electronically-tinged tracklist but bulking out the set to 25 songs with selected hits from their extensive discography as well as three new tracks from upcoming release The Hunting Party. Having explained in the preceding video "Road To Download" why they'd decided to honour the album, co-frontman Mike Shinoda said "This is a special night for us, we've never done this before" as the crowd bopped and headbanged like it was 2001.

Linkin Park's Saturday Set Was The Clear "I Was There" Moment Of Download 2014.

10) Lighters Up For Aerosmith

The good folks over at Zippo had been making sure that no one was short of a lighter at DL2014, as evidenced by the sea of windproofs that were lifted into the air when Sunday closers Aerosmith played the aching ballad, 'Dream On.' Couples were snuggling and the tiny flames were twinkling as Steven Tyler tickled the ivories of a giant, white grand piano with a massive backdrop sign saying "ENGLAND" behind him. As Joe Perry's guitar solo pierced through chords and Tyler's lovelorn crooning, a shiver skittered down our spines. It may not have been metal riff madness, but it was a perfect end to a stellar weekend.