Five of the best at Download Festival

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Download has been a staple event for headbangers up and down the country for way over a decade now. Situated at Donington Park in Leicestershire, the festival boasts an impressive roster of headliners who are on constant rotation year on year.

Motorhead were set to top the bill this year but will no longer feature due to the passing of their iconic frontman Lemmy Kilimister. In tribute, the festival's main stage will be named after him and a 20 minute video will be broadcast celebrating the life of one of rock 'n' roll's most nihilistic characters.

In anticipation of next weekend's rock smash, we donned our finest leather outfits and selected the five must see acts at this year's festival. 

Skinny Lister

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If you fancy a break from the monstrous riffs and make up then head over to the fourth stage on the Friday to check out this folky five piece from London.

With swinging melodies and raucous vocals, the band are far from just token banjo bashers and will doubtless be the cause of a hearty knees up. Their live shows are hectic affairs as you can see from their video for 'This Is War' above.

Henry Lewis

Black Sabbath

It would be an injustice if Black Sabbath didn't feature at this year's festival given that it falls slap bang in the middle of their final ever tour (probably). In 2005 the Saturday of the festival was named Ozzfest in tribute to the world's most famous bat decapitator and this year marks the 3rd time the band have headlined Download.

If what the band say is true this could be one of the last opportunities to see the musicians who birthed metal and for that reason, this makes their Saturday slot absolutely unmissable. 

HL

Deftones

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Deftones enter the Lemmy Stage on the Saturday with the buzz generated from their eighth album Gore blustering their monster-riff heavy sails. In fact the record, a soaring metal epic, has placed them into a top five chart slot (listen to Prayers/Triangles below).

Their increase in popularity two decades along the line is incredible to see, considering the tragic death of bassist Chi Cheng in 2013. If ever there was a fitting moment for the California band to shred one of the festivals most memorable performances, it is undoubtedly in 2016. 

Ben Smith

Jane's Addiction 

California funk rockers Jane's Addiction are one of metal's pioneering artists having taken the genre in a new direction since they exploded onto the scene back in the late 80's.They are cited by Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello as being as influential to alternative metal as Nirvana were to grunge.

After a series of break ups and make ups that has seen the the likes of Flea and Duff McKagan step in on bass guitar duties in the past, the band seem to be in a more stable condition and will headline the Encore Stage on the Sunday. 

HL

HO99O9 

Merging snarling rap vocals to axe-wielding noise, HO99O9 are an enraged thrash animal that should only be fed through its cage.

You'll struggle to find anything quite like a live performance from this New Jersey gang, and even better their recent Dead Bodies In The Lake mixtape is newly primed to weird you out and rip through your flesh (listen to Blood Waves above). They perform on The Dogtooth Stage on the Sunday. 

BS

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