Rob Zombie brings hells fire back to a rain drenched Donnington

The final day of Download had brought with it the curse of the heavens above. Rain drenched each and every corner of the site for the majority of the day. Perhaps it was the price we pay for such a brilliant headline set last night. Perhaps it was an omen for all those waiting for Rob Zombie to grace the stage tonight. Most likely it was just shitty plain old English weather.

It was a long old slog to work through in the rain too. Biohazard faced the rather impossible task of providing the feeling of entertainment throughout a rather sparse and deflated crowd. In all fairness, the guys did as well as they could in the conditions which were ruining almost any chance of an audience getting any larger.

Malefice on the second stage were struggling with the same issues. Problem being was their music just generally isn't very good. Another rather drab metal band which just failed to have any originality. Download does seem to suffer from a rather drab selection of extremely similar bands whom just fail to leave any individual mark of their own. It's average material which is little more than a waste of minutes stood in the rain.

Stood in the rain waiting to hear next act Karma To Burn have been unable to make it to their slot due to organisational issues, was by far the heaviest lump to swallow. As gut wrenchingly annoying as it was to not have one of the strongest bands of the weekend there, Hyro Da Hero stepped up to the plate to entertain for 30 minutes. Slightly eclipsed by his previous performance from Friday, he seemed to have lost part of the intimacy of the smaller stages. A crowd nowhere near as big as his first could have also played issue, due to the event organisers rather crappy announcement (or lack of) of the line up change.

GWAR can do nothing but bring a smile back to the crowd though. A fantastically dramatic display of space monsters with human arses all bare for all to see, playing songs which are nothing short of madness. It doesn't take long for the drenched masses to get dancing and involved. Not everyone's cup of tea, the crowd is quickly thinned from the more curious to the devoted. Gwar put on a fantastic spectacle with front man Oderous Urungus getting into all kinds of antics on stage. From the rivers of blood oozing from a mutant dogs corpse, to destroying the breasts of a gargantuan alien queen - there really was always something fun to look at.

As the rain finally began to dwindle to a close, a crowd whom looked like they're all but ready to go home was blessed with a fantastic performance from classic British rockers The Cult. It's one of those acts who you'd think you only know a couple of songs, but upon witnessing them live; there are many more goodies in the songbook. Legendary front man Ian Astbury took a commanding role as they rocked through the rather vast back catalogue. It's culmination came with their three best known songs played back to back 'Wild Flower', 'She Sells Sanctuary', and 'Love Removal Machine' bringing their set to a close.

But all day has truly been about one act. An act which, apart from a spatter of highly sought after UK dates earlier this year; hasn't really hit the these shores for over 12 years. And as anticipation, crowd, and general atmosphere built to breaking point, he emerges. Rob Zombie bursts onto stage through the chest of a giant robot, firing straight into 'Jesus Frankenstein'.

He's brought everything and more you'd expect from a Zombie show tonight. Giant pillars of fire erupting from the stage, Gigantic walking robots, not to mention the huge screens showing all manner of obscenities behind the band. With words too. Almost like a twisted karaoke for the uninitiated. Tonight, Zombie is nothing short of perfect.

Openly admitting he's moving away from White Zombie tracks, it's still a fantastic honour to hear the likes of 'Super – Charger Heaven' and the uncontrollable headbangathon 'More Human Than Human'. With plenty of his own stuff in the bag, we're treated to a medley of delights such as 'Living Dead Girl' and 'Demoniod Phenomenon'.

A Rob Zombie show is more than just the music. Yeah, the music is some of the best you'll hear and has defined a generation of followers who will never look or sound this good, but it's become the true meaning of spectacle. Put the music, the stage show, the animations, the karaoke, the giant monsters, the tribal drummers, and the inferno levels of pyro all together, you get more than a gig.

You get the performance from a man at the top of his game. Of a man who is a master of all of his arts. The performance who someone who only knows one way- to throw every expectation and limitation into the fire, and to craft his legend in the history of Download and one of the finest performances there has ever been.

Latest Updates