the sun shines on a righteous day of metal on Sunday at Brownload

The glorious sun finally decided to make an appearance and began drying up the now brown fields of Download. Wellies are still the footwear of the day, although the staff around the site should be commended for keeping things from getting completely ridiculous.

Kamcatchka kick off the final day of festivities and thoroughly blow the hangover out of the ears of those that have gotten in early enough. The Swedish trio play a range of storming rock numbers from across their albums. 'No' and 'Perfect' from 2005 album… get people moving and preparing them for a day of seriously rocking music.

The Pepsi Max Stage is torn asunder by Feed The Rhino, proceeding to follow on from Lower than Atlantis' reminder of how great the British music scene currently is. The band absolutely destroys the crowd. Roaring his head off throughout the set, the singer asks, "Have you shaken off your hangovers yet?" It was blown out through my ears for about 30 minutes. Enormous pits and crowd surfing from the band punctuate their arrival into the Download annals of, "I was there when X played a tiny tent before moving onto the main stage." Immense. Catching the end of DevilDriver's set was met with the usual sight of people running around in circles. Having seen the whole of the second stage become an enormous pit in 2007, the sight isn’t the awe-inspiring feat it once was. Dez's voice struggled towards the end of 'I Could Care Less', but the band are a solid addition to a bill of some genuine legends.

The first being John Garcia for Kyuss Lives as they blow any remaining cobwebs off anyone caught in the radius of their grooving desert rock. Whilst not saying a single word to the crowd throughout the whole set, he sings well and gets all Kyuss fans within visual distance singing along in perfect time. Fuzzy doesn't even begin to describe the tone of the guitar-you can literally feel it hitting you in the face by the time the wind stops blowing a gale for the first time in 2 days.

Anthrax brought the noise to Donington in one of the best performances of the day. The sun was beaming down and everyone enjoyed a storming set of classic 'Thrax. 'I Am The Law' and 'Indians' were highlights for me, whilst the opener 'Caught In A Mosh' affirmed that they are the kids hanging out, having fun and enjoying themselves most, out of the Big 4.

Black Label Society take a while to come on stage, the 20 marshall cabs that I could count seemed to dominate the stage. Until man-mountain Zak Wylde appears, with the Indian head dress from Joey of Anthrax. By this point, I'd been torn apart from some incredible bands, but it just kept happening-huge sounds and heavy rock music owned the day and the quality of the bands was consistently excellent. Wylde played a solo that seemed to last for about 10 minutes whilst I grabbed a burrito, and his voice is clearly influenced by spending time with Ozzy as his guitarist. A band I'd happily catch again on any stage.

Lamb of God do what they do best and storm onto the stage and proceed to precision engineer half an hour of technical bedlam. Pits have started before the band even take the stage, and once they are on there all hell breaks loose. Randy Blythe continues to impress as a front man and a genuine voice for the metal community, stating that this is "the best festival in the world" which does elicit cheers from across the site. New tracks 'Ghost Walk' and 'Desolation' get heads banging, but they finish with a power set of classic LOG tunes including 'Something To Die For', 'Set To Fail' and 'Black Label' which has been getting people to run into each other for over a decade now. It's hard to think of them as a new band; they've established themselves as a solid group and now have the hits to back it up. Superb stuff from the Virginia boys.

Shinedown are in the way. I'm trying to get in position to watch Refused, but the thousands of people currently waving hands and singing along are making it difficult. They are an extremely popular group, seemingly getting the family crowd and those that enjoy radio-friendly rock to do whatever it is they like. For a band that have written songs for big superhero movies (don't forget what people think of Chad Kroeger, guys) they are essentially the exact opposite of what I look for in a decent rock band. They seem rehearsed, and getting the crowd to sing your band’s name at the end of your set seems to be counter productive. If they really loved you, they'd do it themselves. They tell the crowd what to do, instead of simply letting them do their own thing. It's friendly. It's safe. It's dull.

It's been a while since a band has nearly reduced me to tears of utter joy, but watching Refused tear into ‘Worms Of The Senses' (a sight that I never thought I would see) cemented the fact that I have defended 'The Shape Of Punk To Come' as a desert island disc for the last 10 years of my life. They are simply mind-blowing. Dennis Lyxzén is a superb front man, gyrating and screaming his way across the stage, bouncing off the drumkit and hurling microphones with abandon. It helps that his voice has maintained the same intensity as from their recordings, and the rest of the band are spot-on. The volume is perfect, each element of 'Deadly Rhythm' smashing into the crowd who lap up every moment. The political stance of the band never gets preachy, and no one complains that they reunited, despite their promise that they wouldn't. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, they were the best band of the weekend.

'Spoonman' opened Soundgarden's first set on UK ground for 15 years and immediately the crowd were aware of exactly how lucky they had been this weekend to see so many important bands. As a hugely influential group on many modern bands, it was clear to see just how heavy they are. Musically, they're spot on. The heaviness of 'Outshined' and increased speed of 'Jesus Christ Pose' grab the audience by the throat and throttle them senseless. Chris Cornell's voice was ranged between great and strained, certain warbling sections had a few people feeling that he has passed his peak. The enthusiasm of the band seemed to range between happy to be here to rather bored at times, which was such shame considering the energy that their biggest fans had come to the show with. 'Beyond The Wheel' had one fan commenting, "I never thought I'd see that!" which sums up that this was an event, if only for the rarity of such a performance.

What hasn't been said about Black Sabbath? As pioneers inspiring so many bands (Chris Cornell directly referencing them at the start of their set) to pick up an instrument or write about evil forces, it is clear to see just how much the band means to fans. They have long been a name that commands respect, but tonight they truly earn it. Geezer Butler out fuzzing every single bassist who was on stage before him, Tony Iommi makes playing blistering solos look as easy as picking your nose, and Ozzy Osbourne… well, being Ozzy – getting people to join in by clapping along, throwing buckets of water. The poignant moment comes as the band are being introduced with a video showing performances from across the years and seeing just how much these guys have done as performers. In terms of songs, there was no remorse from the Sabbath hit parade: 'The Wizard', 'N.I.B.', 'Snowblind'. They were all there and sounded enormous. 'Paranoid' and a fireworks display finish a weekend that in my memory has consistently had the highest quality of bands across all the stages I was fortunate enough to stumble upon. I have no doubt that it was the same wherever you were.

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