There are few bands in history to have made Download their own like Trivium. Their 2005 set is one of the most legendary in metal history, a last-minute upgrade to the festival's main stage setting the scene for a coming-of-age performance that remains the benchmark for every show they've played since. It might explain the sense of urgency that colours their arrival on stage today: kicking straight into hallmark anthem Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr, frontman Matt Heafy grinning as he's damn near submerged in pyro, Trivium start in fifth gear and rarely let up.
It's not just the band's energy levels that are operating on a higher plane today: from the off, Heafy's vocals sound absolutely colossal. You'd never know that he had to consider abandoning screaming entirely after damaging his voice just over a decade ago, such is the sheer power of his scorched-earth roars today; even clean vocal-heavy bangers like Strife and The Sin And The Sentence get some added bellowing grit for good measure.
He's undoubtedly today's man of the match, but his bandmates are all similarly locked in and clearly having an absolute blast. Guitarist Corey Beaulieu beams and playfully mean-mugs as he lets all manner of millennial metal riff mana rip; Paolo Gregoletto stalks the stage like a moustachioed war general as he plucks the hell out of his bass; recently instated drummer Alex Rüdinger - a man Heafy claims Trivium courted for a decade - smashes his kit like it owes him money.
@metalhammeruk ♬ original sound - Metal Hammer
Windy conditions mean we don't get the full-throttle arena show that might have put Trivium's headliner ambitions on full display: after some early bursts of fire and steam, all the showy stuff has to be cut, meaning we don't get to see the band's epic, Eddie-esque 'Monte' mascot in all its inflated glory. Luckily, Trivs are determined to make up for it with sheer blunt force.
"There's one rule for a Trivium show," Heafy teases. "Everybody fucking moves!" Download duly obliges, waves of crowdsurfers streaming past delirious circle pits as modern metal classics like Down From The Sky, Like Light To The Flies and a storming Throes Of Perdition drop one after the other. After a career-topping run of albums over the last decade, Trivium are a band operating at the peak of their powers, and, as a rollocking In Waves creates one final moment of bedlam, it all feels like a long overdue Donington moment worthy of the set that made their name.
