The National Trust’s Most Wanted turn Download’s Avalanche Stage into a full-blown brawl with the most brutal set of the weekend…
There might be a road sign onstage warning ‘This place will be mayhem’ for the next half an hour, but really there should be a choking hazard for the amount of dust kicking up into the air as soon as Malevolence hit the Avalanche Stage. Perhaps the worst kept secret set in Download history, the tent is practically bulging at the seams with the amount of hot and sweaty bodies crammed inside, ready to witness one of Britain’s finest at the peak of their powers.
As chants of ‘Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire!’ echo around the big blue marquee, the unmistakable cockney drawl of Alan “Brick Top from Snatch” Ford readies the tens of thousands gathered for mid-afternoon melee. Rushing straight into the metallic mayhem of If It’s All The Same To You, the Northern noisemongers waste no time giving the Midland mosh contingent exactly what they came for. “Make these security guards fucking work,” urges barbarian frontman Alex Taylor, with more and more crowdsurfers pouring over the barrier. It’s complete chaos and absolutely fucking brilliant.
Taking time to call out the record labels who turned the band down 10 years ago, the Steel City savages tear through their heaviest hitters at a blistering pace, with Life Sentence and Self Supremacy sending the whirling circle-pits into overdrive. And while there is a definite, tangible aggression emanating from stage, there is just as strong a feeling of joy, as the band’s families and partners watch on with pride, knowing just how far these Sheffield underdogs have come.
With new album Where Only The Truth Is Spoken dropping this Friday, barnstormer Trenches is already a firm fan-favourite, with the masses barking ‘Who the fuck are you? Never fucking heard of you!’ in a moment of undiluted catharsis, serving as evidence that Malev have long since graduated from mosh-fodder to a band that you can’t help but scream along to, which is further underlined by the perennially pulverising Keep Your Distance (a message not heeded by the colliding bodies down front).
“Support British metal because we’re proud to be part of this shit,” Alex tells the baying horde by way of a sign-off, as an ocean of fists move back and forth as one, before launching into the life-affirming On Broken Glass, cementing its status as a bona fide homegrown metal anthem and the perfect sign-off to one of the most destructive sets of the weekend. The last time Malev hit Donington they were mid-way up the second stage, today they’ve pulled one of the biggest crowds of the weekend to the Avalanche. Don’t bet against a Main Stage mauling next time. Just remember to bring your gum shield.
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