EVERY June it’s the same.

100,000 heavy music lovers descend on Castle Donington – the spiritual home of all that is heavy.

It is the 11th year of Download but the history goes much further back, with Ozzfest in the early noughties and the Monsters of Rock festivals before that.

The selection of amazing bands this year is a true site to behold.

With everything from new bloods such as Yorkshires ‘Black Lanterns’ to the old guard such as Motorhead and Iron Maiden (more about them later) spread over five stages, there is more than enough to please everybody in the alternative scene.

The first band to get the crowd jumping on the Friday are PAPA ROACH, now celebrating their 20th year, the band have done well to survive their Nu Metal starting point, totally reinventing themselves mid-career and possibly being more popular now than they were back then. Not surprisingly ‘Last Resort’ provoked the biggest reaction from the crowd.

They were followed by a true legendary metal frontman when Phil Anselmo, former singer of Pantera, hit the stage with his band DOWN. They deliver a monstrous set and there is something about is southern American drawl that just makes you want to drink whisky and smoke 20 cigarettes.

They dedicate ‘Stone The Crow’ to late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman and everyone in the crowd raises their devil horns in respect.

Like Papa Roach, KORN are another band who have been able to reinvent themselves and kept it fresh. On their latest album adding dub-step into their melting pot of styles. Today they dip into all parts of their history, giving a greatest hits set that keeps everyone smiling.

Fridays headliners though, that is what it is all about.

SLIPKNOT are the first of the weekends main events and by God they know how to put on one hell of a show. Fire? – Check. Masks? – check. Raising, spinning platforms topped with a demonic clown playing percussion and throwing beer barrels across the stage? – check. Slipknot really give it all and the crowd love it. The adulation is so rabid that more than once the band are forced to stop due to the barriers collapsing. It is really something to behold though when frontman Corey Taylor gets everybody, and I do mean everybody in the crowd, to sit down on the floor before jumping up in unison for the song Spit It Out, creating a 90,000 strong moshpit in the process. Wow!

Saturday is more focused on legends and heavyweight legends at that. MASTODON play some of the heaviest most technical riffs you can imagine but make it look easy. It would just be nice if they talked to the crowd, like even one word, sadly its left to the drummer to thank the crowd at the close of their set. These guys are serious musicians.

ALICE IN CHAINS arrive on stage to a welcome worthy of, well, Alice in Chains. The grunge legends are on fire. They may have a newish singer after the untimely death of Layne Stayley but he holds up well and helps deliver one of the sets of the weekend.

MOTORHEAD are here and do exactly what you expect them to do. They play fast, they play loud and Lemmy is drinking Jack Daniels.

Although they have a new album to promote, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE steer away from the new stuff and stick mainly to the crowd pleasers, giving an almost perfect festival set.

We are then treated to Saturday’s headliners, a band synonymous with Donington, the band that got me into metal as a child.... IRON MAIDEN. I may have stopped listening to them as much in my adult years but on this night I reverted to the 13 year old child I once was. The set started with a WW2 Spitfire flying over the crowd and then two hours of one of the biggest names ever in metal.

Playing tracks they hadn’t played in 25 years, mixed with total classics, costume changes, pyros, more pyros, three Eddies (their zombie mascot) stumbling round the stage, dual guitars, trio guitar solos, and nothing makes the hair on your neck stand up more than when Bruce Dickinson calls out “SCREAM FOR ME DONINGTON!” Magnificent.

It’s the final day of Download but Sunday gives the still partying crowd lots to be excited about. CANCER BATS take the main stage at the ungodly hour of noon but somehow give one of the sets of the weekend. They were one of the bands left unable to play in 2012 because of the weather but the Canadians more than make up for it here. Inciting two large circle pits in unison, their hardcore punk sounds floor everyone in attendance.

Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor is back for his second time this weekend, this time fronting his more melodic, straight ahead rockers STONE SOUR.

30 SECONDS TO MARS, led by Hollywood actor Jared Leto could easily have headlined this year. They have huge sounding songs and huge egos to boot.

One thing that confuses me this weekend was why weren’t LIMP BIZKIT on the main stage? The amount of people trying to see them headline the second stage is jaw-dropping.

They really bring to the party, with the crowd going totally crazy for the full 90 minutes. They even manage to chuck in a cover of Rage Against the Machine song and former Christmas number one, Killing in the Name. Just awesome.

It’s left to German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN to close the festival. I’ve never been a big fan but I have to hand it to them, they totally destroy it!

Enough pyro to melt 100,000 people’s faces off, you just can’t take your eyes off them.

Crazy, macabre, fire!

They round off a fantastic Download Festival perfectly.