DOWNLOAD scandal 🤦♂️ HELLOWEEN intrigue, PHIL ANSELMO, MACHINE HEAD, DESTRUCTION & more| Metal News
The legendary Power Metal band Helloween open up about their new album and announce a 40th Anniversary tour for 2025. Meanwhile Download Festival come under heat for announcing Sleep Token as a headliner… which is extremely strange by itself.
Ukrainian Metal band IGNEA is back from their European Tour and as most Ukrainian bands on it they’ve been fundraising for Ukrainians. And The Unguided drop a new single inspired by Ukraine titled Red Alert.
The original Grim Reaper line up will reunite for a tribute show, and Destruction announced their new studio album Birth of Malice, set to be released in March 2025. And 2025 promises to be very… very busy for Phil Anselmo.
New releases by Linkin Park, Epica, Machine Head and much more in the new Metal Digest. Metal is alive and well, so let’s see what keeps it going today. Here you go!
00:00 – Intro
00:19 – Destruction’s new album
02:53 – Busy Phil Anselmo
05:42 – Download festival’s controversy
10:27 – IGNEA’s live adventures
11:56 – Blitz releases (Feuerschwanz & Lord of the Lost, Epica, Linkin Park, Scour, Machine Head, In Flames, Lacuna Coil & Unearth)
15:39 – The Unguided march on
20:14 – Surprises from Helloween
23:22 – Grim Reaper reunion
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Background music: “Uberpunch” Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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@MetalPilgrim
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Whom should I invite for our Metal Chat in the future?
@Jerryhen-y2d
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Wait what did you say new destruction album hell yeah
@w-james9277
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I booked my tickets for Helloween next year! Never seen them before so Im really really excited.
@Ezoangelofdeath
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
How about Avantasia or even better EDGUY WOULD BE😭😭
@Ezoangelofdeath
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Destruction are a few decades to late,but im stoked
@TheNascarFemme
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
The way you described Sleep Token as a band metalheads either really love or really hate is exactly how Slipknot and A7X were 20 years ago. Gatekeepers HATED those bands with a passion: In present day tho Slipknot and A7X are universally praised for being gateway bands for a whole generation of metalheads.
@cbr9914
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
i saw helloween do this set in san Francisco last june. i'm definitely looking foreward to this release, but the san fran show was better, in my opinion…..i'd prefer more of kiske and deris sharing the songs and trading lines/verses, but giving each singer multiple breaks for whole song throughout the set each night definitely saves their voices and allows them to kill it ever night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nd1yGDiwpQ&t=1049s&pp=ygUcaGVsbG93ZWVuIHNhbiBmcmFuY2lzY28gMjAyMw%3D%3D
whoever filmed this is a legend.
@kevincrego6933
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Bottom line. They are cheap. Just like most promoters.
@TOGade-dj6jh
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
If I were to go to such a huge festival I’d be really disappointed. There are bands that are much better in my opinion, but as you so perfectly stated: it may just be down to taste.
✊🏻🇸🇪🤘🏻
@TOGade-dj6jh
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
8:29 I’m totally with you on this. I tried to get into them but I simply can’t. Great musicians, no doubt, but it’s not my taste of metal.
@Fletcher_Buller
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
The new destruction album sounds like overproduced polished mediocrity. Just like new Kreator and new Slayer. Destruction can fuck off and go to hell. I’ll stick with other better bands that have filled that void like Protector,Eurynomous,Desaster just to name a few. Destruction needs to do another album like Sentence of Death or Eternal Devastation or even Release From Agony. Hell even newer Sodom though not great is still better than newer Destruction or newer Kreator.
@neilbower9052
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I live in a small village a few miles from the Donington race track and for the past 8 years i have made the yearly trip to the best metal festival in the world, WACKEN. copping the c**t has ruined Downcrap. Wacken will always be a hard rock / metal festival, which is why it sells out every year. Copping the c**t just wants to cram as many people in as possible and charge them as much as possible.
@bassvibasics479
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep Token will bring in the punters due to the diehard fanbase- and that fanbase may be exposed to some actual metal… 😉
It rankles to see Slerp Tookib headlining over Jinjer and Meshuggah though…
@myopicautisticmetal
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I love Destruction, opened for them in 2011 and they were lovely guys, shame Mike is out but I am stoked nonetheless. I've opened for Epica, too, their audience were nice to us. HELLoween, not Halloween as it was last month, thanks.
@M_Storm
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep token are great, a breath of fresh air. Definitely heavier than green day and Korn, who I am also a fan of too
@brandonb.5304
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I find it funny people whining about Sleep Token headlining when Green Day (a pop punk band) is much further away from the metal genre than Sleep Token. Besides, Download has NEVER been an exclusively metal festival. There has always been a mix of rock and metal. Sleep Token has become extremely popular the last few years. How are they not deserving of a headline slot? If your festival is trying to stay relevant and not just stick legacy bands in the headline slots every single year, why wouldn't you have want a newer band headlining?
@activecontext
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Great Episode! (as usual) 🙂
@megaduck7965
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Remember when Feeder headlined Download 2005 ?
@megaduck7965
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Download is what Reading used to be .
Bloodstock is becoming what Download used to be .
Festivals change .
Monsters of rock changed pretty drastically from 1980 -1994 .
Downloads been going an extra 10 years .
@jimthar17
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I’ve never once hears a Sleep Token song. I truly don’t understand the hype behind them. I’m fine with them playing a festival but headlining a day that has OTHER acts that are more established seems odd. It honestly seems like they’re trying to make Fetch happen with this band.
As a huge Helloween fan I honestly couldn’t get into the new album. It may seem weird but Kai and Mike returning seems to have muddied the waters a bit. But like you said, personal preference.
I dig Grim Reaper a lot. I remember rocking their first two albums in my car back in high school in the 90’s. Great albums.
@ryeguy7471
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep Token always sounded to me like if Opeth incorporated Imagine Dragons style R&B/pop. If nothing else I can appreciate the attempt to make an insane idea work.👍
@Soulitaris
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
The Unguided brought me here, les gooo
@VampireJack10
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Probably gonna get heat for this but personally I reckon DOWN is Anselmo's BEST band.
There, I've said it.
@toxsin2207
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Whoever put together the lineup for Download Festival needs to be taken out to pasture.
@Jon-en3jz
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I’m sorry. I like Sleep Token.
@Unleashedraider
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Machine head is 100% poser trash. Poetry slammer liberal beta cuck tampon boy garbage
@Hauntercry
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Who cares in what order the bands play at a festival. I just want to see the bands
@Notasheep7778
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I listen to all of those bands.
I guess it's an acquired taste.
Still beats that fake pop stuff that everyone likes right now.
@isolateddemon9438
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
SCOUR WILL ALSO BE RELEASING NEW STUFF.PHIL'S KILLING IT!
@paravan2000
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Download is a rock festival with a few metal bands added to the bill. So what "the controversy" you are talking about?
@atreacherouspath
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Wait, we are talking about Phil Anselmo being busy and yet not a mention about a new Scour (Death/Black Metal with ex members of Cattle Decapitation & Misery Index) album?!? They just released a new song yesterday. Wtf
@hulluporo9067
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Metal Festivals just have to look for newer headliners. They just can't rely on the old guard forever. You don't have to like a band like Sleep Token. But they're very popular and they reach people who aren't into Metal otherwise. Gateway bands are very important, but I guess some Metal fans will never understand this.
@markymark8008
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep Token aren’t a headline band so won’t be going, doing Bloodstock instead.
Love IGNEA, saw them with Eleine for the second time, they were brilliant 😎
@SuperVistaprint
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep token is one…but Green Day… really… snooze fest Green Day. Talking talking usa politics talking talking Urgh FFS. One of the worst old man sleep capitalist „rock“ (don’t include punk anywhere close to those idiots) bands. That is the real cringe upset about download, not sleep token…
@johnbinstead8544
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
sleep token are great!! People need to get over themselves. Great live, Great look, Great songs
@tussk.
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
"I think its important to bring new bands to the festival" said the man who has a stake in thier management company. Has there ever been a more transparent scam inflicted on ticket buyers?
Sleep Token is metal for people that have outgrown Ghost, but don't understand Tool.
@michaeltunnicliffe4935
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
I first went to Download in 2013 and whilst I've not been every year since, I have kept a very close eye on the festival. This whole Sleep Token controversy is nothing. I'd argue that with maybe exception to 2013, there has not been a single year where fans haven't complained. Whether its complaints that Linkin Park sucked after Hybrid Theory so why keep bringing them back, to slipknot playing what feels like every other year, to Biffy Clyro not being heavy enough, to BMTH basically being a pop band, to 2023s lineup feeling more like a Leeds & Reading lineup. They are always complaining and honestly, I'm usually among them. Downloads lineups have always felt like either they keep bringing back the same bands again and again and again or they bring in some inexperienced band that doesn't deserve to be there. Sleep Tokens are no different. But that's my point. They are no different. People aren't complaining any more than they did when QOTSA and FoB were announced last year or when Biffy Clyro were picked in 2017. It's business as usual. The only thing that makes this one different is that Andy Copping actually came out and made a statement. And I think this is only because even he knows he is taking a risk. Sleep Token are sooooo young in comparison to the other bands that are playing. I think the last time they announced such a young headliner was in 2014 when they announced A7X. But they were still 15 years old at that point with 5 albums under their belt. Sleep Token will be 9 years old when they perform and they only have 3 albums I believe. They are very inexperienced by comparison. Especially next to Green Day and Korn who are both well over 30 years old with several albums each. I understand the backlash but I also don't see it being any different to any other year. And maybe this controversy is manufactured to gain interest because I don't think Download has the pulling power it once did. Last year was a disaster and this year whilst much better already, isn't shaping up to be a sell out year either. Especially when just down the road, the UKs biggest "Metal" Festival, (emphasis on metal because download isn't bigger but not exclusively metal) Bloodstock has already sold out and offers a much better lineup (relative to the festival's size.)
@zombiemachinery4868
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Sleep Token and Green Day suck dick either way, but if you like it, fine by me.
@667hodge
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Destruction is freakin badass bro.Them, along with Kreator,Dark Angel,Death Angel,Sodom put out some incredible thrash in the 80's…Too bad they were kinda overshadowed by those posers Metallica
@secularspectator
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Can't wait to be lectured to by Green Day about my political beliefs… no thanks.
@MichaelRowe-cv3oq
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
As with the massively overrated Ghost,i just don`t get Sleep Token in the slightest.Maybe at 64 i`m too old for that type of image-over-substance shite ?…Their fans remind me of all the Nu-Metal type fans who popped up from about 1997 onwards-mainly impressionable teenage girls.
@josecintron85
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
As good as Epica's Arcana is I prefer the second song the released with it 'The Ghost in Me – Danse Macabre'
@leatherbound4233
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Download has gone to sh*t! More of a pop fest now.
@danielflores9479
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Give some love to obituary and carcass. How about a deep dive into death. Chuck was a cry baby but a talented bad ass. UP THE IRONS FOREVER
@misterarcane3863
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Bloodstock is the premium metal festival in the UK now.
@Ms666slayer
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Even if you don't like Green Day or Korn no one can deny how big and ho much influyent they are so that's why i can accept them as headliners, but Sleep Token is just the current popular band which not enough time has passed to see if the will still be as big as they are (in my opinion they will not retain their popularity) or if they will become influential so for me Sleep Token is not headline material, for me the only relatively modern band that i will say that could headline is Ghost they are still really popular and i would say they have been influential maybe not in the musical sense but in the theatric and gimmick sense they are, like i don't believe Sleep Token would had made all of thir theatrics and gimmicl without Ghost.
@kennethnielsen3864
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Thanks for sharing.
@iainc666
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
You're correct about Sleep Token's strong marketing game. I'd say over 90% of their popularity within the metal community is down to marketing alone. They've been getting a lot of metal publication to hype them up (most likely paid for by their management and/or label), and some people are simply sheep when it comes to trends, particularly younger people. They've been made out to be a new and exciting thing in metal, when in reality, they're just mislabelled R&B with heavy guitars. They are in no way deserving of headlining a metal festival the size of Download. Can you believe Judas Priest has never headlined Download Festival at Donnington? They've done it at other Downloads abroad but never in their native England, which is just criminal. Even Bullet For My Valentine would be more deserving.
@donmcglothlin841
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
New Destruction
He’ll yes
@salommy
April 3, 2026 at 4:49 am
Interesting choice on the Andi Deris photo 😂
But hey, it got me to click 😄
Comments are closed.