Wellies? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Tent? It’s here somewhere. Month’s supply of alcohol for a weekend of debauchery? You better believe it. The only thing missing? Your guide to the best bands of the weekend! Part Two of our picks for some of the best bands deserving of some attention at Download is here and you can check out Part One here.. Conjurer Last year, UK riff meisters Conjurer released an album. This by itself wouldn’t necessarily warrant inclusion on this list. The fact that it was one of the best metal releases in years – and a debut for that matter – that bent the rules of genre and refused to be pigeonholed and was also released on Holy Roar, a label that has put out a ludicrous amount of incredible music, certainly does warrant it. Mire is an amalgamation of dreamy post-metal, doom, death and black metal all blended into an unholy cacophony that is as beautiful as it is devastatingly heavy. Conjurer proudly fly the flag for genre-bending, esoteric, monolithic metal. When, Where? Friday, Dogtooth Stage Batushka Polish black metallers Batushka made waves with their debut Litourgiya, the band taking heavy inspiration from the Eastern Orthodox Church with their lyrics being sung entirely in Old Church Slavonic. Musically somewhere between liturgical chants and punishing black metal, Batushka channel the sounds of religious fervour set to tremolo picking and vicious blastbeats. Despite the split between founding members late last year, both versions of the band have announced intentions to release new music this year and are currently embroiled in legal battles as to who exactly gets to use the name. Either way, Litourgiya is well worth your time as is their set at this year’s Download. When, Where? Saturday, Dogtooth Stage The HU Mongolian folk-metal upstarts The HU seemingly came out of nowhere and have very quickly made their own mark on the international folk metal scene; Their track ‘Wolf Totem’ managed to reach number 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart and has amassed near 12 million views on YouTube at time of writing. Like their countrymen Tengger Cavalry, they fuse traditional folk instrumentation with metal but rather than employing the more ‘typical’ metal trappings of guitars, bass and drummer the band replace them with traditional folk equivalents, including Mongolian throat singing. Absolutely one of the more off-kilter bands playing this year and definitely one that needs to be heard to be believed. When, Where? Saturday, Dogtooth Stage Alien Weaponry Another band fusing indigenous sounds into their music, Alien Weaponry blend Maori rhythms and lyrics into thrashy, grooving metal that tells of the struggles of the Maori people as well as New Zealand’s colonial past as well as dealing with issues around mental health and personal life. Formed when brothers Lewis and Henry de Jong were only 8 and 10, the band recently released Tū which has only helped their rising profile. Likened to Roots-era Sepultura for their use of groove and indigenous sounds, Alien Weaponry are not to be missed. When, Where? Saturday, Main Stage Behemoth Not much need be said about Polish blackened death metallers Behemoth. Having already cemented their place as one of extreme metal’s best and brightest with their earlier works, the band then went through a tragedy as frontman Nergal battled leukemia – and won. What followed is arguably one of the greatest comebacks ever committed to tape. 2014’s The Satanist was a masterclass, tying together the threads of Behemoth’s older sound with a far more organic production and approach and the title track along with ‘O Father O Satan O Sun’ truly underpinned it as a modern classic. Follow up I Loved You At Your Darkest followed in a similar vein again but once more pushed the envelope in new directions, showcasing a band who know they’re at the top of their game – and only getting better. When, Where? Saturday, Main Stage