Drama, danger, disgustingly good riffs: What happened when Architects headlined Download's Opus Stage

The sun is casting a beautiful buttery glow on Architects as they headline the Opus Stage. A sweet, idyllic setting, just perfect for the band to throw the gnarly Elegy at us, and for frontman Sam Carter to snarl into his mic like there’s personal beef between them while looking cold as fuck in his shades. “Yeehaw!” he yells. It’s not long before the set really does descend into the wild wild west, though.

All is going smoothly through corkers like Doomsday and Gravedigger, until their set becomes plagued by interruptions. Pausing for a crowd incident is not unheard of, and often necessary, so Sam encourages more pits to start blooming elsewhere while the issue is resolved, but things are halted again for Blackhole, which was cooking up to be monumental.

Sam walks off, frustrated at apparently being told contradicting communication through his in-ears. He makes light of it upon his return though, telling Download he’s in the driver’s seat and will always stop for someone’s safety. He jokingly warns us, though: he didn’t pass his test too long ago. “I promise you’re in safe hands,” the frontman says, his cheeky grin returning, but the show stops again during Impermanence, leading to the band disappearing for quite some time. Crowdsurfing bananas are passed down to the barrier among the quiet like snickering students after the teacher’s told everyone off.

Upon Architects’ return, Sam wags a finger with a smirk, “You’ve been very naughty, I’ve been very naughty!” It seems everyone involved here needs to be a good noodle, or else. And yet, with every suggestion from here on that he would normally demand a split down the middle or a circle-pit in any other ordinary situation, there’s a caveat. Of course that’s not what he’s saying now. A pit for Architects? Not ‘round here, partner...

Despite the stoppages, though, things end on a high. Sam shares his gratitude for every person that showed up today, made even more bittersweet following a speech for Broken Mirror, in which he shared his struggles with his mental health when the band played the Apex three years ago. To be back and better makes this all the more special. “It was a little bit weird to start with though,” Sam says, without even realising his own deadpan humour, as they run over their allotted time to give us Animals, where things get good weird.

There's drama, there's danger, there are disgustingly good riffs. Yeefuckinghaw.