Glastonbury: 5 Heavy Bands That Could Legitimately Headline
It's Glastonbury, but not as we know it.
At 2017’s instalment of Glastonbury Festival, fans of heavy music were treated to the first ever stage dedicated entirely to the genre of extreme metal. This built upon the foundations laid by Metallica with their much deserved - and long anticipated - Saturday headline set in 2014.
It seems as though the United Kingdom’s largest music festival is starting to accept the prescience of hard rock and heavy metal into its generally mainstream sensibilities, and with the success of headliners like Foo Fighters and the aforementioned Metallica, a door has been opened to heavy bands, presenting them with an opportunity seldom seen.
Introducing these heavier genres to the bill will not only benefit the acts themselves, but the festival as a whole, who stand to gain both financially and in terms of exposure from the added audience.
There are many legitimate claimants for a Glastonbury headline set in the worlds of hard rock and heavy metal respectively, but some acts tower above the rest, not only in size, but through sheer stage presence and all-round audience investment.
Who knows? A few years down the line some of these acts might actually receive the elusive honour...
5. Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are the kings of British heavy metal, they’ve been a consistently reliable touring act for just over four decades, and they show no signs of slowing down any time soon. Their size in the metal world is matched only by a few, and their headline arena tours are regular sell-outs.
Maiden also have a sizeable back catalogue, with several hits that broke into the mainstream, including Run To The Hills, The Trooper, and Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter, which will be recognisable to some of the more mainstream fans, and their mere prescience at the event would attract a new crowd entirely, accompanied by the standard Glastonbury demographic.
Frontman Bruce Dickinson also has the talent and showmanship to make a believer of even the most uneasy metal sceptic, with his great vocal range and enthusiasm towards elements of audience participation throughout their live set.