For someone who wanted to write book and gig reviews, I sure as hell end up opening up about more controversial subjects than I thought I would.

Anyone who knows me, even only on the surface, knows that my favourite festival in the world is Download Festival. Since I attended it in 2013, my life has consisted in getting excited for it, being there, missing it and doing it all over again. I start speculating over the following year's line-up when I am there. I start getting excited for the next edition within a week of coming back home. In the space of three years, it has, quite simply put, taken over my life.

From Download Festival's official Twitter account

On Monday, the festival and its main organiser, Andy Copping, have revealed the first of three headliners - none other than metal giants Iron Maiden. On the following day, the second name has been released in the form of legends Black Sabbath. Finally, this morning, the metal community woke up to the news that German industrial outfit Rammstein would close the main stage on the Friday night.

It is, by all means, an impressive list of bands. Iron Maiden will be making their comeback after Bruce Dickinson's cancer and the release of their sixteenth album, The Book of Souls. Black Sabbath are on a farewell tour, and what could be a better place for them to take their goodbyes than Donington Park? As for Rammstein, they are set to release a new album and their live reputation doesn't need to be proven anymore.

Yet, many people, me included, are unhappy about these headliners. The main reason for my disappointment isn't the bands themselves. If you know me, you know how much I love Iron Maiden : they are my brother's all-time favourite band and I have grown up with them. I have clear memories of them being played in my household when I was a very young child, I have seen them five times now and on the 12th of June, 2016, you can be sure that I will proudly walk around Donington Park in one of my Iron Maiden t-shirts, telling the world how excited I am to see Dickinson and co take the stage. I don't know much about Black Sabbath, but who am I to want to deny such a classic and legendary band the chance to bow down at Donington of all places? Lastly, Rammstein don't appeal to my taste, but I know their live reputation and hey, they will have flames. Not many things are more awesome than flames. I am a sucker for flames. (Also Du Hast and Amerika are absolute tunes)

I am disappointed because it is such an unoriginal set of bands. My first Download happened in 2013, and it was headlined by... Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Rammstein. If you add this to the fact that the 2012 edition was closed off by Black Sabbath, you get my point : all these bands have headlined the festival in the past four years. It is not the first time it happens - in 2013 and 2015, on the Friday, the second stage was headlined by Black Stone Cherry and the main stage by Slipknot. It is fair to say that Download isn't partial to taking risks when it comes to headlining slots.

Yet, I think it is essential they do. I have been a volunteer at Donington Park for the past two editions of Download Festival and as workers, we roughly know how many tickets have been sold and how well (or not) the festival is doing compared to the previous years. The 2013 edition saw an attendance of roughly a hundred thousand people a day. The 2014 and 2015 editions struggled to get past the sixty thousand mark. Yes, I am aware that there is competition from across the Channel (namely from French titan Hellfest and German dreamboats Rock am Ring and Rock im Park), but in my humble opinion, the line ups also have something to do with the massive drop of ticket sales.

Having such predictable yet famous bands headlining your festival represents easy sales for organisers, why on Earth would they give up on that? I understand the need for selling tickets and I would be the first one rolling in a puddle of my own tears if Download were to be cancelled. Yet, I think that there is a fine line between securing ticket sales and rehashing the same headliners over and over and Download has crossed it with its 2016 edition. I would have been okay with the line up so far if these bands had been given these slots, say, once or twice in the past fifteen years. But all of them headlining in the past four years? Hell to the no.

When you complain about the lack of originality a festival line up represents, especially when it comes to a metal oriented one, the people against you ask you, usually very aggressively, "who do you think could headline it, then?". They would often say that there is "no one worthy of a headline slot nowadays". I think there are several bands. Maybe there are even bands I don't think of. But here is my top three of modern bands that haven't headlined yet and probably should : 

3. Bullet for my Valentine.

Granted, I am not a BFMV fan at all. I simply don't know their music and probably could not recognise more than a song to save my life. Yet, I am not completely blind to the fact that they are a force to be reckoned with now, whether people agree or not. They sell out venues everywhere they go and it seems like everyone and their dog is a fan in disguise. I'm sure that if they were to headline Donington, they would draw a very impressive crowd.

2. Thirty Seconds to Mars.

I am aware that this may be a slightly controversial choice as they aren't exactly a metal band in its purest form, and their personalities and general behaviour aren't to everyone's taste. As much as I dislike their policy of meet and greets worth thousands of dollars and the similarity to a cult their fanbase feels like to me, they are big enough to pull a headlining set off - and their lead singer has won an Oscar, which gives them a certain amount of extra fame points. They have absolutely massive tracks (imagine something like Kings and Queens closing a festival!) and they have a stage presence like none other. 

1. Bring Me The Horizon.

Scratch what I just said about Thirty Seconds to Mars, maybe the Sheffield mob is a more controversial choice and yet, it is my number one. I was praying they would headline the 2016 edition after a stellar year and a half - sold out Wembley Arena, sold out arena tour, number 2 album in the charts and a Reading & Leeds set that got more attention and praise than the ones of all the headliners' put together. I frankly do not understand how they did not get the spot, especially that now, if you think about it, their next chance could only come for the next album - so, yes, by ignoring them for 2016, Download and its organisers postponed Bring Me The Horizon's time to shine at Donington by about two years. Thanks, guys.

Many a name has been submitted by fellow disappointed festival goers : titans Foo Fighters (who would follow nicely in the footsteps of a booking like Muse last year), Scottish kings Biffy Clyro (I don't know a lot about them, but I had watched their Reading & Leeds headline set on television and I had been madly impressed), punk rock legends Green Day (one does not understand how up for that I would be), Kings of Leon, Trivium, Machine Head, Five Finger Death Punch (considering the size of the crowd they gathered in 2015, I'm sure it could work).

I think another issue here is metal elitism. The people who do not agree with how disappointing the 2016 headliners are do not say they have not thought about any other bands. They say there is "no one worthy" and call you every name in the book if you dare suggesting the likes of Bring Me The Horizon. Iron Maiden, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Kiss - they are safe bookings and easy sales on the promise that it's now or never. We are all aware that they are not going to be around forever and that if you want to see them live one last time, you better buy your £200 ticket now. On top of that, those bands please the metal elitists and the ones who buy their ticket without even knowing who is going to play. 

Isn't it time for the metal industry to remind people that metal (and music in general) has changed since the 1980s? People change, the world changes, technologies change, influences change, it's only natural that music and metal change too. What was all the rage and brand new in the 1980s isn't anymore. It would be such a great and clever move from the festival industry to embrace those changes instead of rehashing the past and milking the 1980s cow dry, because on the day Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and the likes stop playing, what will we do? Exploit Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold and Rammstein until everyone is sick of them? Plus, we will never know if a younger band can pull off a headline set at a major festival if they are not given the chance to do so and prove themselves. It's like applying for a first job and being told you can't get it without experience - how are you going to get the experience if no one gives you the chance?

I am not saying to never, ever book Iron Maiden or Metallica again. I'm saying to mix it up. I'm saying to start catering to the desires of several demographics - the ones who want legendary bands, the ones who want more mainstream genres of rock, the ones who want metalcore to be recognised as the force it's becoming. I'm saying to give a shot to bands that will be around when Metallica and Iron Maiden aren't. I'm saying to embrace 2015 for what it is instead of trying to bring the 1980s back. 

Here's to hoping the rest of the line up makes up for it, now.