Part and parcel of being opinionated music lovers is that we go and experience lots of music in its natural habitat – on a stage – and then we decide how good it was. Some spectacles are so powerful that they evoke emotions strong enough to form memories through the drunkenness. It’s a rarity but that’s why some here have to name several before deciding upon their Favourite Gig of 2013. There is zero reason for you to be reading this but if you’ve read this far, you’ll get at least halfway down before clicking the cross.

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Raz and Hugh fight through hayfever and tour flu discuss the highlights and lowlights of Download Festival 2013, including Iron Maiden, Cancer Bats, Kvelertak, Slipknot, the amount of female breasts on display, and Jared bloody Leto.

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Download Festival 2013 is just around the corner, so for this week’s podcast, Raz and Hugh got together to talk about the bands they’re looking forward to, the worst clashes on the bill, the bits of the festival we’re dreading, and about what Thrash Hits is going to be doing this year at Donington Park: HINT: It’s going to be awesome.

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In addition to those sweet as you like on-stage photos of Cancer Bats’ Main Stage triumph we showed you last weekend, our man Gobinder Jhitta took a shedload of photos at this year’s Leeds Festival. We basically gave him free rein to go shoot whatever and whoever he wanted, and he didn’t let us down – pretty much every band we ranted and/or raved about in our post-Reading & Leeds Festival podcast is featured in his gallery, which you can check out after the jump.

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With Reading and Leeds Festivals over and done with, the UK summer festival season is officially over. Well, it’s over as far as we’re concerned. This week, Raz and Hugh look back on their highlughts and lowlights from Reading and Leeds respectively, as well as taking a look at this week’s top news stories: the new album announcement from Deftones, and Sylosis bunking off from a European tour with Devin Townsend and Fear Factory to go gallivanting around the USA supporting Lamb of God.

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