Download: Architects talk headlining and cake with Metallica

Sam Carter and his Architects bandmates are headlining Download for the first time

A lot has changed since Download Festival first launched in 2004.

But many of the headliners at the UK's biggest rock and metal festival have stayed the same - until this year.

Bring Me the Horizon and Architects are closing Friday's main stage - the first time both British bands have had top billing at Donington.

"It'll be a beautiful moment for the UK scene," Architects frontman Sam Carter tells BBC Newsbeat.

"When I think about where both our bands have come from to where we are now it's absolutely staggering."

Architects, from Brighton, and Bring Me the Horizon, from Sheffield, have slowly worked their way up the rock ladder, gathering new fans along the way.

Neither had headlined Download before, which traditionally opts for "legacy acts" - older bands seen as guaranteed ticket-sellers.

But some fans have long been calling for new artists to be given a chance.

Friends Jordan, 24, Alistair, 25, and Chloe, 21, told Newsbeat they'd come to this year's Download to see both UK acts.

"It's long overdue," says Jordan.

"They deserve it," says Chloe, who points out that both bands have "worked hard" to attract new fans.

Friends Jordan, Alistair and Chloe told Newsbeat they'd come to the festival to see the British bands' "overdue" moment on the main stage

Sam admits this makes the band feel like they've got a point to prove, but they're prepared to put on "one hell of a show".

"We have to go out there and really prove ourselves," he says, "really show you how much we care about what we do as a band and how much we care about our fans."

But Sam says Architects aren't taking anything for granted, and pushes back on describing more experienced bands as "legacy acts".

"You can see why they're headliners," he says.

"They're massive. They're ginormous. But we're now being given an opportunity to show that we can hopefully be some of those bands to replace them when they're not here any more."

Sam, pictured with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, says the veteran band were brilliant to tour with

Architects have been getting to spend a lot of time with one "ginormous" metal act - and a fellow Download headliner - Metallica.

They've been supporting the metal legends at stadiums around Europe - an experience Sam says has been "staggering".

And not for all the reasons you might think.

"The first day, they brought us flowers, and a cake and a card and welcomed us to the tour," he says.

"And they've invited us out for dinner every night after the shows, let us use the entire stage. They've just been so brilliant to us.

"You don't have to be that nice when you're that band, but they are that nice and it's very, very inspiring."

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The Download show will be especially poignant for the Architects boys, who lost their guitarist and songwriter Tom Searle to cancer in 2016 when he was just 28.

He was with the band when they opened at Download ten years ago, so Sam says the return is "an important weekend".

Guitarist Tom Searle, pictured in 2013, performed with Architects at their early Download shows

"Life is a lot of ups and downs," he says.

"And just because we're now in a place where we can go on stage and have fun and enjoy ourselves doesn't mean that we're not not thinking about Tom.

"We're going up there and doing this for Tom, we're doing what he would want us to do.

"You get one shot at this life, and it can go very, very quickly.

"I hope that people that are going through tricky moments can see that you can come out the other side."

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