Now in its twelfth year Download Festival is the biggest metal/heavy rock festival in the UK, attracting 90,000 festival goers to the 'spiritual home' of rock Donington. Today Download has announced more names added to the line for 2014 including......... Volbeat, SikTh, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicide Silence, Buckcherry, Memphis May Fire, Battlecross, Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel, Thy Art Is Murder, The Amity Afflication, Avatar, Lonely the Brave and Feed the Rhino.

Legendary mathcore outfit SikTh will reunite to perform at Download Festival 2014. The sensational reunion will come six years after the cult Watford act broke fans’ hearts by parting ways in 2008.

SikTh’s Dan Weller said of the comeback: We've always said that one day we would get SikTh back together and do another show and next year just feels like the right time to stop the talking and do it. To be honest we really miss playing those songs.

Our fans have been so loyal so it's time to give them something back. We played Download in 2003 and 2006 so it seemed the obvious place for us to make a return.

Danish rockabilly metallers Volbeat, currently fresh from a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, will also pillage Donington for a third time. Vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen commented: 2013 has been an amazing year for Volbeat. We had an absolutely fantastic UK tour in October this year, with some of the most passionate crowds ever. We can’t wait to get back there in 2014 and tear up the Download Festival!

A decade on from their first appearance, fellow metal pioneers Dillinger Escape Plan will return to Download Festival for the first time since the summer 2013 release of their latest album One of us is the killer.

The New Jersey band commented: It's been a while since we have done the Festival thing in the UK and Download has always been a highlight for us. Last time we played was my first time seeing the legendary Aerosmith and this time will be my second. Such an honour and privilege and we shall surely bring the fucking Ruckus!

Also joining the bill will be deathcore madmen Suicide Silence, playing Download for the third time, with guitarist Mark Heylmun already set to bring the thunder: Holy hell! I'm so stoked to be playing Download again. There's a soft spot in my heart for the UK, and Download is the shit! You know that as well as I do! Come have a blast with us or I'll be forced to have a blast without you!

Suicide Silence’s new frontman Eddie Hermida will pop his Download cherry in 2014, and the ex-All Shall Perish screamer is pumped for the experience: UK! You aren’t even ready for us! Download Fest '14, wow! What a dream come true. I am so happy to be a part of such an amazing line-up and to see all you crazy English fucks tear it up with us!

Another band completing their Download hat trick will be American rockers Buckcherry, having first touched down on the racetrack in 2007.

Lonely the Brave are also back with a vengeance after their 2013 debut, commenting: We are absolutely delighted to have been asked to play Download Festival 2014. Playing Download earlier this year was one of our greatest days as a band and felt like the highlight amongst a year full of highlights. We can't wait to come back and do it all again. See you there!

Next summer will initiate the next generation of rock and metal superstars into the Download sanctum, with American metallers Memphis May Fire and Battlecross, making their Download debuts.

Swedish tyros Avatar will also crash land in Leicestershire for the first time along with homegrown hellraisers Arcane Roots and Feed the Rhino, Aussie acts The Amity Affliction and Thy Art is Murder and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel.

Battlecross shredder Tony Asta summed up the buzz of playing Donington for the first time: Holy Shit we are playing Download. That's a huge milestone in our career to be part of something so huge, so great, and so fun. I've heard nothing but amazing things about the festival, what an honour it will be to share the stage with the greatest and hardest bands on Earth. We can't wait to expose the crowd to some good ol' American Heavy thrash metal and meet new fans from the UK and across the world. We're beyond hyped, so bring it in on! Donington Park, here we come!

Thy Art is Murder guitarist Andy Marsh echoed those thoughts: We're stoked to be playing Download 2014, cannot wait to show the home of British heavy metal what we've got.

Download promoter Andy Copping said of the new announcements: SikTh have taken on near-mythological status among rock and metal fans, so being able to provide an arena for their reunion is massive for us. Add this to the other world class and up-and-coming acts we’re announcing today – including the newly Grammy Nominated Volbeat – and Download 2014 is really starting to take shape.

This armada of axe-wielders is the first to be announced since Download Festival was crowned Best Major Festival at the 2013 UK Festival Awards.

These new additions join the previously announced headliners Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park playing Hybrid Theory and Aerosmith.

Tomorrow also marks the launch of Download’s Pub Quiz, which will see the festival’s Facebook page turned into a test of how well you know this year’s line-up. The quiz will take place over eight rounds leading up to Christmas Eve and rewards knowledge of rock history, music, lyrics, pictures and videos with a Rock God’s ransom of prizes. Get involved! 

Download Festival 2014 takes place at Donington Park, Castle Donington, Derby, Derbyshire between Fri 13th to Sun 15th June 2014. Tickets now on sale here