Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
The last time we saw Parkway Drive in the UK, they were squashed into a corner of Download 2024 as the secret band that sparked a stampede up the slippery hill. Eighteen months later and they’re back in their natural habitat, filling the vastness that is Wembley Arena. While the crowd are polite enough to death metallers Thy Art is Murder – obligingly throwing horns and starting an oval pit led by a guy in a banana – there’s an air of poise in the arena; we’re here for metalcore and we’re accepting no substitutions or supplemental sounds in our evening.
The way that Parkway Drive translate the spectacle of their festival shows into an enclosed space is nothing short of awe-inspiring. From the moment vocalist Winston McCall leads an entrance parade across the area, every song and every twitch of the scenery sparks gasps of anticipation for their next stage trick. It’s not the kind of show where the theatrics take away from the sound, or turn their set into some kind of production though; it’s that rare combination of pyrotechnics as the icing on the cake, adding a bonus wow to an absolutely solid, career-encompassing, full two hours of a band at their peak. When ‘Carrion’ drops, it’s a ripcord and the arena’s in free fall, freedom and joy spreading across the pit, and ‘Prey’ sparks the kind of wonderful bounce that writes it’s own memory. “The energy is mad, you kinda knocked me on my arse there,” jokes McCall, apologising for the sonic weight of ‘Boneyards’. There’s no pressure in the song’s gorgeous heaviness though, it’s more an interlude into the underside of their past. ‘Horizons’ crashes in, delicate yet foreboding, dynamic and looming, while surfers are flung as fast as security can catch them, offering touches of classic rock as riffs are laid out, sacrificial, before us.
While we love the surprises – rain falling onstage, faux Molotov cocktails sparking endless fire blasts, and spinning drummer Ben Gordon on his head like a hamster in a wheel – it’s the force of their energy that makes Parkway Drive tremendous. They deliver exactly what we never knew we needed from a stadium show, be it “ten minutes of pure mosh pit carnage” in the form of their ‘Killing With A Smile’ medley or the visually absorbing and completely uniting “roundabout pit” that forms during ‘Idols and Anchors’.
When they take a moment of comparative introspection, it’s gorgeous, revealing even more sides to a band who can’t ever really be predicted. The string section descending from the ceiling for ‘Chronos’ adds innovation, but the Led Zep channeling on ‘Darker Still’ is the most stirring of their thoughtful numbers. Of course, there’s fire in the form of their logo ablaze in midair, but the power comes from the multifaceted angles to their show, each one tapping into a different section of our souls. Puffed out, McCall apologises again. “This is a long fuckin show, but we did give you two really slow ones…” he says before we’re returned, full circle, to ‘Bottom Feeder’; conjuring the same euphoria as their opening numbers as they step back into the round, we’re buoyed up by the sheer pace and vigour of their set. With full apologies to their stage designer, the best trick Parkway Drive pull at the end of their show requires no special effects at all. We know ‘Wild Eyes’ will close out the evening, but the singalong, the overwhelming feeling of living in the moment second by second as we are magnetically drawn to each chord? That can’t be manufactured.
Tonight is a show to which you could invite a skeptic and they would leave converted to the power and pleasure of heavy music. The sheer stamina, passion and skill that Parkway Drive pull out of their proverbial bag for two straight hours is magic, and exactly what we’ve been hoping from a celebration of two decades of Australia’s heaviest exports.
KATE ALLVEY
The way that Parkway Drive translate the spectacle of their festival shows into an enclosed space is nothing short of awe-inspiring. From the moment vocalist Winston McCall leads an entrance parade across the area, every song and every twitch of the scenery sparks gasps of anticipation for their next stage trick. It’s not the kind of show where the theatrics take away from the sound, or turn their set into some kind of production though; it’s that rare combination of pyrotechnics as the icing on the cake, adding a bonus wow to an absolutely solid, career-encompassing, full two hours of a band at their peak. When ‘Carrion’ drops, it’s a ripcord and the arena’s in free fall, freedom and joy spreading across the pit, and ‘Prey’ sparks the kind of wonderful bounce that writes it’s own memory. “The energy is mad, you kinda knocked me on my arse there,” jokes McCall, apologising for the sonic weight of ‘Boneyards’. There’s no pressure in the song’s gorgeous heaviness though, it’s more an interlude into the underside of their past. ‘Horizons’ crashes in, delicate yet foreboding, dynamic and looming, while surfers are flung as fast as security can catch them, offering touches of classic rock as riffs are laid out, sacrificial, before us.
While we love the surprises – rain falling onstage, faux Molotov cocktails sparking endless fire blasts, and spinning drummer Ben Gordon on his head like a hamster in a wheel – it’s the force of their energy that makes Parkway Drive tremendous. They deliver exactly what we never knew we needed from a stadium show, be it “ten minutes of pure mosh pit carnage” in the form of their ‘Killing With A Smile’ medley or the visually absorbing and completely uniting “roundabout pit” that forms during ‘Idols and Anchors’.
When they take a moment of comparative introspection, it’s gorgeous, revealing even more sides to a band who can’t ever really be predicted. The string section descending from the ceiling for ‘Chronos’ adds innovation, but the Led Zep channeling on ‘Darker Still’ is the most stirring of their thoughtful numbers. Of course, there’s fire in the form of their logo ablaze in midair, but the power comes from the multifaceted angles to their show, each one tapping into a different section of our souls. Puffed out, McCall apologises again. “This is a long fuckin show, but we did give you two really slow ones…” he says before we’re returned, full circle, to ‘Bottom Feeder’; conjuring the same euphoria as their opening numbers as they step back into the round, we’re buoyed up by the sheer pace and vigour of their set. With full apologies to their stage designer, the best trick Parkway Drive pull at the end of their show requires no special effects at all. We know ‘Wild Eyes’ will close out the evening, but the singalong, the overwhelming feeling of living in the moment second by second as we are magnetically drawn to each chord? That can’t be manufactured.
Tonight is a show to which you could invite a skeptic and they would leave converted to the power and pleasure of heavy music. The sheer stamina, passion and skill that Parkway Drive pull out of their proverbial bag for two straight hours is magic, and exactly what we’ve been hoping from a celebration of two decades of Australia’s heaviest exports.
KATE ALLVEY