| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING Ground Zero Like Napalm Glitch The Greatest Fear Darker Still Imperial Hectic If A God Can Bleed Soul Bleach Stranger Land Of The Lost From The Heart Of The Darkness Release Date: September 9, 2022 Label: Epitaph Records Website: www.parkwaydriverock.com www.facebook.com/parkwaydrive |  |
PARKWAY DRIVE IS:
Winston McCall - Vocals / Jeff Ling - Lead guitars / Luke Kilpatrick - Rhythm guitars
Ben Gordon - Drums / Jia O'Connor - Bass
Winston McCall - Vocals / Jeff Ling - Lead guitars / Luke Kilpatrick - Rhythm guitars
Ben Gordon - Drums / Jia O'Connor - Bass
I've mentioned that we all have those bands that we randomly discover by just clicking on a YouTube video or a song on Spotify, and they end up becoming a favourite of ours. However, there's also those bands that we are aware of, but we end up hearing or getting around to them much later on. For me, one of those bands is Parkway Drive. I started getting into the Australian lads over the last three years. However, as opposed to their hardcore fanbase who much prefer the metalcore sound of their first four albums, I'm much more into the classic/traditional metal direction of the last two albums (Ire and Reverence). The reasoning for this is because I've outgrown metalcore (for the most part), just like the band said they have, but I still found a handful of cool tunes from the first four albums. As a listener, the listening experience I had on Reverence was something else entirely. Hearing songs like "Prey", "Cemetery Bloom", "The Void" and especially "Chronos" was like an out-of-body experience.
| Starting off as a pure metalcore band from the 2000s to the early 2010s with Killing With A Smile, Horizons, Deep Blue and Atlas, they moved into a more classic/traditional metal direction with Ire and Reverence. The move to a more traditional metal sound made the metalcore era fans have an absolute conniption fit. I find it hilarious watching this group of fans turn into crybabies because they just open themselves up to be roasted to the max with the way they express their opinions. They keep trying to claim that the new direction isn't working when it clearly is. Seriously, some of these people need a mind examination when it comes to these things. You obviously aren't forced to like it, but at least understand why the band went in this direction. It's not always about YOU. | |
Anyway, moving on to the good stuff, four years after the release of Reverence, the Byron Bay lads are back with their seventh studio album Darker Still, and it very much continues in the direction that they took with Ire and Reverence, which makes me really happy. Given that they've reached the big leagues now, it's important that they write songs with crowd participation in mind, whether there's chanting sections or even guitar melodies that crowds will have no problem singing along to. Case in point, the stomping opener "Ground Zero" checks off all those points. The main riff/guitar melody, the chorus and the soaring "whooaas" all have the power to unify an entire arena or festival and initiate a monstrous sing-along session. The same can be said about "Glitch" and "Imperial Heretic" with the latter being one of the catchiest numbers on the record. It's a song that begs to be played live. "The Greatest Fear" takes a slightly different direction with an angelic intro, but the sledgehammer groove in the verses provides the power that energizes the song and makes it a song guaranteed of a big spotlight moment in the live show.
Getting back to the people who cry about the old Parkway sound not being there anymore, tracks like "Like Napalm", "Soul Bleach" and "From The Heart Of The Darkness" beg to differ, as they're the closest tracks to having elements of the old sound with the half-time approach creating a breakdown vibe, and Winston McCall bringing back his intense screams from those early albums. If that's not enough to convince you, you're just lying. The biggest eye-opener and head-turner of the album is the title track, which takes us into territory nobody ever thought Parkway would go in. It's the first full ballad the band has ever written, and is destined to be one of the biggest songs in their catalog. It showcases how far the band has come as songwriters and performers, and how underrated Jeff Ling is as a guitarist. The man plays with so much soul, you feel every note he plays. The song pays homage to bands like Metallica, Scorpions, Guns 'N Roses and Dire Straits. Built on the foundation of whistling and acoustic guitars, McCall brings a whole new dimension vocally with 80% cleans until the end where he injects the heaviness with screams. This single track contains more depth and emotion than I've been able to get out of any of the band's older material.
Darker Still is a near perfect album. The only flaw is "If A God Can Bleed". It's a short track, but it feels like it came to fruition from a night of sharing random ideas over bottles of alcohol. I know that's not what happened, but that's what it feels like to me. If this song was either left off the album, or constructed differently, it would've been a perfect record. Despite that flaw, Darker Still is another world class album that shows the Byron Bay lads care about writing songs with a much deeper level of emotion rather than just with heaviness, technicality and breakdowns. They are not silly immature kids anymore as they were on the early albums. They want to do what pleases them, and because the music is resonating with many people, it shows that they are here for the long haul. Both the pandemic and fractured band relationships may have given Parkway Drive more than a few scars while making this record, but they dug their way out of the ashes and re-appeared as strong as they've ever been.
The last thing I want to say to the crybabies is that if you think the new direction and all "mainstream metal" sounds exactly the same, well here's some shocking news for you. Metalcore and breakdowns all sound the same too. There, I just dropped a huge truth bomb on you. Anybody who says that it doesn't at this point in time is just lying. The truth hurts, doesn't it?
Getting back to the people who cry about the old Parkway sound not being there anymore, tracks like "Like Napalm", "Soul Bleach" and "From The Heart Of The Darkness" beg to differ, as they're the closest tracks to having elements of the old sound with the half-time approach creating a breakdown vibe, and Winston McCall bringing back his intense screams from those early albums. If that's not enough to convince you, you're just lying. The biggest eye-opener and head-turner of the album is the title track, which takes us into territory nobody ever thought Parkway would go in. It's the first full ballad the band has ever written, and is destined to be one of the biggest songs in their catalog. It showcases how far the band has come as songwriters and performers, and how underrated Jeff Ling is as a guitarist. The man plays with so much soul, you feel every note he plays. The song pays homage to bands like Metallica, Scorpions, Guns 'N Roses and Dire Straits. Built on the foundation of whistling and acoustic guitars, McCall brings a whole new dimension vocally with 80% cleans until the end where he injects the heaviness with screams. This single track contains more depth and emotion than I've been able to get out of any of the band's older material.
Darker Still is a near perfect album. The only flaw is "If A God Can Bleed". It's a short track, but it feels like it came to fruition from a night of sharing random ideas over bottles of alcohol. I know that's not what happened, but that's what it feels like to me. If this song was either left off the album, or constructed differently, it would've been a perfect record. Despite that flaw, Darker Still is another world class album that shows the Byron Bay lads care about writing songs with a much deeper level of emotion rather than just with heaviness, technicality and breakdowns. They are not silly immature kids anymore as they were on the early albums. They want to do what pleases them, and because the music is resonating with many people, it shows that they are here for the long haul. Both the pandemic and fractured band relationships may have given Parkway Drive more than a few scars while making this record, but they dug their way out of the ashes and re-appeared as strong as they've ever been.
The last thing I want to say to the crybabies is that if you think the new direction and all "mainstream metal" sounds exactly the same, well here's some shocking news for you. Metalcore and breakdowns all sound the same too. There, I just dropped a huge truth bomb on you. Anybody who says that it doesn't at this point in time is just lying. The truth hurts, doesn't it?
FINAL RATING
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