I
headed down to Bristol, Academy on what happened
to be a really cold rainy December night to watch
one of Australia’s finest metalcore band’s
Parkway Drive play a sold out show at the venue
and I managed to get into the venue just before
main supports Heaven Shall Burn took to the stage.
Heaven Shall Burn are a five piece metalcore band
from Saalfeld Germany who formed in 1996 and have
been signed to Century Media Records since 2004
and have gone on to
release 7 studio albums with 5 of them being on
Century Media Records.
Now I have never seen Heaven Shall Burn on the
live circuit before until tonight’s show
and I was in for a pleasant surprise as not only
are the band extremely heavy and know how to work
up a mosh pit with circle pits kicking off everywhere
but they are also a truly energetic band who like
to interact with everyone from the fans right
down to the security and photographers especially
front man Marcus Bischoff who through the bands
30minute set pretended to masturbate, spat all
over the crowd and photographers, messed
around with the photographers equipment and hair
and also greeted members of the audience with
some well appreciated fist punches and also at
one point lunched himself into the crowd to give
his fans an more intimate performance as he went
for a little crowd surf.
Musically Heaven Shall Burn were on form tonight
with each and every member of the band putting
at least 100% into their performance with front
man Marcus Bischoff putting that little extra
in and going above and beyond as mentioned above,
the songs flowed in heavy fashion with the band
opening up with ‘Counterweight’ and
playing through some fan favourites
such as ‘Land Of The Upright Ones’,
‘Hunters Will Be Hunted, ‘Combat’,
‘The Worlds In Me’, ‘The Disease’
right up until the closing heavy sounds of ‘Like
Gods Among Mortals’.
After what seemed like the biggest wait in-between
bands ever the lights dimmed and the musical introduction
of ‘Wild Eyes’ blasted through the
venues speakers as the audience of the sold out
venue started chanting “woah-woah-woah”
in time with the song as the five piece Australian
metal gods took to the stage with one of the best
lighting shows I have seen at a live show in a
long time and within minutes the
venue was covered in confetti and streamers as
Parkway Drive went all out on their stage show
letting some massive confetti cannons off throughout
the opening track covering the stage and their
fans.
The stage props that Parkway Drive brought with
them on this tour look liked the had gone down
to the local scrap yard with £50 and purchased
as much smashed up car parts as possible and somehow
fitted them all together to make up a pretty damn
impressive looking stage which looked like the
remains of a car crash, either way they somehow
managed to make a pile of junk look quite enticing.
As
the set progressed Parkway Drive played the likes
of ‘Sleepwalker’, ‘Karma’,
‘Dream Run’, ‘Idols And Anchors’,
‘Romance Is Dead’ but it was ‘Mutiny’
from the band’s debut album ‘Killing
With A Smile’ which went down the best with
the crowd with front man Winston McCall thanking
their fans for being with them right from the
start and treating them to one of their oldest
tracks.
The set came to an end with ‘Swing’
before the band returned to the stage seconds
later for a two song encore of ‘Horizons’
and ‘Carrion’ which had the crowd
letting off even
more energy in the pit as the likes of Winston
McCall, Jeff Ling, Luke Kilpatrick and Jia O’Connor
charged the stage for the final time of the night.
Overall tonight’s show was spot on, Heaven
Shall Burn warmed the crowd up nicely and Parkway
Drive proved exactly why they are rising superstars
who are gaining a bigger fan base all the time
and I am pretty sure that many people left the
venue tonight with aching muscles from moshing
so hard and sore throats from keeping up with
the hard hitting vocals from Winston McCall.
Heaven Shall Burn 4/5
Parkway Drive 5/5
Review By Trigger
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