Gig Review

Parkway Drive
Heaven Shall Burn
Bristol, Academy
16th December 2014

Parkway Drive                   Heaven Shall Burn
            

Photo Of Heaven Shall Burn © Copyright TriggerI 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 Photo Of Heaven Shall Burn © Copyright Triggerto 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, Photo Of Heaven Shall Burn © Copyright Triggermessed 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 Photo Of Parkway Drive © Copyright Triggerfavourites 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 Photo Of Parkway Drive © Copyright Triggerthe 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.

Photo Of Parkway Drive © Copyright TriggerAs 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 Photo Of Parkway Drive © Copyright Triggereven 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

 Parkway Drive


Winston McCall
Luke Kilpatrick
Jeff Ling
Ben Gordon
Jia O'Connor

 Heaven Shall Burn


Maik Weichert
Alexander Dietz
Marcus Bischoff
Eric Bischoff
Christian Bass

 Band Related Links
Parkway Drive Facebook
Heaven Shall Burn Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?