Back in May 2018 Parkway Drive released their sixth studio album ‘Reverence’ an album which was met with rave reviews from the press and pure excitement from the bands hard core following of fans, since the release of ‘Reverence ‘ 8 months ago Parkway Drive have been busy touring America, Canada and also their homeland of Australia and now they are kicking 2019 off with a tour of UK and Europe a tour which happens to mark their first ever Arena tour in these countries and one that has been a long time coming.
Main support tonight were metal core legends Killswitch Engage and their set tonight was exactly what you would expect from Killswitch Engage acting like a mini greatest hits set as they played the likes of ‘Strength Of The Mind’, ‘The End Of Heartache’, ‘My Curse’, ‘Always’, ‘My Last Serenade’, ‘Fixation On The Darkness’ and ‘In Due Time’ and judging by the crowd’s reaction a good portion of the crowd were clearly here for Killswitch Engage.
Now I have never seen Killswitch Engage on the live circuit with Jesse Leach on vocals and it was an absolute pleasure to do so as the man has such good stage presence and is clearly a born entertainer and the fans absolutely love him and also Killswitch Engage in general , and listening to thousands of people sing –a-long to ‘My Last Serenade’ was truly amazing.
Parkway Drive are not a band who like to play it by the book and tonight they proved that from the start as before they took to the stage the venue was plunged into darkness as ‘Absolute Power’ was played through the venues PA system as one side of the venue a path is formed as a group of cloaked people walk beside the band each carrying a flamed lantern in hand as they make their way to the front of the stage and before you know it a spotlight is focused on frontman Winston McCall and the band start as they mean to go on for the next hour and an half with their heavy metal core ways getting the pit flowing within the Motorpoint Arena.
Parkway Drive kick off with ‘Wishing Wells’ and ‘Prey’ which is a double header of songs from their latest album ‘Reverence’ an album which is heavily dominated throughout their 17 track set tonight but older moments like ‘Carrion’ and the ‘Ire’ era fan favourite ‘Vice Grip’ manage to whip up a frenzy early on in the set.
Musically Parkway Drive have evolved over the years, they are still as aggressive as they have always been, however they now have a more melodic edge and are a lot more accessible than during their early days, they are also lot tighter looking, feeling and sounding as a band and in general on the live circuit but the biggest change for the band is how they have seriously upped their game with their stage show and could easily give the kings of Pyrotechnics Rammstein a run for their money as there are sparks, explosions, flames and not to forget the epic moment towards the end of the show when Winston McCall throws a Molotov cocktail to the back of the stage wich sets the stage and a massive logo on fire in such an jaw dropping way.
Moments like ‘Idols And Anchors’, ‘Absolute Power’, ‘Writings On The Wall’, ‘Wild Eyes’ and ‘Shadow Boxing’ really go down a storm however it’s the hard hitting encore of ‘Crushed ‘ and ‘Bottom Feeder’ which really make the night due to the fire erupting on stage but also due to the hard hitting nature of these songs which see’s the mosh pit constantly flowing.
2019 is clearly a massive year for Parkway Drive it’s the year where they finally get to take on arenas and if tonight’s show is anything to go by then its safe to say that Parkway Drive have already mastered how to play an arena show and how to keep the crowd entertained throughout, it has also just been announced that Parkway Drive will be back in the summer to headline Bloodstock Festival which happens to be their first ever festival Headline slot in the UK which is massive news for them and the festival and I also think that its only a matter of time until they are back in the UK headlining the Download Festival.
Killswitch Engage 4/5
Parkway Drive 5/5
Review By Trigger |
Winston McCall
Adam Dutkiewicz