Parkway Drive: Live @ Cardiff International Arena - Hive Magazine
On their first UK appearances since their UK tour in 2019, Australian metalcore royalty Parkway Drive are back on British shores in support of their new album ‘Darker Still’. Today caught them at Cardiff International Arena.
With the extremely daunting task of warming up the room is American deathcore outfit Lorna Shore. After a massive resurgence in popularity with the release of their EP ‘...And I Return To Nothingness’ last year and appearances at Bloodstock, So What, and Lollapalooza, they should have absolutely nothing to worry about when it comes to riling up a room full of metalheads. Vocalist Will Ramos wastes no time and introduces ‘To The Hellfire’ as their opening track – they're REALLY not messing around. They are turned up to eleven from the off, with Ramos’ infamous pig squeals drawing an almost primal reaction from the crowd. Lorna Shore have used a short half hour set to cement themselves back onto the gig circuit and have proved that they are more than ready to play arenas – the circle pit that draws in at least a few hundred people says that itself.
You would be mistaken if you had thought this evening was a While She Sleeps gig. The amount of Sleeps t-shirts and flags milling about the venue screams it for sure, but they are simply the main support. But they are anything but ‘simple’. The last time they played in Wales was over a year ago in Bridgend’s infamous Hobos – an extremely intimate and sweaty venue that allowed Sleeps to get up close and personal with their adoring fan base. Tonight, however, gives them a chance to flex their muscles to a crowd of a few thousand and this fact has not been wasted on them. They have upped their ante, adorning the stage with banners, flags, decorated speaker cabs, and anything else they can get their hands on. They use this set to play their greatest hits, starting with a brutal trifecta of ‘Sleeps Society’, ‘Anti-Social’ & ‘You Are All You Need’, and easily please existing fans and even rope in some new ones with their own unique mix of bassy synth and technical guitar work from Sean Long and Mat Welsh, who both also utilize their vocal abilities throughout to support and enhance front man Loz Taylor. While bassist Aaran McKenzie uses his lack of tethered microphone to roam the stage freely, while drummer Adam Savage acts like an absolute machine and keeps everything powering forward. As veterans of the UK metal scene, they don’t really need to introduce themselves and yet they still manage to come away from every gig they support with new fans and cementing the love for their older ones.
On the final date of their European tour, Parkway Drive are looking to go out with a bang, and they quite literally do. As the rest of the band are led onto stage by a procession of fire-wielding hooded characters, front man Winston McCall chooses to use the element of surprise and pretty much materializes onto the end of the catwalk, springing up through the stage floor. They use this as a springboard, launching straight into ‘Glitch’, the first single to be released from ‘Darker Still’ earlier this year. It provides the perfect driving beat to throw the audience back into their frenzy of pitting and doesn’t allow them to slow down in the slightest. ‘Prey’ and ‘Carrion’ back-to-back does nothing to quell the flames, both from the audience and the literal flames that erupt from the stage itself. They keep their driving pace up and refuse to let it slip, with front man Winston McCall riling the crowd up with his one-man crowd killing act at the end of the catwalk. They may be a typical ‘marmite’ band in the metal scene - you either love them or hate them – but there is absolutely no denying that they know how to put on a show. They're a completely solid act and have the production values to back this fact up, with flames, pyro, and a synchronized light show accompanying each and every song as they see fit – the highlight of this has to be the lights that spell out guitarist Jeff Ling’s name as he solos at the end of the catwalk during ‘The Void’. Honestly? It's unbelievably camp and it's not the sort of thing you ever expect to see at a metal show, but Parkway Drive are the only band that could get away with something like that.
A string quartet even makes an appearance just to bring ‘Shadow Boxing’ and ‘Darker Still’ to its full on-record glory. The latter of these gives McCall a chance to show off his tender vocals and surprisingly impressive voice. It brings the tempo down, but it gives the audience a much-needed rest after the frenzy of the evening, giving them a chance to pull out torches and lighters to light up the entire room. As the tempo and energy picks back up for the final few songs McCall makes his way to the back of the stage as the pyro explodes around him but he remains unfazed, instead watching the carnage unfold before him from the highest level of the stage, much like a king observing his kingdom. For tonight, that is exactly what Cardiff is for Parkway Drive.
