PARKWAY DRIVE

+ Polaris + Justice For The Damned

@ The Metro Sydney

18/01/18

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Chantelle Angileri

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Marking ten years since their debut album Horizons, Parkway Drive finally announced the tour we had all been waiting for. Hitting Australia with more than one show per city was exactly what Parkway’s devoted fans would have craved to celebrate this monumental moment with them. If anyone has been to the Metro in Sydney, you know you’re in for a sweaty and heavy mosh filled night when you enter the main room and hit a wall of thick humidity. Thursday night wasn’t any different.

Support act, Sydney based band Justice For The Damned started the night off perfectly, with their hardcore, heavy metal sound. Followed by Sydney’s south band Polaris who got the crowd roaring with excitement in the lead up to Parkway Drive’s performance. Waiting for the main act to come on stage was a dead set give away for the energy that was to take over that room. As soon as the hardcore heroes from Byron Bay showed their faces, each and every person standing beside me cheered like they were faced with their ultimate metal core champions and it was pretty obvious that was exactly the case.

The five piece Australian band started their epic set with ‘Feed Em To The Pigs’ and the crowd couldn’t contain themselves. With a slight chuckle from each band member between songs, it was clear that they found the enthusiasm in the room to be complete entertainment. Winston McCall (vocals) looked as though he was proud to have fans dressed in banana suits, crowd surfing, while he shook the hands of those who were being lost out at sea.

The crowd were charged up throughout the entire set due to the atmosphere created by each and every band member on stage. You couldn’t ignore their enthusiasm and passion to be performing in front of the fans they had built over the past 15 years. McCall, Ling, O’Connor, Gordon and Kilpatrick continued to smash out hit after hit, keeping the energy alive until the very end.

As soon as Parkway Drive concluded their track Breaking Point, McCall announced that his expectations for the night were highly exceeded and it couldn’t have been clearer from the audience that the feelings were mutual. They continued to play their standout tracks including ‘Dead Mans Chest’, ‘Frostbite’ and ‘Horizons’, to name a few. The masters of creating melodic tracks had yet again proved that they are one of the best in the business. I couldn’t have been more ok with leaving the venue drenched in sweat which was questionable to be my own. If you are open to wild crowds, out of control circle pits and being faced with some of the best musicians on the planet, don’t miss the next time Parkway Drive hit the stage.

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