Carrion was the first Parkway Drive song that I had ever heard and I immediately got chills during the intro. From there, I went back into the band’s entire discography. This band will forever be one of my favorite bands not only because their music is kickass, but also because they are genuine guys. I met them at the Carolina Rebellion in 2018 and they were all super cool! They said that they liked my $5 Walmart sunglasses, and they also put hearts around their signatures on my poster.
Parkway Drive is from Byron Bay, Australia and they formed in 2003. The band has released six full-length albums: Killing with a Smile (2006), Horizons (2009), Deep Blue (2010), Atlas (2012), Ire (2015), and Reverence (2018).
The band got their name, Parkway Drive, from the street where their home rehearsal space was at. The home was also a venue for live shows because there was a lack of venues for punk rock and hardcore punk bands to play at. Parkway Drive played their first show at the Byron Bay Youth Centre.
The band flew to the United States where they recorded Killing with a Smile with Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz in just two weeks. Then the band got signed in 2006 to Epitaph Records. They went back to Dutkiewicz studio to record Horizons. The band hit the studio again to record Deep Blue, and according to Parkway Drive’s vocalists, Winston McCall, this record would be the rawest and heaviest record to date.
And as they say, the rest is history! The band has steadily been going up and getting bigger and bigger as each year passes. They went from playing at small house venues, to selling out big name arenas. Parkway Drive has “IT;” this edge to them, you can hear it in their music and you can see it in them when they perform live. They have this energy that puts their audience in a trance and you can’t help but jam when they play. They have that special combination that assures that the band will be even bigger! You can tell that they love what they are doing and that they’re playing for their fans. Having a band that is so genuine make it so far is honestly a breath of fresh air. Keep grinding, Parkway Drive. I can’t wait to see where you all go from here.
One of my favorite memories of seeing Parkway Drive was back in 2016 when one of their guitarists lost his shoe and a crowd surfer caught it and threw it back deeper into the crowd. The guitarist found this funny! And then out of nowhere, we had toilet paper being thrown around the crowd. It was awesome!
What is your favorite Parkway Drive song? Mine is Crushed.
Stay Metal,
THE SAW