Putting the words Western and Metalcore together don’t really make sense or at least they didn’t until Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive made their sixth album Reverence. The straight edge, vegan and anti-fascist Australian rockers make music for the disenfranchised though they often lack specific messages meaning their punches don’t often land as hard as they should. With that said Parkway Drive know what it means to feel hopeless and helpless and often that’s enough.
Many of the songs off Reverence seem to hearken to some folkloric cowboy mythology. Winston McCall’s vocals seem to speak to the inner workings of some demented, revenge-oriented cowboy. “I got an axe to grind, A crooked mind,” is growled like Clint Eastwood took up punk rock instead of acting. Throughout the furious riffs and leads from Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick burn hot like the desert sun though they lack the breakneck intensity of the band’s earlier work.
On the likes of ‘Absolute Power’ Parkway Drive do what they do best: rail against the mighty. Rarely do they offer up a scapegoat for their politically motivated music. Other bands such as Dawn Ray’d are unafraid to do so but if Parkway Drive are going for a more general sense of protest it’s getting kind of old. Lines like “So tell me how can we demonise when we can’t see lies through another’s eyes?” don’t have the same kind of floor punching intensity as they used to no matter how explosive the guitars might be.
Still Parkway Drive do show growth on the likes of ‘Shadow Boxing’ and album closer ‘The Colour of Leaving’ on which McCall sings about his own failings and death in a cleaner style. It’s a nice change and the choral touches on ‘Cemetery Bloom’ give the song and the album as a whole an arena ready feel while staying anchored to the metalcore roots that made Parkway Drive so intense to begin with. With that said the a Capella sign off on ‘The Colour of Leaving’ feels like a bit much and definitely doesn’t reach the highs McCall so definitely wants it too.
Other songs like ‘The Void’ give listeners something no one wanted. Commercial hardcore is the worst kind often betraying what the sub-genre stands for. It sounds like something Five Finger Death Punch would make. The production’s saccharine sweetness when compared to the aggressive bellows McCall once used to put fascists in their place. Metalcore needs texture otherwise its just a heavier version of Nickelback’s worst music.
Parkway Drive always sought to fight against systems of oppression but with Reverence that desire is slowly bleeding away even if the band don’t intend for that. The choir and McCall’s cleaner vocals signify a new direction but that direction seems unclear except of course financially. Reverence is sure to gain the band more fans but the question is: are they the right ones? Andrew Carroll.
3/5
Cold Coffee Press 