Parkway Drive
October 30, 2015
House of Blues- Anaheim, CA
Halloween eve is well known for kids buying costumes last minute and adults inviting friends over for their drunken Halloween bash the next night, as well as people preparing their house to look its best for trick-or-treaters. However, on this particular date, metal and rock fans gathered at the House of Blues in Anaheim for a night they may never forget.
The Ire (anger) tour named after Parkway Drive’s recent album release consisted of headliner Parkway Drive, as well as the opening bands Miss May I and In Hearts Wake. Thy Art Is Murder is also playing this tour as an opening band for Parkway Drive, but were unable to play any dates that took place on Disneyland grounds. Thy Art Is Murder had the following to say: “We are very sorry to announce that due to the narrow minded, corporate censoring goons over at Disney, we will be unable to join Parkway Drive on their upcoming dates at Anaheim on October 30th and Orlando Lake Buena Vista on November 23rd.”
The 2nd show of the tour kicked off at House of Blues Anaheim around 7pm with In Hearts Wake, who reigns from Byron Bay, New South Wales in Australia. The band is fronted by singer Jake Taylor and backed by guitarists Ben Nairne and Eaven Dall, bass player Kyle Erich, and a fill in drummer, Conor Ward, who is replacing Caleb Burton. (Whose recent departure was made public on the band’s Facebook page in March.) Nonetheless they have yet to slow down. The band released Skydancer on May 4th, which reached number 2 on the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) charts. Fans had the following to say about Skydancer’s release: “There’s a reason Australia is known for deadly things. Because this album kills.” And another mentioning “…amazing band, amazing sound, amazing message. Breakaway was flawless.”
In Hearts Wake’s live set consisted of songs from each of the bands three albums, which provided fans a reason to begin getting rowdy and letting out some energy before the following bands came on. They opened with Gaia which immediately had fans in the front row singing along while grabbing fans in the back attention. Taylor brought high kicks and a series of unclean vocals to the band’s set while Narine, Dall, and Erich shredded, head banged, and leaned over amps in an effort to connect with every crowd member in attendance. IHW also played Earthwalker, Survival (The Chariot), Departure (Death), Breakaway, and a few others before finishing off the set with Divine.
Following In Hearts Wake came Troy, Ohio’s finest Miss May I. MMI is composed of Levi Benton, who screams for the band, Ryan Neff, who plays bass guitar and does clean vocals, BJ Stead, who plays lead guitar and also does backing clean vocals, Justin Aufdemkampe, who plays rhythm guitar, and Jerod Boyd, who plays drums for the band. Miss May I has made a total of five albums since 2009. The latest album is titled Deathless and was produced by Joey Sturgis who produced Miss May I’s albums Apologies Are for the Weak and Monument. Deathless made five Billboard charts and peaked between two and five. iTunes users gave the band 4 ½ stars out of 5, saying the album was “very metal” and that it had a good sound.
Miss May I came out energized to the slow guitar intro of I.H.E. (I Hate Everything) leading up to the faster guitar part and drums, as well as the beat of the bass providing grounds for Benton to begin screaming “This is a breath that I have to take, feel my lungs ignite.” The crowd’s reaction was opening a large mosh pit in the center of the crowd, which would continue through the band’s entire set. The strong set continued on with Relentless Chaos – which did exactly what the song title says and created persistent chaos with the mosh pit widening, crowd surfers flying over the barricade only to be caught by the security guards, and giving fans a chance to high five Benton as he screamed “RELENTLESS CHAOS.” Before the band played Bastards Left Behind, Levi asked that all fans make their way to the front and give him a high five! With photographers still crowded in the tiny pit area fans began to come at the security feet first, a mouthful of the band’s lyrics, and hands stretched to ensure they got a high five.
MMI continued the ongoing mayhem with Our Kings, Deathless, Masses of a Dying Breed, and Turn Back the Time. After getting the fans to a more than acceptable hype for Parkway Drive, they announced that Hey Mister would be their final song of the night. During the song every fan was shouting the lyrics until Benton took a minute to pause in between lyrics to ask the crowd to put their middle fingers up. Once the entire crowd and upper level of the House of Blues had done so Levi yelled “THIS IS THE ANTHEM FOR YOU COWARDS.” Miss May I was a great opener for Parkway Drive and is a band that should not be overlooked if they come to your city
Parkway Drive began playing in 2003 out of Byron Bay, New South Wales. The band is comprised of drummer Ben Gordon, guitarists Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling, lead singer Winston McCall, and bass guitar player Jia O’Connor. Since 2003 this band has had five successful album releases titled Killing With A Smile, Horizons, Deep Blue, Atlas, and Ire. Parkway has also been able to make the top ten ARIA charts with the bands last four albums. Ire, which was released in 2015 gained the number one spot on the charts. Parkway Drive is notorious for their metal/deathcore sound and now bringing a “refreshing take on metalcore” according to Metal Injection’s Robert Pasani about the release of Ire.
When fans began to chant “Parkway Drive! Parkway Drive!” shortly after Miss May I exited the stage there was little to no doubt who the majority of fans showed up to see. This theory was confirmed when Parkway Drive began playing the intro to Destroyer (the band’s first track off of Ire) in the dark and fans began to chant “DE-STROY, DE-STORY” to Gordon’s hard drumming beat. As this went on for the next fifteen seconds the lights behind the band rose and McCall began motioning for the fans to scream louder. A few short seconds later McCall crouched and screamed “DESTROYER.” Suddenly they began playing in full force and the two cannons lined up on both sides of the stage fired streamers into the crowd and confetti into the air.
As soon as Parkway Drive finished their first song they jumped right into their second song head first. Gordon kicked off the beat once again as Kilpatrick and Ling began shredding O’Connor joined in unison with his bass. McCall spoke to the fans saying “It’s time to step it up a bit..it’s gonna get a bit heavier!” And that’s when McCall sang “DIE DIE DYING TO BELIEVE!” As the band members got pumped and began to jump around Ling was unable to join in the high flying due to a surgery that took place before the tour started; however, this did not stop Ling from missing a note nor spinning around in his wheel chair to celebrate the band’s new album.
Following Dying to Believe was fan favorite Carrion. The band spun, smiled, and played the song as perfectly as if it was the album itself. All the while, fans in the crowd took every opportunity McCall gave to scream their loudest along each part of the song as others chose to crowd surf their way to the front. The band continued their fourteen song set with Dark Days, Karma, Vice Grip, Idols and Anchors, Deliver Me, Sleep Walker, Bottom Feeder, Wild Eyes, Swing, and two encore songs – Crushed and Home Is for the Heartless.
Multiple fans were impressed by Parkway Drive’s unforgiving, unrelenting set and energy by the end of the night. Parkway Drive couldn’t help but mention how impressed they were by their fans for their continuous energy throughout the bands set. In Hearts Wake, Miss May I, and Parkway Drive brought their own styles, but did not disappoint as they did a phenomenal job and impressed the crowd in attendance. Make sure to catch these bands on the remaining North American tour dates running through December 6th.
Review by: Dane Burns
Parkway Drive
Miss May I
