Album review: Parkway Drive – Darker Still

By DAVE ‘METAL KINGO’ KINGDOM

LET me start by saying that I love Parkway Drive. Always have. I knew of them in the Killing With A Smile days but when I heard Deep Blue, that’s when I really started to take notice. I even met the guys when I went to see them a few years back and they are genuine, down to earth fellas.

As someone who grew up a teenager of the 80s and early 90s, thrash is definitely my thing. Having grown up with all of the great metal that was coming out during those years, you may be surprised to know that I actually like a bit of metalcore, including Parkway, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, All that Remains, and Bullet For My Valentine to name a few. But to me, Parkway Drive were always just heavier. The riffs, the breakdowns, the vocals. Heavy as fuck.

I understand that it is hard to maintain the rage that a band may have when they are young and trying to make it in the music industry, especially as they get older and begin to have more success. So I get where Parkway Drive were going when they released Reverence (and to a lesser extent, Ire). It was a solid album with some absolute standout tracks, such as “Wishing Wells”, “The Void and Prey”. It worked for them and deserve every bit of their success. For an independent band that’s self-managed, self-promoted and who have done it all with little or no radio airplay to go from playing youth centres to headlining Wacken is an achievement that cannot be understated.

So you can imagine my anticipation when I first saw that new Parkway Drive music was on its way. I eagerly listened to the first single “Glitch” but it left me a little disappointed. It’s not a bad song – but certainly not memorable. I decided to keep an open mind and wait to check out the rest of the album before making my mind up. But unfortunately, my first impressions were spot on.

Overall, I find the riffs on Darker Still quite stock and boring, the lyrics uninspiring and the solos make it feel like Kirk Hammett joined PWD (what is with all the wah wah?). This album very much feels like the leftovers from the Reverence cutting room floor, which quite frankly should have been left there.

“Soul Bleach” is an absolute banger, as is “Land of the Lost”. The rest of the album is very mediocre and the only way that I could get any enjoyment out of this album was to pretend that I was listening to a band I’d never heard before and forget who it actually was. “If A God Can Bleed” is terrible and by far the worst track on the album. Do yourself a favour and skip it.

All in all, the production is quite good, there are some heavy moments, both lyrically and musically and those people who are recent converts to Parkway Drive will probably enjoy this album. But for me, this album is very “meh”. I think I’ll stick with Deep Blue and Atlas.