So this is it… the day I’m finally going to see my favourite Australian band live on stage for the first time! I’ve been a Parkway Drive fan since I discovered the Metalcore scene for me at the age of 15. And though their style has gone through some changes over the years, I’ve never been let down by one of their albums. When I held their latest record IRE in my hands and listened to the new tunes, I felt so excited knowing the guys did it again – they produced another masterpiece. After touring abroad, Parkway Drive finally announced they’d hit the main spots in Australia, so last Sunday I was on the way to the Goldie. 

After two supports, Parkway Drive jumped on stage performing the song “Destroyer” from their newest album and they were absolutely killing it! The venue was ideal as there was enough space to move and still it didn’t seem empty at all. Their set list consisted of a perfectly balanced mix of old songs - especially tracks from Deep Blue -  and new ones. But they could have played longer, because their gig seemed very short.

After the first two songs the crowd was going crazy, welcoming Parkway with mosh pits and crowd surfs. The mosh’s were hectic, but fortunately this was one of the most polite crowds that I’ve ever experienced and almost no one was injured. Although the band was smashing their new songs, I had the feeling the old tunes clicked better, as their fans were losing their shit/minds when Parkway Drive hit the first notes of their song “Karma”.

One of my highlights of the evening was “Bottom Feeder”, a song off the latest record, because it shows exactly what Parkway Drive stands for: Hard guitar riffing and heavy growls without much clean vocals. Although they chose really good songs, I was waiting for my all-time favourite “Romance Is Dead”. To my disappointment they also didn’t perform “A Deathless Song”– this song from IRE shows their musical variety, because it doesn’t follow the standards of their usual style as it is softer with clean vocals. 

But anyways, the show was great, though it was a little short, and every Parkway fan that didn’t go definitely missed out. Parkway Drive finished their show (way too early, but we can never get enough of them anyway) with “Home Is For The Heartless” – the only calm song they played that night, the perfect song to finish this evening.

- Natti Städtler