Parkway Drive – Reverence

Parkway Drive released their sixth album ‘Reverence’ yesterday and this is probably the last one I’ll ever review from them. They’ve turned into a Five Finger Death Punch, stadium rock wanna-be band and it’s not just me saying that, the band literally said they “outgrew” metalcore.

So with that, I say goodbye to Parkway Drive. You were one of the metalcore gods, a true pillar of the genre, but you haven’t made good music since 2012, and have truly forsaken us with this release. I’m sure you’ll still headline tours and bring decently heavy bands with you, but you’ll still occupy that top spot that bands like Wage War and Ice Nine Kills can never take until you finally disband, and that is really the biggest tragedy of this whole thing.

I still remember when “Dark Days”, the first single on ‘Atlas’ came out, and blew everyone’s minds. It hit a million views in a day and I can’t believe PWD didn’t realize they hit their peak with that sound; it was so mature, and while it was different than their earlier records, it still had all the elements that people always loved.

On ‘Reverence’ you get “Wishing Wells” as the first single and it’s like Winston just heard King 810 for the first time and thought “yeah I should do that but worse”. I was still optimistic though because there are some solid 30 second sections that were decent. And then they crushed all that hope by releasing “The Void” which is the absolute definition of stadium rock.

Look, it’s not just that the music sucks, it’s that this album is lazy. It’s only 10 songs and two of them are essentially interludes. Cemetery Bloom is a 3:30 lead up to The Void filled with talking as the band attempts to give the album some kind of atmosphere. The other one is the outro song, which also only has talking and is supposed to give the album some power, but is so bad that people are just going to skip it. I guess that means the album ends with “Chronos” which is the only positive thing this release has going for it.

The worst part is that every song in this album has something that makes me cringe. The first minute of “Shadow Boxing” is apparently Winston’s entrance into the rap game and I’m just trying to imagine how anyone thought this song was acceptable. It’s like a mix of Winston seeing if he can pull off clean singing, out of place symphonic elements, and a drop every 30 seconds when the band realizes they can’t actually continue making rap.

Now, for the only positive thing I have to say: “Chronos” is far and away the best song on ‘Reverence’. Why? Because it actually sounds a bit like old Parkway. This absolutely could have been on ‘Atlas’ next to “The River” or “Dream Run”. It’s a legit metal song that doesn’t rely on chants, gang vocals, or simple riffs.