Album Review: Parkway Drive-Ire

After establishing themselves as a premier metalcore act on their first three records (2005’s Killing with a Smile,  2007’s Horizons and 2010’s Deep Blue), Parkway Drive decided to expand their sound on 2012’s Atlas. The incorporation of new elements such as strings, acoustic guitars and pianos alongside their trademark barrage of breakdowns and screamed vocals proved to be very successful as Atlas was amongst the best material they’ve ever made. Their newest record, Ire, sees Parkway Drive further experimenting with their sound, but with much more mixed results than Atlas.
 
The basis for Parkway Drive’s experiments are completely sound, they are just squandered by really poor execution. Just about every song on the record lacks any semblance of focus and feels more like a string of random ideas than a single cohesive song. Songs like “Crushed”, “Bottom Feeder” and “The Sound of Violence” are especially misguided as they can’t decide if they’re nu-metal, abrasive spoken-word or straightforward metalcore tracks. Even the stronger material such as “Destroyer” and “Dying to Believe” are dragged down by the hodgepodge of clashing ideas that run through them. “Destroyer” matches a riff that sounds like Van Halen-esque arena rock with the most intense screams vocalist Winston McCall has in his repertoire while “Dying to Believe” breaks its solid, super-heavy metalcore formula with periodic odes to Slipknot complete with McCall ripping off Corey Taylor’s exact vocal delivery and cadence. It’s great that Parkway Drive wanted to keep things fresh by exploring new musical territory, but the attempts to stray from their established sound on Ire are poorly constructed and largely underwhelming.

Ire is further brought down by the overwhelming corny vibe that runs through it. While Parkway Drive has has its fair share of corny elements in the past, they are ratcheted up to a completely intolerable level here. The frequent use of gang vocals and attempts at writing “deep” lyrics are just sad. When McCall bellows things like “To the left I see the rats and to the right I see the snakes/ In my ear they’re whispering sweet sermons of cruel hate” on “Crushed” and “We’ll all go to heaven in a little row boat” on “Writings on the Wall”- an absolutely laughable attempt to mimic Rage Against the Machine’s sound and lyrics about taking a stand against government injustice- you can’t help but cringe. The quality of McCall’s vocals and guitarist Jeffrey Ling’s ability to write a seemingly endless amount of spectacular riffs prevent Ire from truly bottoming out, but the scattershot, gimmicky songwriting and generally unmemorable songs make this the first misstep in Parkway Drive’s discography.


2.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Destroyer
2.Fractures
3.Dying to Believe