LIVE REVIEW: Parkway Drive, While She Sleeps, Lorna Shore, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, 02/10/2022

Photo Credit: Stu Garneys

Parkway Drive are a band on the up. There is simply no denying this statement. Having embarked on a crazy world tour after the release of their seventh LP Reverence, the band have been working their socks off, which was all eventually rewarded with a coming-of-age headline slot at Wacken Open Air.

Their live show’s reputation has also gone through the roof, with the band really showing just how incredible metal in huge arenas can sound, look, and feel. Fresh off the release of their latest LP Darker Still, a slightly divisive record, it was always going to be interesting to see what the Australians would pull off on this tour.

However, beginning the night, we had one of the most talked about metal bands of the last 12 months, Lorna Shore. Lead singer Will Ramos simply isn’t human. He may look and talk like one, but the sounds this man can make are not from this planet. In the live setting, this is no different. Throughout the five song setlist which began with the modern-day deathcore classic Into The Hellfire, the band blew people’s faces off with how heavy they were. Evidently, some people were expecting this, some were not. However, we’d say most were entertained. 8/10

Sheffield metalcore outfit While She Sleeps followed who are another band whose trajectory just seems to continuously be going up and up with every release they put out. You could probably make a case for Sleeps to be headlining arenas pretty soon themselves. Especially with the band announcing a date at Alexandra Palace in September 2023.

Throughout their 40-minute set, the band simply played ‘the hits’, the setlist was pretty much spot on. The band played as if they were headlining the arena, their passion came through clear as day. The only slight negative was the mix as the toms were evidently a lot louder than pretty much anything on stage. As the band closed on SYSTEMATIC, it was evident the bands had left the stage with more fans than they had previous. What more can you ask from a support act? 9/10

Onto the main event, there was an evident sense of anticipation in the crowd and as the lights blanked out one by one, it felt like a horror film was about to begin. A group of people with flame filled torches came out followed by the Australians everyone had been waiting for.

Glitch opened the set with a huge bang (literally), it certainly did not take much for the crowd to get bouncing. Following this with Prey, Carrion, and Vice Grip should be illegal, you couldn’t catch your breath.

Despite being a Sunday night, the crowd were certainly up for it, Cemetery Bloom provided a brief breather, before fan favourites The Void and Karma kicked things back into action. Visually, the band made the most of their surroundings with cool visuals, and of course, plenty of fire.

Parkway also opted to bring on a string quartet for Shadow Boxing and Darker Still to add something a bit different to their show, and you will honestly never see a string quartet shred like that again. New tracks The Greatest Fear and Ground Zero were received well by the crowd despite not being out for as long.

Fan favourite Bottom Feeder’s huge drop, which seemingly ages like fine wine in the live setting signalled the end of Parkway’s set before the encore. Crushed signalled the beginning of the encore with perhaps the most fire you’ll ever see on a stage.

Literally everywhere you looked there was fire, and somehow even more sprung out in the chorus. This track live exemplifies the fact you can never have too much fire in a live show.

The brilliant sing along Wild Eyes brought the show to an end, with seemingly every person in the arena singing along to the iconic riff. It was a fitting end to a great night.

To conclude, Parkway Drive pretty much gave everyone in Nottingham arena about forty reasons as to why they could headline Download Festival down the road. They are creative, passionate, entertaining, and absolutely must-see live. If anything, they are just going to keep on getting better and better. 10/10

Written By: Joe Loughran

Photo Credit: Stu Garneys (30th September 2022 – Alexandra Palace, London)