Parkway Drive - Deep Blue - Review

What happens when a band turns quite a few heads with their first signed album? Well, apart from enduring the seething jealousy of lesser artists trying to make their way, they do their very best to write a follow up album that impresses even further. So what happens then when that same band writes one of the most intimidating and musically jaw dropping sophomore albums that metalcore has to offer? According to Parkway Drive, they name that album a masterpiece and move on to record another that sounds different. Amazing feats were achieved in Horizons, insane guitar solos and ingenious breakdowns and so on, but instead of entertaining vain attempts outdo to themselves in that same style, the Byron Bay boys have undertaken a brutish new sound for their third studio album, Deep Blue.

Upon first terms with the new album, the band seemed to have become extremely shy of creativity, opening shortly with a very typical breakdown, and following with the previously revealed new song “Unrest”. The purpose is clearly to queue avid listeners into the new brutality that is Deep Blue, but is at most a collision of several cookie-cutter breakdowns. With initial impressions sagging my excitement a bit, “Sleepwalker” emerged in a hyper new form that Parkway Drive has never taken before, deploying a catchy guitar riff teamed with a steady kick beat. As it lulls into concaves of sluggish beatdowns, it does well to rear back into full speed and offer a fantastic harmony of string mastery and powerful vocals.

Where Horizons was a sinister and spear headed creature, Deep Blue is a much more hulking beast. The music relies heavily now on massive chords and steady drumming. Ben Gordon parallels his drums to Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick’s guitars more so than ever, creating a stronger bond and a fuller sound. “Wreckage” is a beautiful example of this. The teamwork of the instruments accented by Winston McCall’s guttural vocals exemplifies a well oiled machine working at full capacity.

“Deadweight” carries a hopeful ambience in its folds of intensity. The blistering speed continues at full throttle until a marvelous breakdown, and I continue to gasp in awe at the fortitude of McCall’s ridiculous vocals. They have been a mainstay in Parkway Drives music, and continue to be as he gains experience and variation. “Alone” does finally relax the album a little bit. Though mostly uneventful, it has its moments of aspiration and serves as a worthy monster of a ballad. “Pressures” opens a little strangely, but soon instigates a rampage of breakdowns, thrash beats, and background guitar solos. The riot spills over into “Deliver Me”, which gets sincerely circle-pit-dirty at times, and tweedles a few guitar strings in pretty harmonies. But the breakdown that follows the excruciating build up in the middle of the track is commenced by such an epic scream; I dare you not to bang your head. This is definitely my pick for best moment of Deep Blue, contending with the notorious end to Horizons’ “Boneyards”, “there’s blood in the water.”

The party continues into “Karma”, which is opened by Ben Gordon’s chance to really show off, but if I may say so, McCall’s vocals are exceptional as well, dropping on a dime to a range of different pitches. “Home is for the Heartless” now slows thing down a little bit with frequent doses of docile gang vocals and a guest appearance of Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, and experiments in touches of pop-punk influenced metal, which seems to be gaining a foothold in heavier bands. “Hollow”, I think, takes a page out of PD’s first album, Killing With a Smile, basing on breakdown beats and hardcore influences, especially when adding in more guest vocals from The Warriors’ Marshall Lichtenwaldt.

I never felt like the album ended properly, but that’s just me. “Leviathan I” passes in generally the same fashion as the majority of the album, but the final track is so short and sudden, the ending feels unnatural. While both tracks are impressive, there was no tone of farewell. In fact, “Set To Destroy” pumped me up even more than the previous tracks. Though Deep Blue clocked in at an impressive 45 minutes, I still wanted to hear more.

Parkway Drive hooked a lot of people into fandom with their first release, then impressed the crap out of a lot more with their sophomore release, but now their ambition stands that they cut a new path for themselves. To disappoint me, Deep Blue doesn’t have any of the unprecedented guitar solos like Horizons did, and the breakdowns are slightly less inspired in my opinion. To impress me beyond reason however, it does dive into a deeper pool of brutality than they have in the past and the musicianship and teamwork that they now practice has built up a new standard for metalcore. I am not convinced that Deep Blue is written quite as well as Horizons, but differently and certainly more professionally. It has earned from me a steady 4 out of 5 napkins.

Artist: Parkway Drive
Album: Deep Blue
Release: June 29, 2010
Label: Epitaph Records
Length: 45 minutes, 5 seconds
Rating: 4/5