Parkway Drive: Wild Eyes – new video & Atlas – full album stream

Enormously popular PARKWAY DRIVE have released a brand new video for the track ‘Wild Eyes’, taken from their immensely successful 2012 album ‘Atlas’. Their previous cooperation with director Aaron Hymes resulted in tremendously well-received video ‘Dark Days’ (over 3.5 million views on YouTube) which can be seen below. What can be found below as well is the full ‘Atlas’ stream, courtesy the label Epitaph Records. The fourth studio album from this amazing young band of wave riders was received enthusiastically by fans, hitting position number 7 on the iTunes overall charts and climbing to position number 32 on the Billboard Top 200. ‘Atlas’ entered the band's home country charts (ARIA Charts) at number 3, New Zealand's (RIANZ) at number 12 and Germany's (Media Control Charts) at number 22. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Matt Hyde; its deluxe package includes the ‘Home Is For The Heartless’ DVD, a travelogue featuring one of the most heavily traveled acts' many adventures while touring destinations usually less traveled by this music's representatives, including Colombia, China, India and Indonesia. The ‘Atlas’ awaits you here (PARKWAY DRIVE store), here (Epitaph store) and on iTunes:

“The album was written at a time the band was travelling very extensively which had a major effect on the lyrics,” [commented vocalist Winston McCall:] “While there is no overarching theme, the songs resonate with the travels we as a band have made, and the effects they have had. This has lead to some of the harshest, and also some of the most personal lyrical content that we’ve ever put to music. In every way, this record has been shaped by the experiences that shaped us a people. This record means the world to us. Never as a band, and as people, have we put more effort and thought into creating music. There is more of us in this record than anything before. The experiences that it took to create over the years were once in a lifetime. Ten years down the track, this is the PARKWAY you know, but we’ve decided to step it up.”

“Vocalist Winston McCall's guttural singing is one of the best parts of the band. His versatile growls, spoken parts, and gut-busting screams convey a sense of sincerity, whether it sounds desperate, ferocious, or simply impassioned. [His] lyrics tend away from the usual approach to topics of pain and anger that a lot of hardcore bands deal with, touching instead on environmental concerns, religious confusion, and disappointment in a thoughtful, ponderous way. … the album's depth and openness to straying away from typical devices of the genre make ‘Atlas’ one of the more engaging and thought-provoking metalcore releases amid a sea of the interchangeable riffs and howls of other bands,” [commented Fred Thomas, AllMusic – more here]

Formed in 2002 in New South Wales, Australia, PARKWAY DRIVE's debut full-length, 2005's ‘Killing With A Smile’, followed a split EP they issued with I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN soon after the band's inception. Adam Dutkiewicz-produced CD, released through Epitaph Records, prompted AllMusic's Corey Apar to write:

“ ‘Killing With A Smile’ is all about punishing breakdowns, death metal riffing, hardcore aggression, and monstrous growls that want nothing more than to spit and snarl until listeners entirely understand just how pissed off they really [the band] are and, well, that they’re not joking.” [He also somehow concluded that:] “PARKWAY DRIVE prove to really be just a bunch of tough Aussies with broken hearts who want to be loved.” [Read more here]

Their second album, once again produced by metalcore guru KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's Adam Dutkiewicz,  2007's ‘Horizons’, debuted at number 6 on the Australian Music Sales Chart. AllMusic's Stewart Mason noted:

“ ‘Horizon’ is strictly by the book metalcore, but delivered with enough talent and passion to put across a set of songs that might easily come off as samey and dull in less capable hands,” [read the rest here]

2010's third longplayer, ‘Deep Blue’, was produced by Joe Barresi and released via Epitaph Records, Resist Records and Burning Heart Records. The album debuted at number 2 on the ARIA charts (main Australian music sales charts), at number 39 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, and had peaked at number 46 on German Albums Chart. ‘Deep Blue’ also won the band the 2010 ARIA award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album:

“Barresi [Joe, producer] has filled the low end with booming bass, and the drums are relatively free of the tick-tock triggering that plagues many other metalcore acts; indeed, they sound like they’re played by a live human being in a big room, a bit of sonic wizardry many producers seem to have forgotten how to perform. … Taken as a whole, ‘Deep Blue’ demonstrates that PARKWAY DRIVE are very good at what they do, and just need someone to help them leap out from the pack a little more,” [commented Phil Freeman, AllMusic – more here]

PARKWAY DRIVE features: Winston McCall – vocals, Luke Kilpatrick – guitar, Jeff Ling – guitar, Ben Gordon – drums and Jia O’Connor – bass