Parkway Drive got to headline the biggest metal festival in the world last year during their Reverence Tour: Wacken Open Air in Germany. The band, being as humble and grateful as they are, took this chance to show everybody in the whole world what they’ve got. They played a massive show with a lot of pyrotechnics and most of all, they made us all enjoy the music together. I was there to witness the show in 2019, now I’m here to review the recording of it. It’s not as massive as seeing it live with your own eyes and ears, but damn, the audio engineer did a very, very good job on the audio on this one. This cd does not contain all the songs played live that day, it contains the songs featured in the documentary with the same name. There’s not a physical copy of it, but you can watch it on Itunes, Google Play and Vimeo. There’s a link on their website.

What a time to review a live album. Having the Covid-19 virus around, being in quarantine, all concerts are cancelled to at least August 31 and probably till later as well. Good decisions to prevent the spread of the virus, don’t get me wrong. But man, I’m going to miss festivals and concerts this summer. That being said, let’s focus on this album. Let’s focus on the time when Parkway Drive’s lead singer Winston McCall screamed ‘Jump, jump, up, up’. Which resulted in about 80.000 people jumping at the same time and enjoying this massive wall of sound. This already starts with the first song on the album and also my personal favorite song of their latest album ‘Reverence’, called ‘Prey’. 

Next on the album is killer song ‘Carrion’. A song form their earlier work, from their second album ‘Horizons’ that was released in 2007. A song with so much power, especially with everybody singing along. With the next song being ‘Karma’, we’re jumping to the next album ‘Deep Blue’, that was released in 2010. Then we’re going back to ‘Reverence’ with the song ‘The Void’, and I’m telling you right now, you have to watch this live performance below. It’s just a touch of how amazing this concert was. 

The other song that’s featured on YouTube is ‘Wild Eyes’ form the album ‘Atlas’ released in 2012. They kinda have to include this song in their setlist because it has the lyrics ‘Viva the underdogs’ in it. The other reason that they included this song is just simply that people love it. On the album, you can hear the crowd singing the melody in the beginning of this song. Simply wonderful.

‘From the front, all the way to the horizon. One big fucking family’.

Winston McCall

They closed of the concert with ‘Bottom Feeder’ form the album ‘Ire’ that was released in 2015. Parkway Drive often plays this song near the end or as the last song of their setlist. This is a song where everybody jumps, with all their last energy they have left. Not that that didn’t happen throughout the whole concert. But I mean, when you know it’s the last song you just give that little bit of extra energy. 

Parkway Drive showed us a nice mix of songs with more stuff form the later albums that form the earlier stuff. This album is a nice memory if you were at the concert. It’s a nice living room concert as well to just rock out and let all your energy on the loose. If you haven’t seen the concert or if you’re not familiar with Parkway Drive, this live album shows what they’re capable off. Pure melodic metal core with members that truly care about their fans and will do everything to unite people and give everybody the time of their lives. 

Because Wacken is in Germany and to thank the German fans, they recorded three of their songs in German. Vice Grip (Würgegriff), The Void (Die Leere) and Shadow Boxing (Schattenboxen). 

To summarize this album in one sentence, I like to quote Winston again:

‘This has been the best show I’ve ever played in my whole fucking life’.

Winston McCall

Release date: March 27th, 2020
Label: Epitaph Records
Tracklist:

1. Prey
2. Carrion
3. Karma
4. The Void
5. Idols and Anchors
6. Dedicated
7. Absolute Power
8. Wild Eyes
9. Chronos
10. Crushed
11. Bottom Feeder
12. Würgegriff (Vice Grip)
13. Die Leere (The Void)
14. Schattenboxen (Shadow Boxing) Feat. Casper