Having just crossed the Atlantic Ocean after playing Norway's Ton of Rocks Festival, Australian metalcore quintet Parkway Drive's Winston McCall admitted the band were jetlagged. "The sun is fucking hot," the singer said. "Go away."
Still, you wouldn't have sensed jetlag from their performance. The band seemed perfectly at home on the larger stage. Despite not traversing the whole stage all the time, McCall commanded his space, flexing his whole body into his powerful barks. His bandmates swirled around him, as if he was the centre of a storm.
Mid-paced numbers such as "Wild Eyes" and "Carrion" collided with full-speed crushers like "Karma." Still, the consistent across all songs was the devastating breakdowns, which translated remarkably well over the large speakers and space.
It was a shame that they ignored "Romance Is Dead" and some of their other more ignorantly heavy early songs, which would have gained even more weight with the beefy sound, as their new, more radio-friendly song "Vice Grip" did.
The irony of the band declaring, "This is the funeral of the Earth," and, "I can't watch it burn," while performing to a field littered with empty beer cups and other miscellaneous trash was almost too good to be true.
A cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" was the cherry on top of a fun set. Although the band are flying back to Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting and will likely be even more jetlagged, if this set was any indication, nothing — not even lack of sleep — can stop these Aussies.
Still, you wouldn't have sensed jetlag from their performance. The band seemed perfectly at home on the larger stage. Despite not traversing the whole stage all the time, McCall commanded his space, flexing his whole body into his powerful barks. His bandmates swirled around him, as if he was the centre of a storm.
Mid-paced numbers such as "Wild Eyes" and "Carrion" collided with full-speed crushers like "Karma." Still, the consistent across all songs was the devastating breakdowns, which translated remarkably well over the large speakers and space.
It was a shame that they ignored "Romance Is Dead" and some of their other more ignorantly heavy early songs, which would have gained even more weight with the beefy sound, as their new, more radio-friendly song "Vice Grip" did.
The irony of the band declaring, "This is the funeral of the Earth," and, "I can't watch it burn," while performing to a field littered with empty beer cups and other miscellaneous trash was almost too good to be true.
A cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" was the cherry on top of a fun set. Although the band are flying back to Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting and will likely be even more jetlagged, if this set was any indication, nothing — not even lack of sleep — can stop these Aussies.
