Parkway Drive - Deep Blue

Quite possibly the most perfectly executed forty-five minutes of noise... ever.

Some joker had posted a link on Australian-born Parkway Drive’s video for ‘Sleepwalker,’ the first single from the five piece’s latest work Deep Blue. The link was to a video of prepubescent pansy Justin Bieber’s teenage whinge ‘One Time.’ The comment with the link read something like “If you like this song, check this out...”

I did. Needless to say my first experience of the aforementioned will be my last and listening to that abortion of a song brought discomfort that I would associate with being punched repeatedly in the face. Deep Blue, on the contrary, is like watching Bieber being punched repeatedly in the face. It’s that good. And it is very, very punchy.It’s three years on since Parkway’s sophomore Horizons, now viewed within the metalcore scene as an outstanding example of the fusion genre.

The new release is a self-professed concept album about ‘a man who travels to the bottom of the sea to sort out his mind.’ As expected, it’s loud and fast and this time deals with lies, isolation and an ocean monster themed metaphor.

At a combined length of less than two and a half minutes, opening tracks ‘Samsara’ and ‘Unrest’ are far from fillers and collide perfectly to lead into the album’s single-worthy highlight. Boasting aggression through repetitive screams of “Just bodies through the teeth of the combine,” a riff that drills itself into the conscience and a video like the apocalyptic love child of Constantine and Cloverfield, ‘Sleepwalker’ is the album’s centrepiece.

It doesn’t stop there. What follows is a barrage of riff laden pace in every track. To anyone new to this style of music it would sound dense and repetitive but fans of this industry would note the quality in this bunch. They are tight and refined and do what they do well.

‘Deadweight’ shows off numerous tempo changes, ‘Alone’ is the first – albeit brief – moment of soft melody amidst more changes in pace and ‘Pressures’ solo scream of “Their voices search for me through the darkness, yet I feel desire's cold grip upon my heart no more” is another angst driven slice of unpredictability. The scope of Front man Winston McCall’s vocal talent is accentuated in ‘Leviathan I.’ Leviathan is a biblical sea monster, relating perfectly to the concept idea, and the track itself is probably one of the most exciting moments on the album. The album ends as it begins with a minute and a half of brute in ‘Set to Destroy’ and the realisation that the last three quarters of an hour have been relentlessly heavy.

The most exciting thing about this band is the originality. The lack of apparent structure, any form of clean vocals and an eclectic mix of ideas and tempos gives it an entirely fresh feel. It’s not what you’d expect from a bunch of East coast Aussies. It’s far from sunny pop. It is essentially just noise to the average person. But it’s so perfectly executed it sounds like nothing else and is definitely an unlikely soundtrack to summer 2010.

Deep Blue is out June 28^th. Check out the incredible ‘Sleepwalker’ here.