Reverence arrives as the follow-up to 2015’s Ire—Parkway Drive’s most successful album to date and a major force in boosting their ever-growing worldwide following. Like each album released since the band formed in 2002, Ire has been certified gold in their homeland of Australia; it also helped fuel their recent dominance at European festivals and won critical praise from outlets like Kerrang (who hailed Ire as a “fascinating album”). But while Ire brought Parkway Drive’s uncompromising artistry to bold new levels, Reverence pushes their creative ambition even further.
Reverence both expands the band’s sonic palette and offers up their most devastating songs yet. On tracks like “The Void”—whose refrain of “Welcome To A World Of Pain” brilliantly embodies the tone of Reverence—Parkway Drive channel their furious energy into thrashing rhythms and ferocious vocal work while delivering deeply infectious melodies. That energy also infuses such songs as the vital and volatile “Prey,” a gang-vocal-driven anthem that unfolds in both punishing riffs and intricate guitar lines.
