Parkway Drive, Blush, Life Pilot @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 5/5/2026
The sequel. Bigger, more expensive, better kills, greater tribulations and undeniably iconic. Think Aliens, Terminator 2, Godfather 2 and you can now add Horizons to the list.
After last nights debut hit of Killing With A Smile, Parkway Drive’s follow up album, Horizons, is played in its entirety.
Whereas KWAS established PWD as a front runner of Australian metalcore, Horizons set the template for every Aussie band thereafter and allowed this band to become the leader of a sub genre, that then became the biggest in the metal world in recent years. Australian metalcore. Without this album, the rest don’t exist.
Hyperbole? Probably, however to witness the absolute carnage of the crowd tonight from the opening to the finale from a balcony vantage point is akin to Roman Emperor’s watching Christian’s being thrown to the lions. Hectic, mesmerising, and glorious. The sight of a rather large man, topless and sweaty, bouncing around the waves of the crowd like a dingy at sea, a poetic visual to the soundtrack on stage.
Like last night, Life Pilot and Blush are the warmup acts and it’s fair to say that Lifepilot have the audacity and attitude of a petulant child to be opening. They play big, heavy and confrontational metal that is everything we love. Crushing riffs, deadly grooves and enough snarl you think a rabid pitbull is attacking you.
While Blush, with the aid of a second sighting for me, keep peeling layers in sound. While not as jacked up on red cordial as Life Pilot, they hit hard in other ways, whether it’s a slow 70’s groove, a shoegaze whirl or a 90’s riot grrrl venomous spit, they mix styles effortlessly and each twist brings up another hidden gem of musical panache.
However, it’s Parkway Drive the packed-out venue is here for and they do not disappoint. Opening with Begin and into The Sirens Song they blast with the fury of jet fighter engine fighting against the tornado of noise from the crowd.
I remarked yesterday that you can see clearly this band is too big for this venue, so to have them so intimate and engaging with a crowd willing to become a choir is special.
You’ll know the setlist, it’s played in album order, however what I will say is crowd surfers are up and about, the pit resembles a fight scene in a Marvel movie and the band the heavy artillery called in to blow you away.
Winston McCall though is nursing the flu and makes it clear he would like Adelaide’s help. Naturally, we oblige however that doesn’t stop McCall from prowling the stage, roaring his songs anyway.
There is shredding and guitar harmonies, wall of deaths and no end of anthems from the band that defined it.
Once the album part finishes with the haunting melodies of Horizons , the band throw in the biggies from other albums ending with a biblical Wild Eyes.
No fancy risers, or orchestra tonight, but there were fireworks, all provided by the crowd eating up the band’s performance, who brought the flames. As I said, sequels, they are always bigger and certainly more epic.
Live Review By Iain McCallum