Deafening Sound

Everyone remembers hearing Parkway Drive for the first time, right? Well...I know I do anyway. I was in my friend's car and he played the song 'Romance Is Dead' for me. And when I heard the line "So cry me a fucking river...bitch"...I knew I needed that album. Indeed, PD's 2006 release Killing With A Smile was well worth the price of admission...they didn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but damn, were those songs heavy. After a fairly successful run both overseas and here in the States, the Aussie metal giants teamed up with Adam Dutkiewicz (is it just me or is this guy's track record just plain immaculate?) to record their follow up album, titled "Horizons".
As is usually the case with the heavier bands in the metalcore genre (August Burns Red, On Broken Wings, etc) they haven't really changed their formula much...and by much...I mean at all. But hey, for some bands you just have to think that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. When album opener The Siren's Song hits the breakdown...you know this album is going to be brutal. And it is. I didn't think it was even possible, but vocalist Winston McCall manages to sound MORE pissed on this record than the last one. The guitars have also gotten a little bit flashier...but for the most part...this is Killing With A Smile with a bigger studio budget. Is that good or bad? That depends entirely on how well you liked the last record. If you thought Killing With A Smile was an amazing record with sick breakdowns and ill guitar riffs...first of all, you were exactly right, second of all...you're going to love this.