Parkway Drive

It's pretty safe to say that the rise in popularity which Byron Bay's Parkway Drive have experienced since their inception in has been exponential. From performing at local shows to friends and small shows around Australia, to selling out arenas and constantly touring throughout the world, this rise to fame has not only surprised Australian fans, but also the band themselves.

For those who find it hard to believe that the "Australian Kings of metalcore" were not so long ago a relatively unknown local band, these doubts will soon be erased, as the entire career of Parkway Drive so far has been documented, and will hopefully be released sometime next year as a DVD.

"We have actually been working on the DVD for a while now; I guess it's kind of like a Parkway Drive documentary. It's got like the history of the band to summarise simply, and it even has some stuff before the band had started. There's a ridiculous amount of footage, and we have been trying to catalogue it, and it's really hard and tiring to do because there is just so much there," vocalist Winston McCall laughs.

"We have been going through the footage of the first few months of us being a band, and it's really crazy seeing the difference in crowd size, and even more-so in us and how we used to play. Also, we have been fortunate because we have been lucky as a band to see so much, whether it's just playing bigger venues or touring the world. It will be cool to show and share with people some of the experiences we have had, and reflect on them ourselves."

It has been a long time away from home for the guys in Parkway Drive. Having toured the world relentlessly since the release of their sophomore album 'Horizons', the band has only toured Australia properly once in 2008. However, things just keep getting bigger and better for the band, with the international touring apparently becoming more and more successful upon every new adventure.

"It's seriously unbelievable how much bigger each show gets for us while we are overseas. Earlier this year, we toured Europe headlining over Bury Your Dead and Suicide Silence, and those shows were just insane, we were actually a bit worried about playing above those bands, but the kids were just going mental for us. One kid even broke his neck jumping of a stack while we were playing in the UK, which was crazy, we gave him a free shirt and apparently he's ok now, but it's mind blowing, you know?

"Then we toured the States with Killswitch Engage where every show was arena size, like more than 2,000 people there every night. You have no idea how big that band is until you witness them in that setting. We would pack up our gear and be driving off to where we were staying, and seriously we would be blocks away and you could hear the crowd singing along to Killswitch, just crazy. They were good shows for us to play though, certainly challenging, we had to step up our game a lot, but we did win over a lot of fans. Then on our next tour in the States with Darkest Hour and Misery Signals, well that is my favourite tour of USA we have done, its just really incredible."

December will see Parkway Drive finally return for a hectic tour of their home nation. There is no doubt that this tour will be titanic as well, with venues already selling out practically upon announcement of the shows. Including an enormous line-up of three American bands on the bill - A Day To Remember, Suicide Silence and The Acacia Strain - the envelope is certainly still being pushed, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon.

"Yeah it's a big tour, but when we found out we were doing a summer one, we decided to make it really good. We have played with Suicide Silence before, but not the others, but they are bands we like and know Australians like so we thought let's go all out. After this, though, we are off to Japan and South East Asia for some touring. So we aren't really stopping anytime soon, but we are still having fun, we don't want to ever hate touring. One thing's for sure though, nothing beats playing in your home country."

Will Oakeshott

Sweatfest featuring Parkway Drive comes to The Thebby on Thursday 18 December.