Review Summary: Do you see me? Do you see what I've become?
In a recent interview with Loudwire Winston McCall remarked that he felt the band had 'outgrown metalcore'. With these words there is an implication here that they have become bored with a genre oft-ridiculed for being generic and samey. A genre that they heavily influenced and gained their following from. While it is a definite risk for a band to branch out from their roots it can be executed successfully. Take Parkway's country-mates in
Northlane for example. They managed to take their old elements, mix them with new ones, and create some transformative music that pushed their boundaries for the better. Parkway Drive with
Reverence however have pushed no boundaries. While they may have outgrown metalcore they have regressed into something worse.
There are no standout tracks here. None that call for repeat listens. The ten tracks range from painfully mediocre to just plain bad. Gone are the breakneck songs of Parkway past and in their place leisurely anthemic power metal. If you thought the pre-released singles were them playing it safe for sake of being singles, you're mistaken unfortunately. This whole album is just as uninspired and bland as the singles. Get used to the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus without any of the satisfying breakdowns we have come to expect.
The most noticeable change to their sound is the vocals. Winston seems caught between singing, screaming, or sometimes rapping (seriously), and he's only good at one of those. 'Shadow Boxing' sees him flatly singing cleans before embracing his inner Mike Shinoda with a puzzling rap passage. Many other songs feature half sung half screamed choruses and lazy gang vocals. The album closer 'The Colour of Leaving' is another puzzling decision sending us off with entirely spoken word and half-sung lyrics accompanied by background strings. I never thought I'd be calling Parkway Drive pretentious but the finale is just that. It's a deflating way to end that doesn't hit the emotional buttons that it seemed to be going for.
The guitars, like the vocals, leave much to be desired. 'Wishing Wells' and 'Absolute Power' have some tasty rhythm work that give us a glimpse of what used to be. Any solid riffs however are repeated ad nauseam throughout the song. The lead work by Jeff King wouldn't be so disappointing if we didn't know he's capable of so much better. There are no solos akin to 'Idols and Anchors' anywhere to be found here - just safe and uninteresting passages with an over reliance on the wah pedal.
Ire was perhaps indicative of a band in identity crisis. Tracks like 'Fractured' and 'Vice Grip' showed the new direction the band was headed while 'Dedicated' told us they still were holding on to their past.
Reverence however sees Parkway Drive fall somehow into an even deeper identity crisis. It is a bland and uninspired effort in which none of the new ideas brought to the table are for the better. Throwing ideas at the wall to see which ones stick is not progression, it is blindly experimenting for the sake of experimenting. While Winston and his mates may be bored of metalcore this album seems like a band bored of writing music altogether.
