12th August 2019
Parkway Drive - “Reverence EU/UK Summer 2019” – Support: Bury Tomorrow, Venom Prison
On Monday on the menu: VENOM PRISON, BURY TOMORROW and as headliner PARKWAY DRIVE. The Metalcore band from Byron Bay have left their warm realms and are currently on their “Reverence EU/UK Summer 2019”, which will lead through several parts of Europe. So it was all the more surprising when the Australians announced their appearance in March in the small Den Atelier in the middle of Luxembourg City. And that in between of their gigs on big festivals like Wacken Open Air, Bloodstock and Summer Breeze. On Monday the PARKWAY DRIVE tour bus finally stopped, together with their two support bands in the “rue de Hollerich”.
Venom Prison
VENOM PRISON are a Welsh Death Metal band. The band is generally described as playing Death Metal, featuring elements of Hardcore Punk and Grindcore. Stephen Hill of Metal Hammer described their sophomore album as “2019’s most anticipated Extreme Metal albums“. Their lead vocalist Larissa Stupar was described by Kerrang! as “metal”s most important - and uncompromising - voice”.
Music & Performance
All beginnings are difficult. And so it was for the supporting act VENOM PRISON. Some Luxembourgers already knew the band, but the enthusiasm of the audience was missing in the beginning. With the first song ‘Matriphagy’ they were able to get some to head bang, but the crowd was still quite calm. The second song ‘Uterine Industrialisation’ was incredibly good, dynamic and mercilessly brute. On the technical side of the music, VENOM PRSION can easily be called in the same breath as genre greats like CANNIBAL CORPSE or DYING FETUS, while the next piece ‘Asura's Realm’ reminded of CARCASS at the time of ‘Heart Work’. Those who already know VENOM PRISON can be reassured, because the band delivered exactly what their two albums promised live: Energy, rage, variety and incredibly high quality of Death Metal. Larissa Stupar’s voice remained the main element despite the generally very high quality of their companions: The variety of high screams, deep growls and Hardcore shouts grabbed the listener by the neck and forced him to let his head bang a little.
After about 30 minutes the Brits finished their set with their German singer and offered a musically diverse performance, which managed to boost the energy as an opener in spite of initial difficulties and thus completed a high-quality pre-program.
Setlist
01. Matriphagy
02. Uterine Industrialisation
03. Asura’s Realm
04. Self- Inflicited Violence
05. Prep
06. Dukkha
07. Implementing The Metaphysics Of Morals
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 4
Total: 6.3 / 10
Bury Tomorrow
BURY TOMORROW are a British Metalcore band formed in 2006 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. The band is composed of five members; lead vocalist Daniel Winter-Bates, rhythm guitarist and singer Jason Cameron, bassist Davyd Winter-Bates, drummer Adam Jackson and lead guitarist Kristan Dawson, who replaced founding guitarist Mehdi Vismara in 2013. BURY TOMORROW have released five studio albums, their most recent being ‘Black Flame’, released on 13 July 2018.
Music & Performance
After a short break to set up the stage, the program continued immediately. BURY TOMORROW gradually came on stage for ‘No Less Violent’ intro and were greeted joyfully by the audience. This song was a perfect statement about what to expect from the concert. The five Brits had a lot of fun and enjoyed being on stage in Luxembourg for the first time. The top title, ‘Man on Fire’, of the older album ‘Runes’ was played as well as the title track of the last album, ‘Earthbounds’ and of course some songs from the current album like ‘Black Flame’, ‘More Than Mortal’ or ‘Knife of Gold’.
Setlist
01. No Less Violent
02. Earthbound
03. More Than Mortal
04. Knife of Gold
05. The Age
06. Cemetery
07. Man on Fire
08. Black Flame
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 5
Total: 6.8 / 10
Parkway Drive
PARKWAY DRIVE are an Australian Heavy Metal band from Byron Bay, New South Wales, formed in 2003. As of 2018, PARKWAY DRIVE have released six full-length albums (‘Killing with a Smile’, ‘Horizons’, ‘Deep Blue’, ‘Atlas’, ‘Ire’, and ‘Reverence’), one EP (‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’), two DVDs, a split album and one book, titled ‘Ten Years of Parkway Drive’. The band’s genre has been described as Metalcore and more recently as Heavy Metal. Their sound employs screaming vocals, guitar riffs and breakdowns. Unlike many other popular modern Metalcore bands, PARKEWAY DRIVE did not use clean singing on any of their studio albums until their 2015 studio album ‘Ire’.
Music & Performance
Five minutes earlier than planned it was finally time to welcome the Australians from PARKWAY DRIVE. The band is now known for their overwhelming stage show, which they were unable to perform in the small A. The first sounds resonated, glistening light illuminated the stage. No wonder, ‘Wishing Wells’ was the first song. Every second crowd surfers popped out of the crowd and were been carried forward. After the first song, Winston McCall stood stunned at the edge of the stage, shook his head again and again and grinned from one ear to the other. The band looked at each other, seemingly barely grasping what was happening here. Inside the venue there were bigger and bigger circles, there was a jumping and a bawling. The sound blew clear and powerful into the faces while the Solis flew towards you with ‘Vice Grip’.
Again Winston shook his head stunned as the choir from the crowd sounded very loud. ‘Cemetery Bloom’ was just a little breather here so everyone was full of energy to meet for ‘The Void’, ‘Idols And Anchors’ and ‘Absolute Power’ in the circle pits and mosh pits afterwards. But today the band had to do the show without a rotating drum kit, as fans know it from festival appearances. The band also played without a firework of flaming elements, spraying rains of fire. But the fans didn’t care. They were at the A to see their idols live and enjoyed the music without any frills. The fans were especially happy that bassist Jia O’Connor was still playing live. During the rehearsals he had contracted an injury and is currently in a wheelchair. On a chair and supplied with water, he still played his parts passionately, even if he didn’t grin like his colleagues McCall and Ling.
The setlist did not offer many surprises in general. So PARKWAY DRIVE played five songs from ‘Reverence’ and four from ‘Ire’, with which an absolute majority of the show consisted of the last two albums. Singer Winston clearly showed the power and aggression of ‘Crushed’, but that was not enough. Once again ‘Bottom Feeder’ was pushed and the whole hall was completely dismantled. In general one can say that on Monday evening a successful Metalcore concert was offered. Completely out of breath, soaking wet from sweat and beer, the audience was finally allowed to make their way home around 11 pm.
Setlist
01. Wishing Wells
02. Prey
03. Carrion
04. Vice Grip
05. Karma
06. Cemetery Blood
07. The Void
08. Idols And Anchors
09. Dedicated
10. Absolute Power
11. Shadow Boxing
12. Wild Eyes
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13. Crushed
14. Bottom Feeder
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.3 / 10
All Pictures by Elena Arens
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