ALBUM REVIEW: Viva The Underdogs – Parkway Drive

The term ‘underdog’ is bandied around way too much nowadays, but it fits PARKWAY DRIVE‘s rise to global dominance perfectly. Viva The Underdogs, a line taken from their song Wild Eyes that features on 2012 release Atlas, documented the band’s staggering 15-year climb from surfer-clad metalcore kids to one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, and whilst the supporting tour was curtailed (no prizes for guessing what cased that), fans can at least take comfort in the fact that tomorrow, via Epitaph Records, the soundtrack to Viva The Underdogs is released, marking PARKWAY DRIVE‘s first live album.

The bulk of the album is made up of the band’s headline show from Wacken Open Air last year, and even though the pyrotechnics and general mayhem that a PARKWAY DRIVE show usually consists of can’t physically be seen, the production job has captured the energy, impact and sonic hurricane perfectly. Whether it’s the opening bounce of Prey, the outright savagery of Karma or the huge singalong that the aforementioned Wild Eyes incites, it ticks the two boxes that all great live albums aspire to complete.

Firstly, for those who have never seen PARKWAY DRIVE before, this will grab them by the scruff of the neck, force them onto their nearest internet-connecting device and push them into buying tickets for their nearest upcoming show. Secondly, for those who have – and particularly on this recent tour – it presents an opportunity to close their eyes, relax and be sent through a portal back to whenever they witnessed the band in the flesh and relive it over and over again. On these two criteria alone, Viva The Underdogs is a winner.

The three remaining tracks are reworked versions of Vice Grip from 2015’s Ire and The Void and Shadow Boxing from 2018’s Reverence, the latter featuring German rapper Casper, who sings in his mother tongue. As for the other two, they are also sung in German, but vocalist Winston McCall has learned the lyrics over and you have to give the man credit for doing a great job in projecting the same passion and delivery that the originals convey in a language that isn’t his own.

However, as interesting a concept as they are, you do have to wonder why PARKWAY DRIVE decided these three should be added onto the album as opposed to more from the Wacken show. Of the sixteen songs they played that night, five of them have been omitted completely, including – and rather criminally – opening track Wishing Wells and the beautiful one-two of (aforementioned) Shadow Boxing and Writings on the Wall which were complete with live string quartet. We’ll likely not know why this step was taken until later down the line, but it’s a shame that it wasn’t all committed to tape and that three songs were chosen in favour that, whilst being a good novelty the first time around, need not be heard again afterwards.

Regardless of the three medicore bonus songs, Viva The Underdogs can get away with them because of how good the preceding hour is. PARKWAY DRIVE have become darlings in the metal world through nothing more than their own grit and determination, and to have their live show now packaged in as faithful a way as possible without the possibility of visuals is a triumph unto itself. You just might want to stop the album following Bottom Feeder after the first spin, though.

Rating: 7/10

Viva The Underdogs is out now via Epitaph Records.

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