In a new interview with Poland’s Pełna Kulturka, vocalist Winston McCall of Australia’s PARKWAY DRIVE, who played a career-defining Sydney Opera House show in June, where they performed alongside a full symphonic orchestra for the one-night-only event, was asked about the possibility of new music from him and his bandmates. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Basically, we planned that exact thing” — to work on new material — “and then we had a chance to do an Opera House show with the orchestra, which basically took up all of our time. So we are working on new music. There is new music coming, put it that way. It’s not like we have recorded an album, but focusing on making new music is literally all of the next year for us. We’ve said, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna be touring much next year at all. It’s all gonna be about create[ing] new music.’ In the meantime, there’s gonna be a live album from the Sydney Opera House and a movie coming out of that as well, so people can hear some interesting stuff that we’ve created with that. But brand new songs is definitely the next on the PARKWAY list.”
This past May, PARKWAY DRIVE dropped a new track called “Sacred”. The single marked the band’s first release since PARKWAY DRIVE‘s critically acclaimed 2022 album “Darker Still”, and arrived alongside a music video directed by Third Eye Visuals.
When “Sacred” was first made available, McCall said in a statement: “The mission statement for ‘Sacred’ is pretty damn simple. An anthemic wrecking ball of positive energy. Our lives and the way we exist in the world has been pushed further and further through the lenses and frames of negativity and hopelessness. Obsession with everything we lack, everything we hate, everyone we blame, everything that keeps us down. We sell the unique parts of us most precious just to buy back manufactured pieces of self in order that we may feel whole again. ‘Sacred’ is our identity. ‘Sacred’ is our time. Never lose sight and never lose hope.”
This past summer, PARKWAY DRIVE co-headlined the “Summer Of Loud” 2025 tour across the U.S. and Canada, which saw them playing some of their biggest North American shows yet. PARKWAY DRIVE served as a co-headliner on “Summer Of Loud” tour alongside BEARTOOTH, I PREVAIL and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE.
PARKWAY DRIVE‘s landmark year is concluding with the band’s ongoing 20th-anniversary arena tour across Europe. Joining them on this momentous tour are fellow Australians THY ART IS MURDER and THE AMITY AFFLICTION. This massive arena run features PARKWAY DRIVE‘s most ambitious production to date, performed with the passion and power that has defined PARKWAY DRIVE as one of the most important forces in modern metal.
PARKWAY DRIVE‘s concert at the Sydney Opera House will be part of the band’s forthcoming feature film “Home”, produced by Hype Republic and directed by Allan Hardy and Macario De Souza. The film is expected to be released in theaters in Australia next year.
McCall told Rolling Stone Australia that recording the concert was a key factor in booking the iconic venue.
“We wanted to build something which was a reconceptualization of what PARKWAY DRIVE is in a place that’s very iconically Australian and create a very iconically Australian show,” he said. “It was all seated, black tie, played on grass with a full symphonic orchestra backing, a flipped-up set list from what you’re used to, [and] everyone is in ball gowns and suits. It was the exact opposite of what you’d expect. And that was kind of what we wanted to do. We wanted to make something worthy of the moment.”
He continued: “It was literally the loudest show that the Opera House has ever had before… You’re confined to seats. There’s no crowd surfers, there’s no barrier.”
Photo credit: Third Eye Visuals
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source blabbermouth.net ’
