An event organized by Rockstadt Extreme Fest!
by Monica Apostol
Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive comes back to Romania on April 20, 2017, at Arenele Romane, this time in Bucharest. The concert is part of his European tour promoting its latest album “Ire”, released in 2015.
Stick to Your Guns is an American hardcore punk band from Orange County, California. Members of the band include Jesse Barnett (vocals), Andrew Rose (bass), George Schmitz (drums), Chris Rawson and Josh James (guitars). Stick to Your Guns became the first American hardcore band that played in Kenya this year. Very heavily influenced by the orange county hardcore scene, their music, message, style, and sound can perhaps be compared to bands like Bleeding Through and Throwdown. Currently they are signed to Century Media/Sumerian Records and have released four full-length albums to date.
Darkest Hour is another American band, a heavy metal one, from Washington, D.C., formed in 1995. Though failing to break early in their career, the band has received acclaim for their albums Undoing Ruin, Deliver Us, and The Eternal Return. Deliver Us debuted at number 110 on the Billboard album charts, with sales of 6,600, and their more recent effort The Eternal Return garnered them an even higher position in the Billboard album charts at number 104. Their latest self-titled effort charted at 102 on the Billboard 200, a peak for the band, and it marked a stylistic shift in the band’s discography.
Parkway Drive is an Australian metalcore band from Byron Bay, New South Wales, formed in 2003. They took their name from the street where their home rehearsal space and live venue, ‘The Parkway House’, was located. Following Brett Versteeg’s replacement by Shaun Cash, Parkway Drive flew to the United States where they recorded their debut full-length Killing with a Smile with Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz in just two weeks. Manager Graham Nixon later noted that ‘it was not the “done thing” for an Australian band to head overseas and work with a producer of that sort of calibre’. The album debuted in the Australian Album (ARIA) charts at 39. In 2006 the group toured in Europe, their first time performing overseas, and later returned to North America. In late May 2006, bass player Shaun Cash left the band for personal reasons with full support from the rest of the members. He was replaced by their “merch guy” and long-time friend, Jia “Pie” O’Connor. Parkway Drive signed to American punk label Epitaph in June 2006.
As of 2015, Parkway Drive has released five full-length albums (Killing with a Smile, Horizons, Deep Blue, Atlas and Ire), one EP, two DVDs, a split album and one book, titled Ten Years of Parkway Drive. The band’s latest four albums have reached the top 10 of the Australian ARIA Charts, with Ire reaching number 1 in October 2015.