Ire

Winston McCall has described Rammstein's show at Download in 2013 as a real turning point for Parkway Drive. Rather than keep working a formula they knew, the band set out to roll the dice and see what would come of it, and Ire grew from that decision. McCall took vocal lessons before the recording, and his lyrics take aim at corruption in politics and at social injustice. Asking himself why he still had to write about problems that should have been fixed long ago, he concluded that real anger needed to be felt. George Hadjichristou produced the album and composed and arranged the strings together with Greg Weeks, who also plays cello. Peter Rutcho mixed it, Ted Jensen mastered it and Callum Preston made the artwork, while Tim Millar guests on piano on "Writings on the Wall". The songs move in new directions as well: "Destroyer" and "Vicious" are built on galloping rhythms and twin guitars, McCall raps over chant-like voices on "Crushed", and "A Deathless Song" leans on acoustic guitar. The band was Winston McCall on vocals, Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick on guitars, Jia O'Connor on bass and Ben Gordon on drums. The album was announced in June 2015 with "Vice Grip", whose video shows the members jumping out of an aeroplane, and a video for "Crushed" followed. Ire came out on 25 September 2015 through Resist Records in Australia and Epitaph Records elsewhere, with an Australian tour for September and October announced alongside it, with Thy Art Is Murder, Memphis May Fire and The Word Alive. It was the band's first No. 1 on the ARIA albums chart. In the United States it entered the Billboard 200 at No. 29, gave the band their first No. 1 on Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart, reached No. 4 on Top Rock Albums and sold 14,000 copies in its first week, their best start there. Ire was certified gold in Australia and was nominated for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album at the 2016 ARIA Music Awards.