Parkway Drive guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick say there were prepared to face a backlash from some fans following the release of their sixth album Reverence.
The follow-up to 2015’s Ire arrived in May this year, with some fans angry at the shift in the band’s sound.
That led Five Finger Death Punch bassist Chris Kael to have a go at the haters, calling the negative reaction to the record “fucking disgusting and unfortunate.”
Now the guitarists have had their say on the matter – and reveal that previous experiences steeled them for any negativity that might follow the release.
Ling tells Music Radar: “If people have only listened to our new record a few times, they won’t have a feel for it. But if you’ve listened to it 10 times and say it’s horseshit, I will say, ‘Yeah, the album sucks! At least you listened to it enough to know.’”
Kilpatrick says he does’t consider Parkway to be one of the biggest bands around, but adds: “Maybe we’re one of the bigger newbies. We’re stepping up our production and hopefully taking over from the old dogs whenever they hang up the reins – we’ll be there to grab them and take the horses for a ride.
“But the more popular you are, the more unpopular you are! That’s just the nature of the beast.
We are proud of what we’ve done and we don’t care about the comments
Luke Kilpatrick
“Maybe it’s just too easy to tear shit apart online these days. There are so many people who are still attached to the old sound, but a lot of people like our new sound too.
“When we put out Vice Grip from Ire, we knew we were in for a beating! When we first saw what people were saying, we thought we were getting killed – a lot of us took it to heart. I had never been ridiculed like that before.
“This time, we are ready for it all – we are proud of what we’ve done and we don’t care about the comments.”
Prior to the release of Reverence, Parkway Drive frontman Winston McCall admitted with some comments that the band had outgrown metalcore.
He added: “Creatively, the older we get, the more stuff we’re going to do. We’re always going to be a heavy band. What do we like doing? Melodic stuff, heavy stuff, things we’re interested in.
“That actually spans a hell of a lot, so we’re going to keep going to those areas.”
