Parkway Drive: Ire will be divisive
Mainman McCall admits band weren’t sure of direction change on 5th album

Parkway Drive frontman Winston McCall says the band’s 5th album, Ire, will be “divisive” among fans.
And he’s admitted the band weren’t certain they were going in the right direction with their modified approach to the follow-up to 2012‘s Atlas.
McCall tells Faster Louder: “With so many of these songs, we didn’t actually know if we could pull this kind of content off – we didn’t know it would work until it was done in the studio.
“We’d finish a song and we’d scream, ‘We did it!’ We’d physically scream and fist-pump.”
The vocalist is keen to gauge reaction to Ire, which is launched on September 25 (Friday). “I’m interested to see what people love about the band and what they believe the band stands for,” he says. ”It’s always been our approach that we create what we want to create. If people like it, that’s fantastic. If they don’t, they don’t.”
He adds: ”We definitely have anticipated that this album is going to be really divisive with people, simply because it’s different.”
Parkway Drive are the cover stars of the latest edition of Metal Hammer, where McCall talks about his throat cancer scare and how Rammstein’s 2013 Download appearance inspired the band. It’s out now in print, digital and via TeamRock+.
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Scott has spent 36 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 11 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.