With the rollout this week in cinemas of HOME, Parkway Drive make the rare leap from metalcore to stars of the big screen.
Directed by Allan Hardy (Viva The Underdogs) and Macario De Souza (Bra Boys), and produced by Hype Republic, the documentary traces the Australian rockers on their journey from underdog status in the sweaty metal scene to the stage-and-charts juggernauts they are today.
Its climax, the band’s one-off live concert at the iconic Sydney Opera House in June 2025, backed by a full symphony orchestra.
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Parkway Drive has crashed the Billboard 200, collected No. 1s, ARIA Awards, and played the biggest stages on earth. Few moments, if any, compares to the prospect of playing the Sydney Opera House, capturing the moment for posterity, and pulling it off in the face of potential, ghastly failure.
As far as life experiences go, the concert was somewhere between “wild,” “insane” and “surreal,” frontman Winston McCall tells Billboard over a Zoom.
“Playing the Opera House and everything around this movie has literally been the pinnacle of this man’s career,” he says. “There’s nothing that is ordinary in any way, shape, or form, that will ever be able to be repeated as well, and that can recapture the moment and the work that went into doing what we were doing. And the fact that it was a small fraction of time that so much work went into.”
Hardy and De Souza came to the band with the idea. A suggestion, really. The beginning of a tale, without a middle or an end. “They’re like co-conspirators of ours,” he quips. “They were like, ‘hey, we were in contact with the Opera House, and there’s a date that you guys can play if you want to play. There’s one date available. Do you guys want to do it? You’ve got to say yes, now, basically.’”
The date was six months away, rather close for a band with no plan or idea for the production, and which was, at the time, powering through its 20th anniversary tour.
This is the Sydney Opera House. There might just be one shot. Oh, and metalcore bands, they’re not typically booked for this venue.
No pressure.
The self-funded show sold out in three-minutes. Parkway Drive nailed it. The proof is in the film, distributed by Mushroom Studios, and in the forthcoming companion live album. In one memorable moment, McCall abseils 150 feet from a helicopter onto the venue’s famous sails, and onto a platform two feet wide. Small chance of success, whopping chance of failure.
“We got to rehearse once with the orchestra, and that was four hours before we played. So we did a one full dress rehearsal, four hours before the set, went and had dinner and played it again, and then it was done,” he says.
“So, it didn’t even have time to sink in. You’re just like, ‘oh my god, this is incredible, what’s happening? What the f— just went on.’ There’s no other situation like that in our band’s career that we’ve ever had that compares to that kind of thing.”
Conversation turns to new music. Parkway Drive dropped “Sacred” just weeks before the sold-out, black-tie symphonic show at the Opera House. There’s no word on whether “Sacred” will have a parent album. The band’s most recent studio collection, Darker Still, dropped in 2022 and gave Parkway Drive a third consecutive No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and the ARIA Award for best hard rock / heavy metal album.
“There’s stuff,” McCall says of new Parkway Drive music. “I mean, we’re brewing things.”
Parkway Drive formed in the coastal New South Wales town of Byron Bay in 2003, issuing their debut album two years later. They landed their first top 10 appearance in Australia with 2007’s Horizons, which also hit No. 27 on the Top Heatseekers chart. Then, 2010’s Deep Blue ignited a run which saw the group consecutively chart four titles in the top 40 of the Billboard 200, with 2015’s Ire peaking at No. 29. Ire also rolled to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums tally.
For now, the HOME film and live recording, which drops Dec. 4 on vinyl, CD and digital formats, should keep fans of Parkway Drive, fans of heavy music, satiated. HOME – Live at the Sydney Opera House (via Parkway Records/Civilians) McCall insists, “it’s literally one of the best live recordings of any band that I’ve ever heard, let alone a band with a symphony behind it.”
HOME got its world premiere Tuesday (Nov. 10) with a special black-tie event at Sydney’s iconic State Theatre, and opens Thursday (Nov. 12) in Sydney and Melbourne, followed by premieres in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin and elsewhere. Parkway Drive will rock festival stages around the world next year, including Hellbound II (Australia), Rock For People (Czech Republic), Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park (Germany), Sweden Rock, Greenfield Festival (Switzerland) and more.
“We’ve got highlights that include headlining the biggest metal festivals on the planet, to playing some of the most remote locations, to seeing some of the wildest sights and meeting some of the most amazing people,” recounts McCall. The HOME concert, however, “you kind of can’t top that.”
Check out HOME premiere dates and live performances here. Pre-save HOME – Live at the Sydney Opera House here.