Captivating bangers like “Engine 45,” “Avalanche,” “Aftermath,” “Wash It Away,” and “Pressure Point” are anthems for outcasts. Since its formation in El Segundo, California, The Ghost Inside has inspired international audiences with passion and determination. Tremendous obstacles never dampened their energy. The Ghost Inside is stronger than ever. The lesson isn’t only about strength through adversity. In recent years, vocalist Jonathan Vigil, guitarists Zach Johnson and Chris Davis, bassist Jim Riley, and drummer Andrew Tkaczyk learned an esoteric truth about tranquility. As the axiom says, it’s the journey, not the destination, a theme throughout the band’s dynamic sixth album, Searching for Solace.
In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: "I want beautiful melodies telling me terrible things." This, the Parkway Drive vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of himself. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, the seventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of north-eastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of modern metal's most revered bands. Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates have held in their mind's eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents' basements and backyards in 2003. The journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to festival-headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums (all of which achieving Gold status in their home nation), three documentaries, one live album, and many, many thousands of shows.