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 melodiestelling me terrible things.

This, the PARKWAY DRIVE vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of him-self. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, theseventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner ofnorth-eastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date fromone of modern metals most revered bands.

Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates guitarists Jeff Ling andLuke Kilpatrick, bassist Jia OConnor and drummer Ben Gordon have held in theirminds eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents basements andbackyards in 2003