Australia is a breeding ground for art and creativity that is adored by legions of followers on a global scale, and cemented firmly on the world's stage. But it's not just the musical acts we froth over.
In recent years, many of our fav bands have set their sights on the next generation of creatives; partnering up to turn ideas into reality and conceive memorable masterpieces, etched in time, which represent the band's level at the peak of their careers.
Leading the charge is none other than Parkway Drive, who were once a mere underground metalcore band rising up the ranks in the mid-2000s playing local community youth centres and RSL venues, to now setting the benchmark to eye-watering heights following their stage shows which left attendees of last year's 20th Anniversary tour flabbergasted by the sheer leap in development from those early years.
Back down at ground zero, the outfit kept the momentum building with the release of their latest blockbuster single 'Sacred'. But what's an epic metal anthem without the awe-inspiring visuals to compliment it?
Enter... Third Eye Visuals!
For the ill-informed, Ben from Third Eye Visuals has been making a name for himself for the better part of the past decade. An award-winning cinematographer, editor, heavy music fan and avid gaming nerd, who has conceived many of your favourite band's music videos including Alpha Wolf's 'Akudama', Northlane's 'Carbonized', Make Them Suffer's 'Ghost Of Me', Thy Art Is Murder's 'Join Me In Armageddon', and Mirrors' visually stunning 'Purple Static' - the latter earning Ben a QMusic Award for Best Music Video in 2023.
The master's digital wizardry with conceptional design and special effects continues to floor viewers with each and every release, and when it came time to step up to the director's chair for Parkway's latest masterpiece, there was no other man for the role.
In between his busy schedule and often week-long renders, Ben stopped by WoS HQ to share stories and behind the scenes insights at the 'Sacred' shoot, as well as a glimpse into the future as he settles into his newfound position as Parkway Drive's visionary.
We first touched on how much sleep was lost trying to bring the vision to life. "Far too much." explained Ben, before continuing, "Hundreds of iterations of various sections kept me up late at night, figuring out pacing decisions to help the flow of it all. On top of directing, editing, and VFX work, I had to plan the release on the band's socials and the rest of their worldwide team, which was both great since I knew what content we had to work with and what the strongest aspects were, but obviously more work to do [laughs]."
As mentioned earlier, Ben's eagerness to elevate Australian heavy bands with their visuals needs to be commended. You can have the best song in existence, but in the modern day and age, attention spans are shorter than they used to be... so without visuals to compliment the music, sometimes the execution can be long forgotten before the hype starts to build. But it's a two way street for the VFX and heavy music fanatic who shared "Seeing first-hand how much effort these bands put into bringing their craft to life only motivates me more to do the same."
Australia has this incredible scene that punches so far above what it should be doing. It's inspiring. If these bands in this niche genre of music can smash it, so can I with my craft...
Going from fan, to friend and then personal visionary must be a daunting process - especially when you're working with bands you've admired from when you first stepped foot into the heavy scene. But that connection between fan and professional relationship does have it's benefits. "Growing up a fan from the Killing with a Smile era of Parkway to working with them has been such a trip. Anyone who enjoys the heavy genre of music in Australia knows what this band has done."
Both their music and them as people, and what they represent is something special, and seeing that from both a fan and someone who works for them is unique. I like to think I can focus on the best of what they have to offer and what the fans want because of this.
"Being able to relate to them and understand their journey has helped a lot with what can be brought forward in the modern era, because behind every giant moment on stage, they are still the fun, down to earth guys from Byron, which deserves just as much attention."
Pre-Production & Vision Sculpting
And now for the reason we're here today. We asked about the making-of process of 'Sacred' and the journey the group underwent from the original concept and storyboarding through to the final draft. If you think they all knocked this over in a few days - think again! "'Sacred' was a very long process for me." Ben stated, before further divulging. "I'm used to bands sending me a demo or a nearly finished recording and having a month to get from idea to shooting the video for it. Back in June 2024 on tour in Europe, Winston [McCall] showed me a demo on an iPhone. From there, I wound up in the studio documenting them recording in LA, where I was asked to do the video, which, in all honesty, caused major anxiety."
Music videos were my bread and butter before I started working for the band, but it had been over a year since I had thought of one, plus this is for Parkway Drive, who have done some pretty cool videos!
"Winston and I brainstormed a lot of cool ideas in our studio time and this whole process went on in my brain for a few months. Whilst hiking in New Zealand I was also making notes. I finally presented the core ideas [to the band] on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean. I like my music videos to be eye-candy, and Winston likes to have a through line; so we blended those to try find a middle ground which I think we did in the end... though the concept of a sundial... I don't think many people know [laughs]"
Winston's lyrics helped direct ideas surrounding time, and how precious it is, which ended up being the motifs of the sundial and light.
From Idea to Reality
The next step involved taking the vision from idea to reality - including constructing a massive set and props in order to bring it all to life. If you've seen a Parkway Drive concert in the past seven years, you'd know they're no strangers to building new props to enhance the experience, but for a music video of this size, they had to call in reinforcements. "By far the biggest hurdle was the set build." Ben exclaimed, before further adding. "We had these ideas of giant concrete walls, very brutalist, that don't exist in Australia, and if they do exist, it's most likely Eastern European or unique art pieces in Japan."
After a few phone calls with art departments, I went through my inspiration and settled on a giant wall that let light through, which tied in nicely to the sundial concept Winston suggested. Knowing we had (I think) two and half weeks to build a 15 meter x 5 meter tall "concrete" wall as our key feature, it was a hold our breath and hope it works out situation.
"Safe to say, the art department smashed it; it was incredible to see come to life."
To add more fuel to the anxiety overflowing in Ben's brain, this wasn't just a new song, but the first taste of new material since the release of the metal magnum opus Darker Still - Parkway's boldest and most commercially successful release yet. Obviously, you want to make an impact when coming back, but how important was it in getting the formula right when launching the band's new era?
"Having heard this song through its whole recording process and how it evolved, and knowing the hooks and key moments, it was both easy to highlight what parts needed the most attention, but extremely difficult to get it to a place where those moments were getting the visual love they deserved," Ben disclosed, before touching on the importance of grabbing people's attention and maintaining it.
"We all know that heavy Parkway Drive is extremely impressive and blows everyone away, and this breakdown was going to do just that."
"Coming in with some eye-candy to hook this TikTok Generation in, and thinking of what 30-second sections of visuals will perform well across socials, was super important, and ties back into me looking after the social side. The artwork with the ciphers setting up a mysterious announcement lay the foundation, I think, to help people bring their eyes back to Parkway before their ears got the full experience."
On-Set with Parkway Drive
But it wasn't all serious-faced and business focused on set. The typical Parkway antics made their way in front of the cameras too, which may or may not see the light of day.
"We had a 1000 frames a second camera on set, essentially filming slow motion that looked almost still... On the last day of filming with that camera, we filmed a bit of extra content, you could say. Hopefully the band will release it, but it's some pretty funny, super slow motion scenes of them doing funny faces. Imagine wiggling lips and cheeks and some interesting faces [laughs]
Besides that, having the boys throw me in front of the camera to 'show them how to do it' was always hilarious, and I knew they were fucking with me."
Post-Production & Future Planning
For anyone who has ever edited a video longer than a few minutes, you'd know how tiresome the rendering process can be. But when you're Third Eye Visuals, you're essentially jampacking Hollywood scale production and special effects into a music videos over the course of a few minutes. The rendering alone would drain the life out of you and as it turns out, this isn't your basic video editing procedure.
"The 1-second shot of the guitar neck pick slide, which transitions with a 3D scene appearing, took well over 2 weeks to render." Ben revealed about the shot that almost defeated him. "I could not get it right for the life of me. I have 45 iterations of that 30-frame sequence that I just had to settle on because I ran out of time! Funny enough, a lot of people love it, which is always unexpected."
Creatives are constantly beating themselves up, as they always strive to be the biggest and best version they can be. Remember kids, at the end of the day, if you connect with at least one person, that makes all the hard work worth it. Anything more is a bonus.
Conversations touched on the band's infamous Flame Spider from the 20th Anniversary tour - which Ben and his team impressively captured from all angles at the Sydney leg - and how they'll keep the momentum going into the second half of 2025. Turns out they've got plenty more surprises up their sleeves which kick off at the forthcoming Sydney Opera House show on June 9th - the one night only, black-tie event coincides with the recording of their live album, HOME.
"Sydney Opera House show is going to be incredibly special," shared Ben, before touching on their HUGE year following. "USA with I Prevail, Killswitch Engage, Beartooth, and of course, my mates in Alpha Wolf on the tour supporting. Europe 20 Year Tour will be insane. I'm imagining Australia but on steroids."
There are a few unannounced things which will excite a lot of people, so you'll see those all on their socials before the year's end!
Am I Dreaming? Pinch Me!
We know Parkway Drive always deliver on the big thing coming ideology... but what about Ben and Third Eye Visuals? Looking back on his career so far and how much he's done in that time, does he have any 'pinch-me' moments to share?
"There are two, and I can't say what they are yet [laughs], but they are both coming out this year, so I'll update you then."
Of course he's keeping us all on our toes. But after some further pressing, he was happy to share the following anecdote.
"An answer that's not as mysterious, in 2023 when I was in Salt Lake City with Alpha Wolf (they were supporting Motionless in White), I got a phone call from Luke [Kilpatrick - Parkway's guitarist/manager] asking if I'd like to work for them."
I didn't know what to make of it, but going from a freelancer with the majority of Australia's heavy bands to working with the biggest heavy band in Australia, it was certainly a bit of a pinch-me moment.
"That night, the show was on this giant dried-up lake bed, which set this unique backdrop and setting that solidified that moment in time in my brain."
As with everything we do, it always takes time so - let the man cook! Before wrapping things up, we asked Ben for some helpful advice for others who were hoping to follow in the award-winning creative's footsteps, to which the highly sought after visionary divulged, "Be passionate about what you do. Nothing sucks more than wanting to be somewhere or be someone and the process of getting there sucks."
That cliché of 'It's about the journey, not the destination' really rings true. My fondest memories are learning, failing, and figuring out how to get from A to B.
"Passion for what you enjoy turns those long hours into a journey you want to continue following."
No truer words have been spoken. If it hurts and drains the life out of you... but you're stoked with the final outcome of the progression after each venture, then surely it's worth the fight, right?
Lastly, on the subject of being a diehard OG Parkway fan, we quizzed Ben about the song from Parkway's back catalogue that he'd love to give a Third Eye Visuals music video treatment to and why, to which he swiftly landed on, "Horizons."
It's my favourite song by Parkway. It has texture, peaks, and valleys, it's got it all, perfect for creating too. Another song that touches on the themes of time also...
What does the future hold for Ben? Time will tell...
Words by Paul 'Browny' Brown @brownypaul
Keep up with Third Eye Visuals via Instagram and Website
'Sacred' BTS Set Photos by Aimee Rixon @rixoncreative
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