This is a review I've been dreading to do. I've been asked to do this band for quite some time, but I never wanted to because I disliked them until now. I first heard of them when my friend showed me one song, and I pretty much liked it. But then, I heard it again, and I started disliking the vocalist. The music itself is awesome, but this type of vocalist annoyed me. The vocalist in this band uses high pitch vocals, and I couldn't stand it. Until recently, I brushed off the pickyness and I said the truth, I sort of like high pitch vocalists. I don't like it completely, but I like them from this band. People can say what they want, but my views have changed and I like this band, just sometimes the vocalist gets pretty boring, but the music kicks it back up. This band is Protest the Hero.
Protest the Hero, used to be called "Happy Go Lucky", is a Canadian progressive metal band formed around 1999. The band consist of 4 members: Rody Walker (vocalist), Luke Hoskin (lead guitar), Tim Millar (rhythm guitar), Arif Mirabdolbaghi (bass guitar), and Moe Carlson (drummer). They have two studio albums, Keiza and Fortress, and three 'extended plays', Search for the Truth, Calculated Use of Sound, and Sequoia Throne/Remix EP.
I wouldn't even bother listening to this band if it weren't for a couple of kids that I know. Well, I'll try to review everything in order, since they're debut album was after a couple of extended plays. I'll display which album are the studio albums and which are the extended play. So, enough with the chitchat, onto the review!
(Extended play) "Search for the Truth" 2002
There are just 2 songs in this play. They're called Is Anybody There? and Silent Genocide. When I heard Is Anybody There?, it sounds just like average metal sounding music with a really high pitch vocalist. Not that it's a bad thing, it just sounds whatever. As for Silent Genocide, I don't find it great. It just sounds like your average wannabe trash song. 3 out of 10.
(Extended play) "A Calculated Use of Sound" 2003 and then re-released 2004
Now this sounds better than "Search for the Truth." I'm sorry, but the music overall, drums, guitar, and vocalist, remind me of My Chemical Romance. That's a bad thing because MCR SUCKS. Well, atleast Protest the Hero is it's own band, not an MCR ripoff. In this album, I only like 3 songs. Red Stars Over the Battle of the Cowshed, An Apathetic World, and I Am Dmitri Karamazov and the World is My Father. This album sounds okay, but still, this is early Protest the Hero. Music changes overtime. 5 out of 10.
(Studio/Debut album) "Kezia" 2005 [in Canada] 2006 [in the U.S.]
Well, this album is said to be a concept album. It's about a woman named Kezia who is being executed. The album consists of 4 parts, the first part is about the priest who does the execution, one of the prison guard who kills her, Kezia's point of view, and then the finale. Let's get started. Part 1: By listening to the first song, it blew me away. I can't believe I'm saying this, but just listening to the first part, I think I pretty much like Protest the Hero. I guess you just have to listen to them before you give a fully honest judgement. All I know that as of right now, this is friggin' awesome. Part 2: "Place your justice in my palm and I'll make a fist." "I begged this place to let me burn, and it whispered, 'burn away.'" "Psychological drama of our social justice." I hate to say this, but I can't believe I haven't heard of this band before. Part 3: I find it amusing that She Who Mars The Skin Of Gods all end with rhymes. Back to the music, simply amazing. Those riffs, I've barely heard them in any band and now that I hear them more often used in this band, I like it. And of course, the vocalist. I guess I like Rody's voice, but it gets a tad boring, until the harsh vocals comes in. Still, the music blows me away. Part 4: God, this is simply amazing. And it's just one song, A Plateful of Our Dead. Okay, this album is simply amazing. I just have to say only ONE thing though. Since I'm not used to high pitch vocals, I gotta give this album a 9.5 out of 10. It's close there, but the high pitch isn't exactly my style.
(Studio album) "Fortress" 2008
The final studio album. There is also a remix EP, but I won't review that since it's basically remixes of their songs and instrumental work. I'd rather work on the actual music, not remixes. This album is also divided into parts, 3 of them. I'll do what I did when I reviewed "Kezia", bold the titles of the different sections. On Conquest and Capture: Not much different from the previous album, but I do admire the difference in the vocalist. He uses his normal high pitch vocals and then switches to harsh and whisper in some songs in this section. I also still greatly admire the guitar riffs, I haven't heard of those riffs in any band that I can't think of. (Untitled): Sequoia Throne is the first song in this section and the first song I heard from this band last year. I got bored of listening to the vocalist using high pitch vocals so that's why I was hating on the band, just because of the vocals being used. But now, being more mature and listening to other music like this, I like the way the guitar uses the riffs to pretty much match the vocalist pitch. I do have to admire that now, listening more and more into this album, the vocalist changes to harsh, and I admire that. I like harsh vocals and in this section, I hear him use more harsh vocals in every song. Especially Limb from Limb. Isosceles: I like this section out of the 3 because it seems more louder, more insane, more frantic. I would love to jump up and punch a tree with Wretch, Goddess Bound just sounds completely insane, and Goddess Gagged is just an awesome song to finish the album. All these songs are out there, and I like that. I give this album a 10 out of 10, oddly enough.
Well, that's it for this band. They'll release a new album sometime next year, 2011. Until then, I recommend buying "Fortress" because I like that album out of any other album released before. I do have to say, even if I admire the usage of the different way Rody changes his voice, I still don't prefer high pitch vocalists than my type of vocalist. The ones you hear screaming with a low pitch. But not death metal, those vocalist make it seem like they hurt.
Until next time, goodbye.
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