Wednesday, April 13, 2011

So am I supposed to enjoy Protest the Hero, or what?

When Protest the Hero first broke onto the full-length studio scene in 2005, they might as well have been The All-American Rejects with sweep arpeggios. I shrugged em off as another one of those bands and moved on with my musical taste for the rest of the decade. That was until now, where I see them back in the spotlight with their latest full-length release Scurrilous, and their video for C'est La Vie, which debuted on Metal Sucks late last month. I saw these guys getting rave reviews in all the magazines, being featured on Metal Sucks (as mentioned before), Metal Injection, Heavy Blog is Heavy, etc. The metal blogosphere was just lighting up about Protest. Not to be out-bearded by the next metal blogger, I caved and decided to give the C'est La Vie video a watch to see what all the hullabaloo was about.



Wait, is this metal?

It's certainly undeniably proggy and technical. I also can't help but admit that vocalist Rody Walker has some damn serious pipes backing him up, dare I say, on a near power metal scale. Something that he has proven within the studio, and outside of it. (Sort of.) Whether you hate this band or not, you have to at least give him props for that. The technical guitar work, while impressive, gets a bit repetitive in that strange way that a lot of prog bands these days seems to bore you in their technicalness. Kind of like turning music into a math lesson. Funky time signatures, schizophrenic riffs, solos that feel like they're typed out on a calculator. Yep, Protest has definitely become a full-fledged progressive metal band.

They're not completely my cup of black tea, and despite their unmistakable musical chops, they still make my elitist metal spidey-sense tingle like crazy. It's hard to explain. Closing my eyes and getting past the short hair, polo shirts, scraggly beards, and Buddy Holly glasses, their music alone still gives me this sort of hip, Coheed and Cambria chill down my spine. (Perhaps their three-word-name is just playing tricks on my mind?) Then again, this just one song. For all I know, the rest of their album could ruin my face, and I've seen enough here to at least give it a shot. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a complete copy of Scurrilous and get you guys a full review to let you know if it's anything worth considering in a true metal library. Stay tuned. Or don't.

12 comments:

  1. I like how these guys appear like they are NOT trying to be extremely br00tal like most bands in the genre. That's already a huge plus for me.

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  2. I always got some pop-metal-ish feeling with these guys. Although I liked this song, maybe their new album is indeed better.

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  3. Quite honestly? I really don't care for it.. And he's got some pipes.. but I feel like its nothing unique. I totally agree with the Coheed feel.. too Vans Warped Tour for me.

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  4. Weedly weedly wank wank wank bs. No riffs, no care.

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  5. I love when "old school" metalheads whine about "distorted vocals" or "cookie monster vocals" ruining metal. I'd probably dig this if the singer wasn't Freddie Mercury.

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  6. Seriously? Do you like this? You should try The Human Abstract. They are a little less gay in the same type of music.

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  7. ^^ protest the Hero isn't gay. If you think they are gay then you are sadly mistaken. protest is on of the best metal outfits currently and the new album Scurrilous kicks some major ass \m/

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  8. They are too Pop to me. Not so Metal.

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  9. ^^ You are retarded to me. Not so smart. They are prog metal and a very good metal band at that. If they are pop to you, you need help.

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  10. Shroomkillah8/18/2011 12:28 AM

    I had the feeling I listened to Psychotic Waltz for a moment ... I will definitely check their album!

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  11. You have a nice blog. Keep writing this informative content.

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  12. I would hit up Kezia for the good shit. Fortress had some good ones too, and they are a bit less technical and a bit more hardcore before this album.

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All readers that post under the name "Anonymous" and are too frail and weak to represent themselves properly with a title, shall be deemed false metal poseurs for the remainder of their pitiful existence.