Tuesday 1 July 2014

Album of the Week: Protest the Hero - Kezia

     It's Canada Day today, so you know I'm going to take that excuse for a theme and run with it as far as I can. The end result as far as you're concerned is some Canadian stuff for your song and album today, starting with the rock-solid debut LP from one of my favourite bands.

     The success of their crowdfunding campaign for last year's Volition may have put them front and centre in the metal world for a bit, but Whitby's Protest the Hero were making their name on their tasty tech riffage for years before that. Protest has a great back catalogue, and I could comfortably recommend you spend the week with any of their records prior to Volition, but in order to fully appreciate how far they've come, I think you've got to start at the start.

     Kezia is one of those debut records that struck like a proverbial bolt out of the blue, an effect only compounded by the teenaged status of the band at the time of the album's composition and recording. It certainly depressed me, a guitarist in my early twenties at the time, that a bunch of kids several years my junior had come roaring out of the gate with such an impressive first album.

     Punky energy, metal technicality, Rody's phenomenal vocal range, high-brow concepts -- none of it is anything new for Protest. They've been doing that kind of thing since the beginning, and have only been honing their sound. Longtime fans of the band will know how good Kezia is, but latecomers to the Protest party who haven't delved into the band's early days should be implored to do so. Just because the guys don't play a whole lot of cuts off Kezia anymore doesn't detract from said album's awesomeness. Discover that awesomeness for yourself this week, please.

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