For your belated Throwback Thursday song for last week, I'm turning to perennial Loud Noises favourite Protest the Hero. What does such a young band have to do with throwing back, you ask?
Despite their relative youth, Protest the Hero have been busy over the last decade, releasing four LPs and touring like crazy. More importantly (at least for my purposes today), the band's stellar debut album Kezia turned ten years old at the end of August, and to commemorate the guys have planned an anniversary tour with the original, now-defunct lineup. There's no Kingston date this time around (what gives, guys?) but it still looks to be a good time.
So that's why you're getting a track from the ten-year-old Kezia today, namely "Turn Soonest to the Sea". Crank this one and then go grab your tickets for one of the Kezia X dates. It'll be worth your while, I promise! (hint: you might get to hear some Mandroid Echostar material if you catching them opening on this tour...)
Showing posts with label Kezia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kezia. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Pit Report: Protest the Hero
Like seemingly everything else I put my hand it to it took longer than I'd have liked, but I promised a pit report for Tuesday evening's Protest the Hero show and now I'm here to deliver. So read on, and live vicariously through me!
Tuesday's show was one of a few impromptu additions to the Volition tour announced after the main dates but taking place before the bulk of the tour -- some pre-tour warm-ups, or something along those lines, is what I think I recall reading in one of the band's Facebook posts. I would guess that this had something to do with the venue choice of a bar, The Mansions, rather than the comedy club that often hosts shows like this, but honestly, I don't really care. Anything that lets me see Protest in a tiny venue is A-OK in my book.
The first opening act was a local band called Ponderous Chain, but we elected to go out for dinner before the show and as such only caught the second band on the bill, Salt of the Chief Cornerstone. Regular readers will remember that I featured a song of theirs earlier in the week, "Taken by Storm", and this track was just one of several that captivated the whole room with Salt's energetic performance and it's build-and-release style. I dug it enough that I bought a copy of their EP before the night was out.
Also before the night was out, of course, was Protest the Hero. Or at least three-fifths of the Protest I've seen before. Drummer Moe has been officially replaced by The Kindred's Mike Ieradi (the drum work on Volition being handled by Lamb of God's Chris Adler, in case you...somehow... hadn't heard) and bassist Arif is sitting this tour out to work on a stage production he's involved with, his spot being filled by the band's producer Cameron McLellan.
In any event, the boys came on stage to the strains of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme song and proceeded to rip through a varied set that included tracks from all four of the band's LPs (even Kezia, which doesn't always get a lot of live love from the guys). There was enough old stuff to please longtime fans such as myself, and enough new stuff to remind everyone that they're touring on a new record.
Highlights of the evening included our close proximity to the barely-elevated stage at all times (thanks to the tiny room at The Mansion) and the crowd's passing Rody crowd-surfing style from the stage to the bar and back for a mid-set brew. Very metal.
And that's about all she (or me) wrote on this one. Head on over to setlist.fm if you're curious about what tunes the band was rocking on Tuesday. Hopefully Protest will be back to town sooner rather than later, and I for one certainly wouldn't be opposed to more stops in small venues like this one. High energy and intensity + an intimate setting = a good time had by all.
Tuesday's show was one of a few impromptu additions to the Volition tour announced after the main dates but taking place before the bulk of the tour -- some pre-tour warm-ups, or something along those lines, is what I think I recall reading in one of the band's Facebook posts. I would guess that this had something to do with the venue choice of a bar, The Mansions, rather than the comedy club that often hosts shows like this, but honestly, I don't really care. Anything that lets me see Protest in a tiny venue is A-OK in my book.
The first opening act was a local band called Ponderous Chain, but we elected to go out for dinner before the show and as such only caught the second band on the bill, Salt of the Chief Cornerstone. Regular readers will remember that I featured a song of theirs earlier in the week, "Taken by Storm", and this track was just one of several that captivated the whole room with Salt's energetic performance and it's build-and-release style. I dug it enough that I bought a copy of their EP before the night was out.
Also before the night was out, of course, was Protest the Hero. Or at least three-fifths of the Protest I've seen before. Drummer Moe has been officially replaced by The Kindred's Mike Ieradi (the drum work on Volition being handled by Lamb of God's Chris Adler, in case you...somehow... hadn't heard) and bassist Arif is sitting this tour out to work on a stage production he's involved with, his spot being filled by the band's producer Cameron McLellan.
In any event, the boys came on stage to the strains of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme song and proceeded to rip through a varied set that included tracks from all four of the band's LPs (even Kezia, which doesn't always get a lot of live love from the guys). There was enough old stuff to please longtime fans such as myself, and enough new stuff to remind everyone that they're touring on a new record.
Highlights of the evening included our close proximity to the barely-elevated stage at all times (thanks to the tiny room at The Mansion) and the crowd's passing Rody crowd-surfing style from the stage to the bar and back for a mid-set brew. Very metal.
And that's about all she (or me) wrote on this one. Head on over to setlist.fm if you're curious about what tunes the band was rocking on Tuesday. Hopefully Protest will be back to town sooner rather than later, and I for one certainly wouldn't be opposed to more stops in small venues like this one. High energy and intensity + an intimate setting = a good time had by all.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Song of the Day: Protest the Hero - Blindfolds Aside
It's the start of the Canada Day long weekend here in Canadia, so we're going to do a few days of Canadian songs. And we're going to kick it off with one of my favourites.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Song of the Day: Protest the Hero - Nautical
I don't know if any of you out there are fans of Protest the Hero (you should be), but if you are you probably know by now that a) the band is working on a new album and b) they're crowdfunding the recording of said album via Indiegogo. I've contributed (and as such have some tasty, tasty swag headed my way at some point) but I'm still totally flabbergasted by how fast things have moved: the fund has been open less than 24 hours and it's already pretty much reached its goal. It's fantastic, and hopefully it'll mean a kickass album, whenever it comes out.
Saturday, 27 October 2012
Pit Report: Protest the Hero
As you may be aware (since I told you as much) I saw Protest the Hero play on Monday night, so I thought it might be fun to do a quick little pit report about the show. Enjoy!
Saturday, 4 August 2012
The United Nations of Metal
I’ve got something kinda fun planned for this time out. Or at least I think it’s fun. Maybe I’m just a big dork. Anyways, some set-up: I recently got thinking about how insular we metal fans can be. I mean, we do listen to a pretty niche genre of music. Even your most mainstream modern metal bands, your Lamb of Gods (Lambs of God?), your Killswitch Engages, your Slipknots (OK, maybe Slipknot is a bad example...), even bands like these aren’t getting top 40 radio play, or appearing on People magazine, or even being followed by douchebags from TMZ. Even the biggest fish in the metal pond are seldom caught by the nets of mainstream popular culture. (How’s that for a metaphor?)
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