OneMetal.com music REVIEW:
Protest The Hero – Scurrilous

Canada’s Protest The Hero seem to be doing things the right way, building their fanbase through a solid work ethic – compilation appearances, EPs and lots of touring raised their profile before they released their first album Kezia in 2006. Making their mark with a well-received slot on the Warped Tour in support of Fortress in 2008, and continuing the good road-work through the following two years, the time was ripe for some new material from the band.

Scurrilous won’t take fans of the band by surprise – it’s definitely the natural continuation of the sound laid-out on Fortress – but they will rejoice at what’s on offer. Protest The Hero are one of ‘those’ bands – the type that seem to inspire fanatical devotion in their followers, whilst being almost impenetrable for people that don’t really grasp what they’re about. With some bands there’s a mythology around them, such as Coheed And Cambria and the Amory Wars saga that their albums revolve around, that can put people off – with Protest The Hero it’s the music itself that can be the barrier. A fair portion of the time it feels as if the band have an internal wager about who’ll be the first to crack and write a section in standard 4/4, whilst lead guitarist Luke Hoskin attempts to navigate the entirety of his instrument’s fretboard in every song. Not for the faint-hearted, but pierce the fog of technicality and what you find are solid, well-constructed songs.

Straight off the bat, ‘C’est La Vie’ marks out the territory – crunching offtime riffs intertwine around Rody Walker’s impassioned tenor howl, laced with spiralling leads and huge sub-bass drops. Dropping into almost fusion-jazz realms with some of the guitar work in the middle-eight, and nailed together with impressive accuracy by Moe Carlson’s almost epileptic performance behind the drumkit, this three-and-a-half minutes will let you know very quickly if Protest The Hero are to your taste, being an almost perfect microcosm of their sound.

Ooookay....

Up next, ‘Hair-Trigger’ features one of the album’s two guest vocal appearances. Jadea Kelly’s voice meshes perfectly with the band again, as it did when she provided her tones to the role of Kezia on the album of the same name. The track itself has a whiff of Coheed to it, with more of a considered melodicism to the bridge and chorus and Rody’s voice calling up more than an echo of Claudio at some points. Chuck in some pop-and-slap bass action over heavily-delayed harmony guitars to lead in to the almost-casual brutality of the end-section, and we have ourselves a winner, folks.

As for highlights from the rest of this record, there are some seriously impressive opposing guitar lines and syncopated rhythms to be had in ‘Moonlight’, ‘Tapestry’ sees the return of Rody’s scat vocalising and a massive keyboard-soaked leadout into some dizzying scalar harmonies, whilst the pounding heaviness of ‘The Reign Of Unending Terror’ gives way to a most unexpected swing feel in the final minute or so. We also get flashes of both Muse and SikTh in ‘Termites’, a frenzy of tapped licks throughout ‘Tongue-Splitter’ along with some eyebrow-raising chord sequences, and the second guest vocal from Propagandhi‘s Chris Hannah on the album-closer ‘Sex Tapes’ – a song which brings to mind none other than Danny Elfman’s Nightmare Before Christmas at one point!

It’s certainly a very intense 44 minutes but there are more than enough ideas here to stop any suggestion of boredom setting in. The twists and turns within each song mean it’ll take you an age just to truly know the record properly, whilst the size of the vocal hooks and power of Walker’s performance give you just the right amount of accessibility to keep you intrigued. There really is enough technical flash on show for all but the most demanding or traditional prog-hound, whilst maintaining sufficient heaviness for even an old thrasher like myself.

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Bottom Line

Technical, emotionally-charged, modern progressive rock. For those of you that wish Between The Buried And Me could chill out on the death metal vocals, Protest The Hero are answering your plea in fine style.

4/5 - Great, recommended

13 Responses to “Protest The Hero – Scurrilous”
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• 
  
  February 21, 2011 at 09:32 | OneMetal Team Member
  Will Lakeman says:

  Nice cover art. Sounds like the wife might like this too.
• 
  
  February 21, 2011 at 09:43 | OneMetal Team Member
  Rob McAuslan says:

  I did think of her whilst listening, actually – right up her street, for sure, as she liked their previous stuff :)
• 
  
  February 21, 2011 at 09:53 | OneMetal Team Member
  Mike Perry says:

  Can’t wait for this! Fortress is one my all-time favourite albums, and they’re awesome live to boot.
• 
  
  February 21, 2011 at 10:19 | OneMetal Team Member
  Rob McAuslan says:

  Oh, if you liked Fortress you’ll totally love this! Spectacular stuff.
• 
  
  February 21, 2011 at 11:42 | OneMetal Team Member
  Mike Perry says:

  Cool; they played a couple of new tracks when they were in Manc last month, and it sounded good to me!
• 
  
  February 22, 2011 at 03:49 |
  Cheap Labor says:

  Just got a hold of the CD tonight. Didn’t buckle in and got whiplash. What a ride!

  The production value on Scurrilous, compared to PTH’s prior albums, is unreal. This is how Protest The Hero should be listened to.
• 
  
  February 22, 2011 at 05:06 |
  Nathaniel Vasquez says:

  This is an absolutely outstanding album. Every single track on it is somehow unique and contains unbelievable depth. Hair Trigger, with the juxtaposed vocals is probably my favorite track of all, although the album as a whole will likely be playing in the background of my life for quite a while.
• 
  
  February 28, 2011 at 04:54 |
  thexhangman says:

  Cracking album, although they have deviated from the heavier sounds of Kezia.

  Also, for your Coheed and Cambria reference, it’s Amory Wars, not Emory.
• 
  
  February 28, 2011 at 08:29 | OneMetal Team Member
  Rob McAuslan says:

  Good catch, thanks! Edited.
• 
  
  March 5, 2011 at 02:28 |
  Ben M says:

  Good review but I think your conception of Rody’s voice and vocal inspirations are way off. Hints of Claudio? I can see what you mean by that, but it is supremely strange that it is that small aspect of Rody’s voice you chose to mention explicitly. As perhaps one of the most dynamic and powerful voices around today, you find it necessary to liken him to Claudio (much respect to the man, but in no way a vocalist worthy of benchmarking).
  Scurrilous predominantly features high, soaring, sometimes dirty, vibrato ridden vocals; inspiration taken from a lot of 80s/90s metal. Claudio’s mewing whine couldn’t be further from that.
• 
  
  March 5, 2011 at 06:25 | OneMetal Team Member
  Rob McAuslan says:

  Claudio is a far better singer than you give him credit for, Ben ;)
  The comparison is only in the context of that one song – I could expound at great length on the vast range of Rody’s vocals, but it’s a review rather than a dissertation! I completely agree that Walker is the owner of a hugely impressive voice – I’d have to be insane not to :D
• 
  
  March 5, 2011 at 07:42 |
  Nathaniel Vasquez says:

  I agree with Rob. Though I do quite enjoy Protest the Hero and the like, Coheed and Cambria remain one of my favorite bands of all time. If you get into them, Claudio especially, they have a sound that is unmatched by most others. I do think that there may be better comparisons to Rody’s voice, but the range and great skill he demonstrates is very similar to Claudio Sanchez.
• 
  
  March 29, 2011 at 01:36 |
  Pete says:

  Thank you for actually listening to this album more than once b4 writing a review. i’ve read a lot of reviews for the album and almost all of them made me want to punch the writer of them in the fuckin face because they can’t seem to comprehend the album.