Now then, Protest the Hero. Incredible beyond comprehension.
I was fortunate enough to see these five masters of meticulously mercurial musicality for the second time last month and, despite them being only a support for what was, in my opinion, a far inferior band and following up two other, in my opinion (again) far inferior bands, I would still consider it one of the best gigs that I've been to in a while. Okay, so I can't judge the headline band because we left the gig after PtH had fucked my eardrums raw to go to watch Black Swan ("why no Black Swan review?") but as Ben pointed out, we thought that we could enjoy Purified in Blood but waiting for them to finish and for PtH to come on was a pretty long and unsatisfying half hour so watching Darkest Hour, a band that we had listened to and both been relatively underwhelmed with would surely be a just as negative experience as Purified in Blood. And why put ourselves through that when we could go watch Black Swan? Besides, £10 is well worth forty minutes of Protest the Hero.
Most, if not all bands will lose their touch as they grow and the quality of their material will deteriorate quite severely, sometimes fairly rapidly. This new song from Protest's "Scurrilous" will certainly serve to put to rest any fears that anyone might have had regarding the quality and originality of this ensemble's output. Maybe it's just because it's new to me as opposed to the other two album's which I have listened to 18-billion times but this sounds much fresher and gives me the impression that, while the differences will be subtle, this album will be distinctive and set apart from the previous two, as "Fortress" effectively bashed your face in with a little more force than "Kezia", which served to jump the transition from the band's previous offering (in EP form), "A Calculated Use of Sound" and land comfortably in a much more advanced and mature sound.
So, the song? I can't quite put my finger on what it is that sets it so far apart from the previous albums. I think the most noticeable distinction is the vocals. Whereas "Kezia" and "Fortress" both housed some variation within the spectrum from tuneful singing to guttural growls, "C'est la Vie" is majorly(almost entirely) consisting of a tuneful and incredibly powerful singing voice and as much as I enjoy a bit of a shout, Mr. Walker's obvious singing talents are more than welcome in my ears.
The guitar work is, unsurprisingly brilliant. Subtle when necessary and not too showy yet thoroughly unrelenting.
I always feel that it's somewhat a shame about the style of music because the bass, for the most part seems to just serve to reinforce but the obvious talent behind it screams for more notoriety. Alas, that's just how it's mixed and there's not really much to be done about that.
I'll admit that I don't really know much about drums & drumming but what is clear is that Moe Carlson certainly has the ability to live up to the talents of his cohorts and, though I don't know much about drumming technique etc. I (as well as many others I expect) can listen to this song's drum track and enjoy every second of it so he must be doing something right.
So overall: A nice recording/mix (from Julius Butty) of a fantastic song leaving a taste of anticipation for the day that I receive my pre-order of "Scurrilous" some two or three days after the release presumably.
I'm going to give this a 4/5 for now. Simply because there's a bit of an anti-climax toward the end where I was expecting something epic. I can't put it down to much and if I was rating out of 10 then it'd be a 9 so maybe that's a better rating system but for now, a high 4/5.
Click here to enter Protest the Hero's Facebook page and listen to "C'est la Vie".
Click here to pre-order "Scurrilous" from Amazon.
Protest the Hero - Official site
