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Album Reviews : Protest The Hero – Pacific Myth

By on February 25, 2017

protest the hero pacific mythI am a massive and committed fan of the more proggy/techy styles of heavy music. I remain a little unconvinced by these Canadians, however, even though they are 15 years and five major releases into a pretty damn prestigious career.

Don’t get me wrong, Protest The Hero‘s music is ridiculously well played and constructed; they are on the absolute top shelf as far as musicianship and production are concerned. They have built a very respectable following across the planet over the last decade and a half. And deservedly so. They just don’t really do it for me.

I think a major part of the issue is the vocals. The higher end, almost glammy (at times) vocal stylings pushed by frontman Rody Walker don’t work as well, to my ears, as the dirty/melodic tradeoff pursued by the likes of Periphery, Textures, Monuments and so forth. It gives them a point of difference, sure, which is fantastic, and necessary in a crowded scene. It just doesn’t click as well in my mind.

Then, as far as this release is concerned, there is a track like “Ragged Tooth”, which doesn’t seem to gel as well as it possibly could. It doesn’t feel like a completely cohesive piece of music from end-to-end. After a slamming, very promising opening, it seems to lose its way and comes across like seemingly disparate parts glued together, rather than a flowing entity.

On the positive side, the track that comes directly after it, “Cold Water”, works a treat, and closer “Caravan” is an eight minute-forty second journey that takes the listener through so many dynamic shifts and twists and turns it makes your head spin.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter if this one single, humble reviewer doesn’t really dig on it as much as he could. If you like this band, or this style of music, there is still a very high probability that you will find a lot to like here, so check it out anyway.

Digital (up to 96K HD Audio)
https://protestthehero.bandcamp.com/a…

Limited Edition ‘Pacific Myth’ Vinyl (and other merch treats):
https://www.kt8merch.com/store/pages/…

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.