Protest the Hero

Protest the Hero are a Canadian Progressive Metal band, who began life playing somewhat straightforward Punk, and got more and more progressive with each release.

To date, they have released 3 albums.

Members:

• Rody Walker - vocals
• Luke Hoskin - lead guitar, backing vocals, piano
• Tim Millar - rhythm guitar, backing vocals, piano
• Arif Mirabdolbaghi - bass, backing vocals, lyrics
• Moe Carlson - Drums

Discography:

• A Calculated Use of Sound (2003)
• Kezia (2006)
• Fortress (2008)
• Scurrilous (2011)

Protest the Hero provides examples of the following tropes:

• Alien Invasion: Both averted and subverted in "Sequoia Throne". "They're not the ones who cause us harm - we are!" Then later; "They bloviate about a future beyond the moon, to bring about another planet's doom, to find some other peaceful life, and beat a war-drum to its tune. Unless my prayers are answered, our end is coming soon."
• Badass Beard: Tim's certainly counts since it's huge, but everyone except moe are sporting rather nifty ones now.
• Concept Album: Both albums so far, though they've said the new one won't be.
• Downer Ending: "Kezia" is about a woman going facing excecution for an unmentioned crime. Guess how it ends.
• Home Porn Movie: "Sex Tapes"
• Large Ham: Rody has a habit of hamming it up in videos.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The album "Fortress" is about peaceful pagans being massacred by Christian missionaries. One song that particularly stands out is "Sequoia Throne".
• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Generally around 7-8, but there's some gutteral screaming which raises it now and then.
• New Sound Album: There's a massive change between their Ep and Kezia (which isn't surprising considering they were teenagers when they started), and almost a big a change between Kezia and Fortress.
  • Scurrilous also switches to a much less progressive, more straitforward metal sound.
  • Just compare this, the first song they released, to the latest.
• Religion Rant Song: Not any specific rants, but many tracks on both "Kezia" and "Fortress" contain anti-religious themes, especially the first three tracks of the former.
• Title Drop: Many times.
  • In "The Dissentience" on the album "Fortress": Bloooodmeeeat! (ironically in the previous song, "Bloodmeat", they never say this.)
  • In "The Divine Suicide of K." on "Kezia": Blindfold Aside, I'll probably still close my eyes."
  • "Divinity Within" also name drops itsself a couple of times.
• Throw It In: In the breakdown of Wretch, you can clearly hear a Cat meowing. It's Rody's, which interrupted during the middle of recording vocals. They decided to leave it in after hearing the results.