McCallion
Quest

Protest the Hero Review

By: Naajiyah Karim

 Released in August 2005, the second full-length album by Protest The Hero has been doing remarkably well among young fans of metal music. Frankly, this 10-song CD will appeal to a diverse variety of music fans, whether they dance to catchy melodic choruses, or headbang to hardcore guitar riffs. The album, Kezia, has a wide array of different influences, ranging from the pop-like sounds of Fall Out Boy, to the underground beats of metal legends, Death By Stereo. This CD is absolutely incomparable to anything on your shelves, and if it is not in your collection yet, make sure you drop by HMV and pick it up. This band is going to be HUGE.

Believe it or not, this album was written and recorded when the boys from Protest The Hero were only eighteen years of age. That’s right, five eighteen-year-olds from Whitby, Ontario. The boys wrote the music and lyrics during their senior year in high-school, sacrificing their week-ends and holidays to play small shows. Without exaggeration, this album contains the most well written lyrics any eighteen-year-old could write. The words were all written by bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi, who has admitted to being highly influenced by the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This young lyricist has shocked all PTH fans with his amazing writing style, creating metaphors like “It's true that tactless team totem-poles turn tolerance to tired taboos.

It's true that a bullet never knocks on the door, it's about to come crashing through” and “I'd rather kill a stupid flower and spread its seeds around… until a garden with our bullet-laden morals will be found.”

Kezia is not your typical rock album. Unlike most of the other bands out there, the guys from Protest The Hero created an album with a concept….a meaning. Kezia is the basically a story of a girl who is about to be executed. The record is divided into 3 parts. One section is about the prison priest, one is for the prison guard, and one for Kezia herself. Although this album has a concept of execution, it is also very personal to the band. The whole CD is a metaphor of their experiences, put in a more dramatic situation.

Kezia came out a year after the five-some graduated from high-school, and since then they have been touring all over Canada and the U.S., gaining the respect of thousands of fans. They are even set to play a couple of shows in Europe, long for the public to discover that. So make sure you remember the name, and go pick up Kezia, by Protest The Hero. This band has accomplished more than bands twice their age have. They ARE the future heroes and role models of today's young generation.