A short, sharp reminder of exactly why nobody else sounds like Protest the Hero.
Release date: July 17, 2026 | Independent | Bandcamp | Tidal | Spotify | Website | Facebook | Instagram
I think a short crash course is in order for whoever isn’t really acquainted with the band and needs a good sell. Protest the Hero is, basically, what happens when five Canadian nerds marry prog-metal, skate punk, and a Red Bull sponsorship and then decide music theory is a harshly judged Olympic sport. You can imagine the band as something like DragonForce got jumped in a Toronto alley by The Dillinger Escape Plan and came out writing hardcore riffs and melodies, which sound like a Rubik’s Cube solving itself at 250 BPM, fronted by a dude whose voice ricochets between soaring operatic falsetto and theater-kid-possessed-by-a-demon-banshee-shriek. All of this is dressed with the lyrics that somehow traverse an equally diverse and rich landscape, stuffing in Ottoman history, sex workers’ rights, and Dungeons & Dragons lore, among other things. It’s technically riveting, entirely unhinged, and the band would 100% laugh at the idea of taking any of it too seriously.
So naturally, you would imagine that a band playing such ultra high octane stuff for nearly three decades would succumb to bloat, or get tired, or just ditch it in favor of roaming around the wilderness instead. Yeah, nah, wrong. Somehow they keep getting better as time passes and I can attest this first hand. It’s extremely rare that I not only get to see one of my all time favorite bands live in concert, but having that happen also before writing an article on their latest release is a godsend double whammy. Their performance is every bit as hilarious, fast paced, energetic, and enthralling as one would imagine based on the music and other people’s impressions.
Protest the Hero’s Within is, like Pacific Myth, more on the shorter side of things, but that really detracts in no real way from the quality of the tunes. I was rather skeptical as to how Within was going to pan out, given that I wasn’t exactly in love with Palimpsest. Sure, many loved Palimpsest, however, I felt it lacked something in spirit, it didn’t land emotionally for me, it just felt straight up cold. Technically immaculate, atmospherically inert. Of course, a band doesn’t owe anyone anything, but it’s difficult for fans to greet future releases with no expectations.
While I was cautiously optimistic (as I have been for a few years in general), color me relieved, because Within was more than just a pleasant surprise. It really feels like Protest the Hero keeps finding new ways to spin, twist, wring, and toy with their blazing-shred-meets-rolling-chugs-meets-20-tempo-and-mood-changes-in-20-minutes recipe. With every iteration it takes on new flavors, influences, textures, what have you, but it always manages to be unambiguously Protest the Hero – unapologetically fun and bright, unremittingly evocative and emotional.
To be perfectly honest, that last part is basically the tell, because Within is the emotional rebound. Protest the Hero’s earlier leanings had a tendency to gravitate more around post-hardcore, metalcore, mathcore with a power metal fetish, firmly driven from an unstoppable prog metal machine. Though as time passed, that center of gravity shifted more and more towards what we commonly see as modern prog metal, but with orchestral and epic flourishes in more recent years, while fully embracing its past and foundation. Within doesn’t pick a single lane, it mows down through all of them simultaneously with a fuck off sized tank. As it stands, it’s an adroit representation of everything the band has been building since day one, while pretending to be nothing more than a bunch of chill dudes having a great time. I’m not entirely sure it will replace Volition as my most played on rotation, but I can’t help myself from listening to it on repeat.
