Protest The Hero have given us plenty of reasons to doubt them over the years. The Canadian progressive metal heroes have spent the last decade navigating one roadblock after another. Frontman Rody Walker was forced to completely relearn how to sing and scream before 2020’s Palimpsest after suffering serious vocal problems. For years, the band has found itself without permanent bass and drum players, and recently founding guitarist Luke Hoskin decided to step away from touring (while remaining a writing member). Within arrives as the band’s first fully independent release and sees the band in this odd shape of being like 2.5 members now.
Despite this, Within‘s biggest achievement is how uncompromised it feels. This is definitely a Protest the Hero record. The frantic, technical mathy noodly riffing is still present, as is the technical musicanship, the metalcore/post-hardcore level of energy and the band’s emotions being worm on their sleeves. This is no identity crisis or attempt to reinvent themselves. If you are a fan of Protest The Hero, you will enjoy Within.
At just over thirty minutes, Within is also one of the band’s leanest releases, composed of 8 tracks, 2 of which are interludes. These interludes don’t add much but do serve the break the album into 3 pairs of tracks that work together. This is not a concept album, but it is intentionally sequenced.
The thing I enjoyed most about Within is the song-writing. The opening one-two punch is a belter. “Mouthpiece” is a furious, confrontational opener taking aim squarely at political grifters and right-wing crooks, building towards one of the album’s most explosive climaxes. It then leads to “Fishhook”, which was the most affecting song here for me. What begins as a story about a cantankerous elderly neighbour with deeply unpleasant views gradually transforms into something far more compassionate as Rody later reflects on how this neighbour helped him in his hour of need. Rody contemplates how generational attitudes are formed and wonders whether he’ll grow into the same bitter old asshole himself, before vowing to be kinder and better. It’s a nuanced and empathetic take, and my favourite cut here.
“Grandfather’s Axe” continues the momentum with some of the album’s best riffs and grooves, conveying the feeling of being alive and youthful despite getting older, before “The Orchard” cleverly flips that optimism on its head, using the image of the axe laying waste to an orchard as a metaphor for humanity’s destruction of the natural world. Again, it’s the writing rather than the musicianship that left the biggest impression on me.
That’s my main gripe here – instrumentally, Within rarely offers anything new or standout in the Protest The Horizon pantheon. It is very much Protest The Hero playing Protest The Hero. As a result, these tracks did start to blur together for me. That’s by no means to say they aren’t good, because the band’s formula of high energy, high skill wizardry is still a total blast.
The closing pair also loses a little momentum. “Liberty Spike” is a heartfelt reflection on the loss of a friend, while album closer “The Mariner” tells the story of Rody struggling through live performances after his vocal issues, only for the audience to carry the songs for him. It’s a touching and sincere tribute to the band’s fans, and the song effectively builds from anxiety to despair to triumph. I just wish it had a stronger hook or a central melody or something to anchor the song around, as it feels like the end result neglected this in favour of making sure the story is clearly told.
That said, there’s a lot to like here. The songwriting is mature, thoughtful and often excellent, and despite the number of roadblocks they’ve faced over the last decade, Protest the Hero emerge sounding remarkably comfortable in who they are. Perhaps too comfortable as this can all feel very familiar.
It made slightly less of an impression on me than most of their previous albums, but I still enjoyed Within a tonne.
Score: ★★★★
Highlights: Mouthpiece, Fishhook, Grandfather’s Axe, The Orchard
For Fans Of: Periphery, Between the Buried and Me, The Dillinger Escape Plan, noodling your guitar to the end of the world