(Andy Synn has been a fan of this band for a long, long time… but is he a fan of their new album?)
There’s a commonly quoted, but often misinterpreted, maxim which states that as you grow older there comes a time when you must “put away childish things.”
What it actually means is that the process of becoming an adult means growing beyond selfishness and short-sighted, self-serving impulsivity to consider the people and the world around you… but it’s often taken as a claim that one should give up the things you enjoy, your passions, your hobbies, your interests, in order to display some sort of boring, performative “maturity”.
It’s a sentiment that afflicts a lot of bands too, especially when they suddenly decide to throw in an unnecessary ballad or some generically pretentious prog-parts as a signal to their audience that they’ve finally “grown up”.
Luckily for all of us, however, as much as Canadian genre-splicing jesters Protest the Hero have grown and developed over the years I’m happy to report that they still possess that same shamelessly nerdy, Theatre-Kid Pop-Punk meets Dream Theatre-loving, DnD-playing, Power-Prog energy now as they did way back before they could even grow some proper beards.
Of course, the band’s full-bearded maturity has been on full display for a while now (most notably during 2020’s stunning Palimpsest, which was essentially the album equivalent of “the Great American Novel”) but perhaps the most mature thing about Within is how it doesn’t simply try to replicate the exact sound and success of its career-defining predecessor, while still retaining all the lessons they learned along the way.
Sure, it’s perhaps a little short (part of me wonders whether Within might be followed by Without sometime soon, but that’s just speculation for the moment), and punchy penultimate track “Liberty Spike” hasn’t quite managed to grow on me as much as I’d hoped (yet), but the hits – especially when the lyrics hue a little more “personal” than “political” (though, on the evidence presented here, there’s not much separating the two) – are more than worth the six year wait.
Whether that’s the tech-tastic fretwork and dramatic, clean/harsh vocal dynamic of opener “Mouthpiece” (which bridges the gap from Palimpsest to Within quite nicely with killer couplets like “We’re treating the illness, ignoring the source / The water is poison, we drank it by force“) or the self-conscious social commentary (“He’s still a dick / But so am I“) of gloriously poppy , shamelessly snotty Prog-Punk anthem “Fishhook” and it’s litany of complaints about an annoying neighbour who, underneath it all, isn’t necessarily a bad person, or the fiery Funk-Punk of “Grandfather’s Axe” (“New blood, old veins / Fresh kill, stale pain / Same old sickness but a brand new strain“) I don’t think any fan of the band, old or new, is going to be disappointed by what they find here.
Of course, I can’t close without adding a comment on Walker’s uniuely lyrical, and absolutely phenomenal vocal performance – the utterly outstanding strains of “The Orchard”(which features some of the most irrepressible, grin-inducing guitar work on the whole album, as well as more hooks, and chorus-line gang vocals, than a whole fleet of Penzance pirates) in particular serves as a showcase for some of the most expressive and emotional parts he’s ever written/recorded – as his iconic, instantly recognisable delivery remains one of the defining (albeit, sometimes divisive) aspects of the band’s identity.
Whether cutting loose with an irresistibly infectious chorus during the aforementioned “Fishhook” (“Man I miss Pete / When I lived across town, he lived across the street / When the plough went by he’d be there with a shovel to / Dig me out, dig me out, dig me out / He had two bad knees, it was no big trouble /dig me out, dig me out, dig me out… of this conversation“) or opening up about his long-running battle with performance anxiety and self-doubt on indulgently proggy closer “The Mariner” (Molded bearing feeble death / I’m in the alley and I’m trying to catch my breath / Now the time is up and I can’t sing a note / I’m sidestage with my heart in my throat“) he continues to demonstrate that he’s one of the most compelling and creative vocalists/lyricists currently operating in this weird little scene of ours.
It must be reaffirmed, however, that Protest the Hero isn’t a one-man show, or merely a showcase for Walker’s vibrant vocal chords, as without the vital contributions of his equally talented collaborators and co-conspirators – Luke Hoskin (guitar) and Tim Millar (guitar, piano), plus session players Cameron McLellan (bass) and Nathan Bulla (drums) – there’s no way that Within would be anywhere near as good as it is, which makes the full-on musical theatre finale of “The Mariner”, with all the members onstage (metaphorically speaking) for the song’s shamelessly bombastic, crowd-pleasing climax (“As I float forevermore / I will hear your voices / Where the chorus meets the shore / At the end of it all / Whatever that is I’ll have something to hold / And I am grateful“), a perfectly fitting ending for the album… but, hopefully, not the end for Protest the Hero.