Protest The Hero
Photo: KC Armstrong

Some bands write music to score chicks, others for the hope of stardom and a few even do it because they love to play. But Whitby, Ontario, quintet Protest the Hero have an altogether different reason for rocking out.

"We all just get bored really easily, so we're always trying to do something that will keep our interest," singer Rody Walker said. "When we write a record, we want something that will still keep our attention a couple years down the line, but it never works."

Protest the Hero's new album, Tuesday's Fortress, should retain the interest of Walker and his bandmates — guitarists Tim Millar and Luke Hoskin, bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi and drummer Moe Carlson — for quite a while. The songs are rhythmically complex, technically proficient, fiercely metallic and strikingly melodic, sounding a bit like a hybrid of Coheed and Cambria, Slayer and the Dillinger Escape Plan. Songs like "Bloodmeat," "Limb From Limb" and "Bone Marrow" swerve through a barbed-wire obstacle course of epileptic beats, serrated riffs and constantly changing rhythms that make the challenging compositions on their 2006 full-length debut, Kezia, sound like Kiss songs. Of course, that was exactly the point.

"Right now, I don't ever want to play those songs on Kezia again," Walker said. "I'm so sick of them, and I know we're going to have to [play them] when we tour. We hate being labeled, but if we have to be called something, I think 'ADD metal' applies."

The band started writing Fortress in January 2007 at its rehearsal space, and although the material was far from simplistic, the process was productive. First, the group assembled a wide array of jigsaw-puzzle beats and riffs into coherent structures, and after that, Walker decided where to scream in the songs and where to sing.

"In the beginning, it was a rather daunting task to sit down at my computer and have to write vocals over this progressive gobbledygook," the singer said. "But once I got on a roll, it was pretty easy. If you have a grasp of melody, and you understand how chords will fit together and how vocals will sound overtop, it's not so hard. I just listened to each song a million times on a CD, and I figured out what to do over it."

Protest the Hero entered the studio with producer Julius "Juice" Butty, who worked with the band on Kezia, in mid-June and spent about a month layering dozens of tracks. Then Butty worked closely with Walker to get the best performances out of him.

While Walker sang his melodies in the studio, he created them with Mirabdolbaghi's lyrics, just as he did with Kezia. Back in 1999, when Protest the Hero formed, Walker used to write his own songs, but when the bassist brought some ideas to an early jam session, everyone was blown away.

"Arif is just so talented," Walker explained. "He's a literature master. When he was 17, he went to a [Fyodor] Dostoevsky symposium in Switzerland and was the youngest person to ever be invited to one of those. It's kind of funny. This time, Luke and I were like, 'Hey, man, can you write a party song about how we want to drink beers and f--- b----es?' And he came up with this really complex lyric for 'The Dissentience' ... that was all metaphorical. That was his idea of a party lyric."

It goes without saying, the songs on Fortress aren't about getting drunk or laid. The album is a loose concept record divided into two parts: "On Conquest and Capture" and "Isosceles." And while there isn't a narrative arc to the whole thing, the album explores various lofty themes.

"It's really a look at past, present and future, through the battles that have been fought and are being fought and supposedly will be fought," Walker said. "It goes through Genghis Khan and Flidais, which is from Irish mythology. A lot of the themes are centered around goddess worship because these days people seem to only want to be worshipping Allah and Jesus Christ and all these strange male figures. And in the past we used to very much worship female figures. So it's very much about bringing back the femininity to God."

Of course, as with Coheed and Cambria, if you're not feeling too geeky and you just wanna rock out, you can ignore all the profundity and simply bang your head — providing you can keep up with the beat.

"Some of the stuff can be deep, but I really think we're a party band," Walker insisted.

The rest of the week's metal news:

Children of Bodom have wrapped the recording of their forthcoming album, Blooddrunk, which is slated for an April 15 release. The disc will feature nine songs, including "Hellhounds on My Trail," "Smile Pretty for the Devil" and "Banned From Heaven." ... The rumors are flying about this summer's Rockstar Mayhem Tour, Warped Tour mastermind Kevin Lyman's answer to Ozzfest. While Disturbed and Slipknot will anchor the bill, Metal File is hearing that Sevendust, Mastodon and DragonForce could be added to the lineup soon, along with previously rumored performers Five Finger Death Punch, Suicide Silence and Walls of Jericho. None of this has been confirmed yet, but we'll keep you posted. ... The Dillinger Escape Plan went unplugged recently, performing an acoustic version of "Horse Hunter," complete with its cameo from Mastodon's Brent Hinds. According to a post on the band's MySpace apge, "[We] don't know what's better about it, the fact that it's the first time we've played that song in any capacity, or the fact that half of his face is covered in tattoos at this point." ...

Nate Johnson has left South Carolina death-metallers Through the Eyes of the Dead, freeing him up to join the ranks of Since the Flood. According to a statement from the singer, he quit because "it just wasn't my thing. Yes, I am a big fan of death metal, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to be in [the band]." He added that he just lost interest. Through the Eyes of the Dead are now looking for a new frontman. ... ->

Through the Eyes of the Dead have a new frontman and drummer after the respective departures of Nate Johnson and Josh Kulick. "We are excited to announce that Lech, formerly of As Blood Runs Black, will be handling drums for us on the upcoming tour," the South Carolina death-metallers said in a statement. "He's a monster behind the kit and has proven to us to be the right fit for our style. And stepping into the vocal spot is Lou Tanius, who has previously put time in with On Paths of Torment and Invocation of Nehek." Now that he's freed up, Johnson has joined the ranks of Since the Flood. According to a statement from the singer, he quit TTEOTD because "it just wasn't my thing. Yes, I am a big fan of death metal, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to be in [the band]." He added that he just lost interest. The Scum of the Earth Tour featuring TTEOTD, Throwdown, Soilwork and War of Ages starts February 29 in Pomona, California, and ends April 3 in Las Vegas. ...

Finnish metallers Kalmah have been hammering away on their next record since October, and the yet-untitled album will surface in stores in early April. ... Meanwhile, fellow countrymen Dead Shape Figure have signed with Season of Mist, which will release the thrash act's debut album, The Grand Karoshi, in the spring. ... Canadian metallers Into Eternity continue to write material for their next record. According to a statement from guitarist Tim Roth, "the new songs are sounding really good and really heavy." The band hopes to start tracking the songs next month, and the record could be finished in time for a late 2008 release. ...

First Blood are hard at work on their next LP, which they've christened Silence Is Betrayal. The record should see the light of day in the summer. Frontman Carl Schwartz said the band has had more than two years to get roundly peeved, and that's reflected in the songs. "This upcoming album will be nothing short of brutal — and quite possibly the most critical, condemning, and controversial material we will ever release," he said in a statement. ... How's this for a lineup? The Devil Wears Prada, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Gwen Stacy and Whitechapel will hit the road together in the spring for a string of U.S. dates. The trek gets under way April 25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is scheduled to run through May 13 in Dayton, Ohio. ...

Zimmers Hole, which features Strapping Young Lad guitarist Jed Simon, bassist Byron Stroud and drummer Gene Hoglan, will release their forthcoming album, When You Were Shouting at the Devil ... We Were in League With Satan, March 11. The disc will boast 11 cuts, including "We Rule the F---ing Land," "Anonymous Esophagus" and "Hair Doesn't Grow on Steel." ... German death-metal outfit Fragments of Unbecoming will release their next record, which carries the working title Everhaunting Past Chapter IV - A Splendid Retrospection, before year's end. Expect the effort to feature eight tracks, including "It's Me, the Grotesque," "A Voice Says: 'Destroy!' " and "Shipwrecked in the Yesteryears."

[This story was originally published at 8:00 am E.T. on 01.25.2008]

• Protest The Hero
• Children Of Bodom
• Mastodon

Suicide Silence
Photo: Century Media

Don't you just love it when bands regurgitate those same tired, lame lines everyone spews in interviews — you know, ones like, "We wouldn't be here without the fans," or "Everything we do, we do with our fans in mind"? Yeah, us too. Those remarks usually come off as disingenuous and halfhearted. But when it comes to Riverside, California, deathcore act Suicide Silence, actions speak louder than words.

Frontman Mitch Lucker recently recalled a good example: a 2006 gig in Miami that went awry. He remembered gnashing his teeth as he watched the venue's security team manhandle the mosh-happy crowd. He tried to ignore it — but then one of the band's female fans took a stagedive. That's when things got ugly.

"One of the security guards punched her right in the face," Lucker explained. "They were being complete a--holes, choking people out, throwing people down. So I told everybody in the audience to f--- that one security guard up."

As the sweat-drenched, huddled masses started pushing forward, toward the front of the stage, Lucker said the club's sentinels began spraying mace — at the band. The singer recalled taking a deep breath just as the tear gas hit him.

"Everybody in this club — which I won't name — got mad and basically, it incited an entire riot," he claimed. "The whole show destroyed the venue, somebody stole the PA, a full-on SWAT team was called in, there were news helicopters flying overhead — it was horrible. I guess I kind of instigated it ... it was probably one of the craziest things I've seen — there was much violence in such a short amount of time."

Luckily, Lucker and the rest of Suicide Silence escaped arrest- and bruise-free, albeit covered in lachrymator. But it was a night the band will never forget and hopes to avoid repeating on its current tour with Despised Icon, Winds of Plague and See You Next Tuesday. The trek concludes Wednesday in Worcester, Massachusetts.

After the run, Suicide Silence will hit the road with Unearth, Darkest Hour and August Burns Red from Thursday in Towson, Maryland, through October 6 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A headlining tour with Walls of Jericho, A Life Once Lost and the Agony Scene will follow, but no dates have been booked yet.

According to Lucker, Suicide Silence would like nothing more than a slot on next summer's Sounds of the Underground Tour or Ozzfest. He said that all comes down to the reception the band's Century Media debut, The Cleansing, receives. The disc, produced by John Travis, landed in stores on Tuesday.

"We didn't want our record to sound like everybody else's," Lucker explained. "We worked with John, who'd done stuff with the Wu-Tang Clan and Static-X, because he'd never really done a record with a metal band before. That's what we wanted. We wanted a different feel, a different sound, a different mood to it. But we still wanted to keep it savage and violent — that's the way it should be."

The entire record was tracked live, Lucker said, to capture the raw energy the band expends during its live shows. In addition, Suicide Silence wanted to integrate all the various styles of metal they appreciate into one compact package.

"What we tried to do on this record was to incorporate tons of different styles of metal — death, speed, metalcore — into our songs, because most death-metal bands get labeled 'death metal,' and that's all they ever are," he said. "They're confined to just one genre. But we wanted to separate ourselves from that and give each song a different sound, so you can listen to the whole record and not get tired of it. Kids who listen to all genres of metal will find something to like on this record, because we tried to be as open as possible on it."

While Lucker claims the band pre-sold more than 2,200 copies of The Cleansing through its MySpace page and hopes to attract a lot more fans this year through nonstop touring and, hopefully, that summer-festival slot. And the video the guys recently shot with director Matt Bass (the Esoteric, the Black Dahlia Murder) for "The Price of Beauty" won't hurt.

"It's pretty violent," he said. "Matt wrote the treatment to the song, and it fits so well — the video came out grotesque and intense, just like the song. It's perfect."

The clip features the band performing frantically in a dark warehouse, interspersed with footage of a pretty young girl inside a sadistic doctor's office. "We wanted a girl that looked really innocent, like, 'I want to get fake boobies and a fake nose' — the total little generic Orange County chick," Lucker said. "And she was perfect for it. She let us cut her ears off — she was a good sport."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid have all contributed to the upcoming album by Queen V. The disc, Death or Glory, is scheduled for release in November. Lemmy appears on "Wasted," Morello on "My Machine" and Reid on "One & Only." ... Danzig will launch a brief tour on October 23 in Baltimore, with dates running through November 2 in San Francisco. Gorgeous Frankenstein, which features Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, will open all shows. ...

Means to an End have a valid excuse for making industrial-strength biker metal: Frontman Tony "Grinder" Dwyer was formerly a professional BMX rider and is currently a professional NASCAR driver. The band's debut, ... Reaction, is available on iTunes now and will get a proper release in February. Tracks include "This Fist for Free," "When It's Gone" and "Faith Is Taking Over." ... Following the departures of singer Chuck Bouley and bassist Rob Deangelis, Eastern Massachusetts hardcore-metal band Since the Flood have cemented their lineup with singer Nate Siemens and bassist Ricky Nukem (ex-Guns Up!). The group is currently on a U.S. tour that runs through September 30 in Dover, New Hampshire. ...

To contribute to the backwoods vibe of the upcoming horror film "The Stitcher," director Darla Enlow ("Toe Tags," "Branded") decided to recruit small-town metal bands for the soundtrack. The producers got the help of various rural radio stations to promote a contest for the flick, and they soon received a pitchfork full of demos. In the end, they asked 10 bands to contribute, including Calling Matthew, Darkset Theory and Doomsday Junky. "The Stitcher" will be released October 16 by VCI Entertainment. ... Relapse will host a free screening of the thrash-metal documentary "Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal" on Tuesday in Philadelphia at the Rotunda. The screening will be followed by a set from modern thrash band Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. "Get Thrashed" was written and directed by Rick Ernst and features interviews with many of the key players from the '80s and '90s. The associate producer of the film is ex-Overkill drummer Rat Skates. ...

The second album by experimental Canadian band Protest the Hero, Fortress, has been bumped to early 2008. The album was originally slated for release November 13. ... The release of the new CD by rapper Ill Bill (brother of Necro), The Hour of Reprisal, has also been delayed, until early 2008. The disc will feature guest appearances by Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera, Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones, and Bad Brains singer H.R. and bassist Darryl Jenifer. A good chunk of rappers — Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Tech N9ne, Necro, DJ Premier, Muggs and B-Real. Ill Bill launches a tour with Twiztid on Tuesday in Cleveland, and dates run through November 10 in Columbus, Ohio. ...

Burial Chamber Trio, an all-star group featuring Mayhem singer Attila Csihar, Sunn 0))) guitarist Greg Anderson and electronic guitarist and percussionist Oren Ambarchi, have scheduled a single North American show for October 21 in Seattle. Lesbian will open. ... Technical melodic death-metal band Arsis are in the studio working on their first album for Nuclear Blast. The disc, tentatively titled We Are the Nightmare, will be the follow-up to the Virginia Beach, Virginia, band's 2006 album, United in Regret. ... The Number 12 Looks Like You will launch a tour with Drop Dead Gorgeous starting October 30 in Iowa City, Iowa. Dates run through December 1 in Orangeville, California.

• Suicide Silence
• Danzig
• Protest The Hero
• Soulfly