PROTESTING RODY WALKER’S VOCALS (OR NOT)

The last time Protest the Hero came out with a new album was in early 2008, a little more than a year into the life of this site. At the time I raved about Fortress endlessly, and it ended up as #2 on my year-end list for 2008 topped only by Gojira’s The Way of All Flesh [side note: so many awesome records came out that year!]. It’ll be interesting to see how the MetalSucks Maniacs at large react to my pending coverage of Protest the Hero’s next record, which they’re supposedly working on right now. Our site’s readership has grown a ton since early 2008 and the amount of vitriol spewed our way in the comments section has vastly increased for better or worse. Back then our readers seemed to mostly support my penchant for prog wankery and really got behind Protest the Hero too; would it be the same these days?

The knock on PtH always seems to be that people don’t like their vocalist Rody Walker. I happen to think that he’s the icing on the cake, a truly unique vocalist that really brings something extra to a band full of amazing musicians. Whereas most bands of amazing musicians simply get a dude to scream over what they’re playing — so that people whose attention spans are too short to pay attention to an instrumental band won’t lose interest — Rody Walker really adds something to the formula, and what the other 4 dudes do is all the better for it. He’s a really talented vocalist too, and PtH certainly wouldn’t be the same without him.

But apparently MS reader Damien doesn’t agree, or perhaps he was just bored and fiddling around with the instrumental versions of Fortress that the band released when he created the below mix of “Sequoia Throne” with Randy Blythe’s vocals for the Wrath track “Fake Messiah” laid over top of it. It’s a cool concept, and though I feel like the use of Blythe’s vocals in the chorus could use work (seems too sparse), I think it’s pretty well done.

-VN