Concert Review: Protest The Hero w/ 3 Inches of Blood @ The Time to Laugh Comedy Club, Sept. 19
There was nothing to chuckle about as Protest the Hero and 3 Inches of Blood rolled into the Time to Laugh Comedy Club and prepared to slaughter, pillage and entertain on Monday night. Bringing with them a sizeable horde, consisting of local Kingston act Under Black Sails, Southern California’s The Confession and Vancouver’s Javelin Reign, these troops of doom wasted no time in unleashing their onslaught upon the gathered masses.
Under Black Sails was first to the front line and they moved the expanding crowd with their emo-tinged thrash. A band still very much in their infancy, they wore their influences of Bay Area thrash and melodic metalcore on their sleeves, while setting the stage for what would come later.
The next assault was manned by The Confession out of Southern California. A five-piece ensemble, The Confession played a mediocre amalgam of melodic death metal, American heavy metal and emocore that sounded somewhat like a harmonized Papa Roach. The band featured incredibly sloppy drumming, awkward stage presence and an extraordinarily vacant-looking guitarist.
A quick break ensued before Javelin Reign took to the stage, opening with a tsunami-sized riff that recalled images of Mastodon and Eyehategod: a huge muddy chug with enough sludge influence to keep even the most rabid Isis fan happy. The three-piece combined enormous riffs and tasteful breakdowns with an unexpected technicality, in the vein of Between the Buried and Me and Ion Dissonance. The drums were thunderous and the vocals were an incredible mixture of whiskey-soaked southern metal and the dirtiest sludge, like Crowbar meets Godflesh. Javelin Reign quickly had the audience moving with windmills and spin kicks. Their short set flew by, leaving many in the crowd surprised and equally impressed.
But from the moment the glowing red “Madison” signs on 3 Inches of Blood’s amps became apparent, the perspiring crowd could sense that the tides were about to shift. Opening with an enveloping burst of speed and intensity, hair flew and the mosh pit became a cyclone of activity.
Since the arrival of their first disc, Battlecry Under a Winter Sun, in 2000, 3 Inches of Blood have been bringing their brand of revivalist metal to crowds the world over. Equal parts NWOBHM (New World of British Heavy Metal), early thrash and King Diamond, 3 Inches of Blood spin tales of epic pace battles, Viking raids and Orc destruction.
Keeping the intensity high as the band moved into their second song, vocalists Cam Pipes and Jamie Hooper traded rasps and falsettos, while guitarists Justin Hagberg and Shane Clark synchronized their headbanging and their riffing. Drummer Alexei Rodriguez and bassist Nick Cates kept the rhythm flawlessly. 3 Inches of Blood arrived at the end of their set almost too quickly, closing with the lead single from their 2003 album Advance and Vanquish, “Deadly Sinners.” It was time for Protest the Hero to mount their attack on the eagerly awaiting crowd. Hailing from Whitby, Ontario, the young band’s five have achieved enormous success and attention in the past year with the release of their debut full-length Kezia—an interesting (if not somewhat overdone) combination of punk rock, technical, melodic metal and thrash. Kezia displays a certain maturity and social consciousness as it uses three characters to tell the story of a woman imprisoned on death row.
After an excessively long sound check and a very cheesy intro, Protest the Hero took to the stage, much to the delight of the girl-pants wearing, emo-hairstyled fans that made up the majority of the crowd. Their first song sent tremors through the audience and the comedy club exploded in a fury.
Guitarists Tim Millar and Luke Hoskin have impressive talent, demonstrated immediately through the intense riffs, arpeggios and interesting chromatic runs of Protest The Hero’s opener. However, this display of talent lacked a sense of musical cohesion. Tempo changes and transitions were executed sloppily and the song seemed disted.
Moving quickly into their second song, the band tightened the screws a bit and their sound became much more cohesive. Vocalist Rody Walker’s vocals soared and the drumming of Moe Carlson was pounding.
At this point, Rody Walker began to speak to the audience, displaying the telltale signs of a young man thrust into the spotlight far too early. The apparent maturity displayed in their songwriting did not carry over to Walker’s stage banter, which included jabs toward the masculinity of R&B star R. Kelly and tales of dirty strippers.
An air of contempt for the audience was evident in Walker’s self-righteous stage presence, but it didn’t deter any Protest fans from screaming along to each note.
The band continued to play tracks from Kezia, each sounding like the last and most using the same song structure, which seemed lost on the audience. As they neared the end of their set, Walker called for the fans to throw cigarettes on stage and get drunk with them after the show. The crowd willingly obliged. Protest’s set wound to a close leaving multitudes of pleased fans.
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