Tag Archive: Protest the Hero


Ex-Nevermore guitarist and overall guitar god Jeff Loomis is poised to release his sophomore solo album Plains of Oblivion this April, and as such, it was only a matter of time before we got to hear some new music! Above, you can watch Loomis play through a track from the new record, ‘The Ultimatum,’ which features a guest solo by Tony MacAlpine.

Did you know that Loomis is also set to tour America shortly?! That’s right! The powerful lineup of Protest the Hero, Periphery, Jeff Loomis, The Safety Fire, and Today I Caught The Plague are snaking their way across the country soon. Go check out the tour dates and don’t you miss it!

Jeff Loomis’ new album Plains of Oblivion is due out April 10th on Century Media.

- JR

Seriously, The Safety Fire are making me so excited. Part of me thinks they purposely delayed their forthcoming debut just to build suspense for the damn thing, and if that is the case it’s definitely working.

Any who, with all the amount of time we’re being forced to wait through, the band seems to want to ease the stress we’re all feeling, so in order to  do that they’ve released another song from their debut. The song is called “Circassian Beauties”  and oh boy, it’s a doozy. It’s probably my favorite from them at this point. You can stream it below, and if you haven’t done so check out the official video for their song Huge Hammers”.

The Safety Fire’s debut, Grind The Ocean, will be released April 10th (NA)  and April 9th(UK) via Inside Out Music. It’s going to be great. Oh and for those unaware, the band will be acting as support for the upcoming Protest the Hero North American tour with Periphery and Jeff Loomis. Dates after the jump. Go check them out!

- EC

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So a bit of bad news. I’ve been hotly anticipating The Safety Fire‘s debut full-length Grind The Ocean ever since the incredibly catchy and not in the least bit suggestively-titled ‘Huge Hammersdebuted last year, but it seems that the album has slipped from its intended late February release date on InsideOut Music, and will now be out in early April – 9th in the UK and 10th in North America, to be exact. BUMMER.

However, there is a shining light for avid fans:

“We wanted there to be some good news for our friends in the UK & US, so we are very happy to announce a special pre-order for YOU the fans which will be released on the original date of February 27th. Those of you who pre-order will not only have the album just over a month before it is available in shops in the UK and US, it will also feature additional bonus content in a special digipack release!”

So essentially it’s ready, but they’ve apparently got some tantalising promotional opportunities that they just couldn’t pass up, so you’re going to ahve to wait. You get get it here on that preorder, however (and we’ve saved you the bother of looking around. Aren’t we nice?).

If you need any inclination to get it as soon as possible, here’s the aforementioned song ‘Huge Hammers‘, which I think is catchy as all hell.

Americans should note that The Safety Fire are due to appear on the upcoming Protest The Hero tour with Periphery and Jeff Loomis from the middle of next month. Dates after the jump!

- CG

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If you’re too slow to work the title out, you inbred child of your mother’s brother and his female kinsperson, then let me spell  out the details for you: tech-metal hillbillies Protest The Hero, faeces-throwing chugga chimps Periphery, The Mighty Raven himself Mr. Jeff Loomis and UK pyromaniacs The Safety Fire are thought to be be touring them United States Of ‘Murica this March!

I think I’ve eaten too many e-numbers today. Bear with me.

So yes, the word going round the interwebs (and you can blame Lambgoat is this is wrong) is that these four worthy acts will be teaming up for four weeks from late March to hit the road in a town possibly but not necessarily near you, depending on your arbitrary scale of nearness. Yes.

Nothing official as of yet, so again, don’t shoot me if I’m wrong, but dates are thought to be as follows:

3/25 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
3/26 Lawrence, KS @ Granada
3/27 Dallas, TX @ Trees
3/28 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
3/30 Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine
3/31 Phoenix, AZ @ Club Red
4/1 Los Angeles, CA @ Key Club
4/2 San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
4/3 Portland, OR @ The Branx
4/4 Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
4/6 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
4/7 Denver, CO @ Summit
4/9 St. Louis, MO @ Pops
4/10 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave II
4/11 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
4/12 Columbus, OH @ The Outland Ballroom
4/13 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
4/14 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
4/16 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
4/17 Orlando, FL @ The Social
4/18 Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theater
4/20 New York, NY @ Gramercy
4/22 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero

Not a bad line-up at all. Protest The Hero and Periphery both seem to have been on an endless string of tours with amazing line-ups of late. Long may it continue, no?

- CG

Hevy Music Festival is one of the UK’s newer heavy music festivals – this year’s will be the 4th iteration – but it’s growing ever stronger by the day. With the relative elder statesman Download catering towards the ‘bigger’ bands these days, it now falls to the likes of Hevy to give smaller or less-known acts their time on the summer stage.

Today saw the first announcement of this year’s lineup, with no fewer than fifteen bands being released – and good lord does it look like it’s going to be fantastic. We have ConvergeWill HavenProtest The HeroDeaf HavanaA Wilhelm Scream, Verse, The Chariot, Deez Nuts, Set Your Goals, Trapped Under Ice, Pianos Become The Teeth, Balance and Composure, Sharks, Last Witness, and Crocus. I mean holy fuck, right? I’ve heard maybe two thirds of these, and I’d happily watch them, if not actively go just for them. Converge put on an amazing show, The Chariot are so entertaining to watch, and the likes of Crocus will represent home-grown talent.

You can definitely expect one of us to be there. Tickets are £96 for the weekend, including access to the attached animal park (!!!) and you can check out all the relevant information at the website. Expect more as announcements are made!

- CG

Things have been a bit rough for I Am Abomination since their debut album To Our Forefathers. They’ve got through would-be crippling lineup changes that left them just with their guitarist and vocalist and they’ve parted ways with label Good Fight Music. Despite all of this, it’s good to see that they’re still actively making music. Their progressive post-hardcore sound reminiscent of Protest the Hero as if fronted by Fallout Boy vocalist Patrick Stump is actually quite good; soulful singing, technical musicianship, and hooks left and right!

Their new single ‘Hangin’ On‘ is now available on iTunes. You can stream it above. The track will presumably appear on an upcoming album that the duo are hard at work on. We’ll be sure to fill you in as soon as there’s more word on these guys.

- JR

Photo via Darkside.ru

One of our favorite breakout acts of 2011, Uneven Structure, has announced the departure of drummer Christian Schreil and welcomed aboard new drummer Jean Ferry. Thankfully, the lineup change was completely drama-free and understandable. Here’s what Christian had to say, via Basick Records:

“It is to my greatest sadness that I have to tell all of you that Uneven Structure and I are going to go separate ways.  This is not happening as a result of bad cooperation or anything like that, ’tis simply a matter of me not being able to put all my heart and soul into what I’m doing as part of my contribution to the band. With this being said, I have great confidence in the future of Uneven Structure and I strongly believe that these guys will take everything we’ve been building together for these past fourteen months to a completely different level.

I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in an amazing journey with the process of finishing ‘Februus’, and that is something that I forever will be grateful for.
I would also like to welcome the new drummer, Jean Ferry, to the band! He is an absolutely phenomenal drummer! If my words aren’t convincing enough, wait till you catch him live at the BASICK Party and the PROTEST THE HERO tour and you’ll see what I mean!

Best thall’s - Christian.”

The band’s new drummer Jean made his live debut with the band this past weekend in Moscow, as seen in the above photo, courtesy of Darkside.ru.

Hopefully this is the only lineup change the band will ever have to go through. Here’s to wishful thinking!

- JR

One of the most exciting new things to come about in this metal scene in the last couple of years has got to be Matt Halpern’s innovative service Bandhappy. If you haven’t heard our harping on the subject enough to know what its all about, it’s the first website that allows live music lessons to take place between professional musicians and fans. It won’t be long before you can take lessons on the instrument of your choice from some of the following names:

Teachers that have already signed on include Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders), Rich Redmond (Jason Aldean), Gil Sharone (Stolen Babies), Jeff Loomis (Nevermore), Ben Weinman (Dillinger Escape Plan), Mike Mowery (Outerloop MGMT), Chris Adler (Lamb of God), Willie Adler (Lamb of God), AJ Minette (The Human Abstract), Evan Brewer (The Faceless), Paul Waggoner (Between the Buried and Me), Rody Walker (Protest the Hero), Peter Wichers (Soilwork), Louis Cato (Marcus Miller Band), Spencer Sotelo (Periphery), and more.

I can’t stress the “and more” enough, because the possibilities are vast. Registration privileges for students and teachers begins tomorrow at 11 am EST, and the first lessons will begin on Monday, January 9th. Exciting! Above, you can watch a tutorial that displays the ins and outs of using the site as a student. After the jump you can watch a similar tutorial for being a teacher on Bandhappy. Get involved!

- JR

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This is probably one of the better years for me since I began listening to metal. I don’t know if it’s due to a broadened taste, me actually paying more attention this year, or if the genre decided to collectively progress, but 2011 was just absolutely fantastic. I knew six months ago that compiling a best-of list for this year would be tricky, and of course it was!

Here’s the thing with my personal top-20 that you’ve probably read of in other lists; after the first couple of albums, the list is completely arbitrary and depending on my mood of the day, this list could be shuffled all about and perhaps replaced. My list also doesn’t follow our ratings scale and essentially came down to what I felt I enjoyed the most this year. So if you’re thinking to yourself, “hey, Alkahest gave X a 4 and Y a 5, then why is X listed higher?”…

Well, you’re going to have to figure that one out on your own, I guess. I’m fickle. Let us begin!

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Once more unto the breach, dear friends. It seems we’re often the last out of our contemporary blogs to put up our ‘best of’ lists, and I think that’s a sure sign that we’ve given it much more thought, and as such are the definitive authority on music for all time ever — NOT that we’re simply too lazy to put it up earlier, and need filler for the time between Christmas and New Year (despite this being all we will be posting).

I talked last year about perhaps how arrogant it is to create these lists and pass judgement on the artistic merits of the year’s music; like there are only ten slots and the rest is tripe, and who am I whose opinions are more worthwhile than yours?

That still holds true to some extent, because we’ve met a lot of new friends this year who have shown us a ton of great stuff – but so does the fact that we work our asses off to listen to all this stuff, and also because, once again, I, and the others after me, filled out the damn application.

I feel this is going to become a continuing theme. I don’t mean it guys; I love you really. As you already have with my fellows, feel free to tell me what you think, and in particular what a huge bag of shite I’m talking; I won’t get offended, honest!

Up at this end of the spectrum, you’re getting your full-on, down to the wire, best ten-only lists (at least with myself and Dormition) – none of this copping out. It was tough, but these are the haggard survivors of the process, but are my personal favourites from the year; based not on technicality, on brutality, or how accomplished I think the release is. No, these are honestly the ten records (and not necessarily albums) that best represent my musical year; that gave me a certain feeling, and that I have come back to again and again, and will continue to do so long into 2012. The same was true of last year’s list; despite my obligations to the new, I still listen the shit out of the old.

BRING FORTH MINE LIST!

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