Ontario’s Protest The Hero just released their six track EP Pacific Myth. The EP has been received as the most refined culmination of the bands work to date, with each song reflecting certain aspects of the band’s sound in their best light. This tour’s setlist and supporting acts do just the same.
Opening group Cyclamen were my favorite and most relatable band of the night. It was easy to tell how they fit into the mix with their unique blend of progressive and sporadic technicality that were reminiscent of headlining act Protest the Hero and the lauded Sikth, with melodic breaks that fit in just as perfectly.
Next up was Auras, where after the first song you knew they were there to do two things—be really fucking heavy and really fucking groovy. It’s everything you want from djent and much more—spacey guitar leads flying around with a combined electronica beat and djent groove. Auras are what happens when you take Protest’s heaviest moments and put them on 7-string steroids.
If you are a fan of partying hard in Riff City, then you might want to check out A Wilhelm Scream. Their high energy chording is the perfect base for calculated technicality, but still diverse enough to not be lost in the wankery of it all, creating a really cohesive live performance.
What I found great about all these bands is their contribution to the live show and how well each of them fit into the lineup. They all lead up to the height of the night while remaining unique.
“The height” obviously being Protest the Hero, who had the most stacked setlist imaginable. While only being able to play a single song off Kezia, you can’t really blame them, as they celebrated the album’s tenth anniversary with a tour not nine months ago. They only played two songs from the new EP, but this tour was to show off how far the band have come. With an amazing assortment of songs from Volition, Scurrilous, and Fortress, they played not just crowd favorites, but sounds that embodied Protest the Hero’s sound. Oh, they’re also playing “Skies” this tour, so if you needed a reason to see this run, that’s more than enough.
Grab the photos from the Vancouver stop below!
Cyclamen
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Auras
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A Wilhelm Scream
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Protest the Hero
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”1033″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”175″ thumbnail_height=”175″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”0″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”1″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”0″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show as slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]For more from this photographer, visit Brandon Klemets Photography on Facebook.
Photos may not be reproduced or used in any manner outside of the above posting without express permission of the photographer and/or Heavy Blog is Heavy.