Protest The Hero

Canadian prog metal upstarts Protest the Hero -- Rody Walker (lead vocals), Tim Millar (guitar, backup vocals), Luke Hoskin (lead guitar, piano, backup vocals), Morgan "Moe" Carlson (drums) and Arif Mirabdolbaghi (bass guitar, backup screaming) -- are critically commended for their remarkable talent in song arrangement, guitar virtuosity and vocal prowess. After forming in high school in 1999 as a hardcore/punk outfit called Happy Go Lucky, P.T.H. experimented with a heavier sound and mathematical time signatures post-graduation. They put out an EP that sounded somewhere in between in 2003, ultimately landing them at grindcore with their 2006 debut album, Kezia. From there they landed a deal with Vagrant in the U.S. and garnered acclaim as one of the next big things in extreme music. With 2008's prog-inspired Fortress landing at No. 1 on the Canadian charts and No. 95 on the American charts, P.T.H. are almost there.