Protest the Hero @ SUBSTAGE in Karlsruhe

About the artist

The band started as Happy Go Lucky in 2001 and, shortly after, they recorded a 3-track demo (containing the songs "I Detest", "The 5th Commandment" and "Just Defy"). In 2002 they changed their name to Protest the Hero and released their first EP, Search for the Truth 7" vinyl, which included only two songs. They were included too in the compilation (Coles) Notes from the Underground that same year. Luke Hoskin stated on his Formspring page that Search for the Truth was recorded when they were 13 years old. The day that the band members finished their senior finals, they went on a three-week "Rock the Vote" tour from Toronto to Halifax to garner recognition and raise awareness for the upcoming Canadian election In 2004 the band won the Canadian Independent Music Award for Favourite Metal Artist/Group, beating out the better-known Alexisonfire. They were nominated for the 2006 Canadian Music Week Indie Awards' Favourite Metal Artist/Group, which Kataklysm won in March of that year. Also in 2006, the band was nominated for the CASBY Award. In addition, members of the band appeared in a televised commercial for the musical instrument store, Long & Mcquade. Bassist Arif was also featured in the Closet Monster music video "Mamma Anti-Facisto (Never Surrender)"; he can be seen to the left of London Spicoluk during the main group scenes. A music video for their song "These Colours Don't Run", from the EP A Calculated Use of Sound, was released in 2003. The video begins with the band discussing the meaning of the song and features the band playing the song live at numerous locations in Toronto, with the album music dubbed over the actual live recording. At each location, the band would hand out lyrics to passers-by and encourage them to listen or sing along. The band has also released videos for the songs "The Divine Suicide of K.", "Blindfolds Aside", and "Heretics and Killers" from Kezia, and for "Bloodmeat", "Palms Read", "Spoils", "Sequoia Throne" and "Limb from Limb" from Fortress. The video for "Heretics and Killers" received airplay on MTV2 and FUSE, partially because of the interesting premise of the video: the band play the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz who work odd jobs after The Wicked Witch is killed. At the 2009 Golden God Awards, Protest the Hero won best Viral Video. The video features Rody, Luke, and Tim doing a dance on the side of a road when their van broke down. Protest the Hero played Fortress from start to finish from November 20 to December 23. This stretch marked the last of the band's shows for a while as they took the first part of 2010 to work on a new album, which was to feature a more progressive sound. The band officially began recording on August 30, 2010. On December 15, 2010, Walker posted a video indicating the completion of work on the third album. The new album is titled Scurrilous and was released March 22, 2011.