Protest The Hero are like a Warped Tour Dream Theater. With a mission to both bring the mosh and dextrously make use of every single note available, the lane they occupy is a narrow one, but one that, if nothing else, they have done their best to make their own. On Palimpsest, they appear to be trying to cram in what they left out for 2016’s intentionally pared back (for them) Pacific Myth. When they describe it as challenging, even for themselves, you can hear it in every stuffed, calorific run and paradiddle. As a listener, it’s like attempting to eat an entire wedding cake to yourself. Thematically, singer Rody Walker explores through these songs the idea of what America means when it speaks of its own ‘greatness’. In this, he’s not only interesting, but intelligently balanced; he ...
