This Record Changed My Life: Protest The Hero

The record that changed my life was Propagandhi’s Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. I can still remember the first time I heard Back to the Motor League; they released this song as an album teaser and it broke my brain.

My friends and I would sit around in our basements and just play it non-stop, picking up on something new each time we listened. Each of us at a loss for words every time the song abruptly came to a close. I am pretty sure Chris Hannah says the word “fuck” three times in the first 15 seconds, and it’s something about how those “fucks” are delivered. So much honesty and intensity behind each one. It sounds cheesy, but it gives me goosebumps even listening now. So raw, yet fucking tight at the same time. That last sentence could be used to describe the entire record. They managed to capture an incredibly organic sound while maintaining rock-solid musical precision. That’s a balance which I have found very hard to achieve myself (been trying and failing ever since I picked up a guitar).

Each song is a masterpiece all its own – and not one of them sound like the one before it, but they all sound and feel wonderful in their own right. There is a reason that I can still sing most of the lyrics on this album. Granted, I listened a lot – but the lyrics made you dig deeper… made you want to know what they were about, and the melodies locked them in your head – still in there 12 years later.

From a guitar playing standpoint, I still have so many questions about what the fuck Chris played on this album; the uniqueness of chord voicings and riff ideas within is staggering. This album shaped and will continue to shape my principles when it comes to writing good, heavy music. And it would surely be an album I would disown my own children over in the case they didn’t agree! Fuck!