Perhaps you’ve heard the quote “You’re nobody until somebody hates you”. If there’s something I’ve noticed with underground music and people who only care about big bands (a common problem in Ontario), is that many people don’t care about most underground signed bands because they don’t know them, and neither do their friends. No one hates those bands though, they’re just forgotten by more mainstream audiences. I’ve also noticed that lots of people hate bands that are popular. In fact, the only way for someone to hate a band is if people know who they are. Now the saying makes sense, because in the world of entertainment, if you’re a somebody, then someone else hates you.
Despite all the wonderful critical reviews PROTEST THE HERO got with “Kezia”, lots of people hated them. They’re different, they got on tours where they didn’t fit, and they ‘re were popular enough to be hated and, wait a sec, why am I writing a review about PROTEST THE HERO when I’m reviewing What’s He Building In There?
The way we think in Ontario is once we see a style of music become big enough to be trendy, we try and ride off the coattails of the success of others. The bigger the city you live in, the further you’ll be ahead of the trend, thus in my hometown of 40 000 people, nu-metal finally died this year.
To be fair, PROTEST THE HERO isn’t an easy band to rip off, and WHBIT have taken the basic formula of PROTEST THE HERO to add a whole bunch of stop–and-go herky jerky mish-mash of other genres that actually works incredibly well. The vocals tend to hang more towards the harsh side, and are incredibly diverse. One of the things that WHBIT love are to jam in those off-time jazzy runs, which is of course typical fare now. There’s quite a few places where you can pick out good old rock ‘n roll, sometimes a classical scale, the obvious nod to70’s prog rock, plus a few moments coming close to something that Mike Patton would do. There are of course breakdowns in there, and if you’re paying attention and listening well, they sound like well hidden PANTERA riffs. WHBIT! Thank you for not relying on the single note breakdown! The most surprising song I found was actually “A Walk On The Beach”, where WHBIT takes a few moment to do their best CANNIBAL CORPSE impression, with trill styled riffs and low growled vocals and all.
I’m sure everyone from the record label, to What’s He Building In There? and many fans will hate me for making the PROTEST THE HERO comparisons, which is probably fine by PROTEST THE HERO. They’re always pissing people off anyway.
8/10
The Official What’s He Building In There? Website
What’s He Building In There? at MySpace
What’s He Building In There? at Year Of The Sun
