All it took was one listen to “Fire” before I was ready to claim House of Protection as the best band in the world right now. Once I saw them live, it was pretty much a done deal.
“I think, it’s like, The Prodigy meets Rage Against the Machine,” I would tell people in the months after watching them tear through West Hollywood’s legendary Roxy Theatre earlier this year. No one believed me until they actually listened for themselves.
I haven’t had that feeling in years. You know, that moment your jaw actually drops as a band just smashes through your expectations at a time when you least expected it. I had just landed in LA from Sydney a few hours before the gig. I had booked a ticket on the strength of “Fire”, but was completely oblivious to the rest of the band’s work.
Songs like “Pulling Teeth” and “Godspeed” kept showing different sides of the duo, who produce a sound much, much larger than just the sum of two people.
Those two, by the way, are vocalist Stephen Harrison, and drummer Aric Improta. Together they’re banging out some big, experimental sounds that sit squarely between those two bands I mentioned above. And yes, I know how ambitious a comparison that is, and yet Harrison moves around with the energy of Maxim, bounding off these futuristic metal beats while aggressively whipping the air with his screams like Zack de la Rocha.
House of Protection is coming to Australia
I noticed, while trawling through the remaining gigs in Sydney this year, that House of Protection is actually coming to Australia. As a support act for metal legends Architects. They’ll be playing on the following dates.
December 11 – Festival Hall, Melbourne
December 13 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
December 14 – Riverstage, Brisbane
All information and ticket details can be found at livenation.com.au
