"Dunsel," by progressive metal forerunners Protest the Hero, explores the darker side of being signed to a record label in the music industry. After three albums with the labels Vagrant and Underground Operations, the band decided to forgo all label support and instead reach to their fans to crowd-fund their newest album.
In a revealing video in their indiegogo fundraiser, PTH explained the financial spiral so many bands get stuck in to meet their requirements to their label, frequently leading to bands abandoning their initial style in favor of what the label wants. PTH decided they'd had enough and would try a different route to making an album... and the fans overwhelmingly supported them. Protest asked their fans for $125,000. The fans gave them $341,146. Songs like "Dunsel" might help explain this growing trend of bands going independent from record labels.
Artist: Protest the Hero
Song: "Dunsel"
Vocals: clean, shouted
The song:
My drum cover:
(Time stamps are from the first video.)
0:00 - 0:36 (5:13 in drums-only version)
Doubt, stirrings. A lighthouse far away, the light shining through fog floating above murky water. A hand reaching for the surface before disappearing... but then a gasp of air as you break the surface.
And when the underworld's best-kept secret
Saw its own reflection
I knew things had finally changed
For better or worse
Whatever as always
The drums initially set a forward-pushing beat, a steady forward stroke in choppy waters threatening to pull you back in. You awoke in time to save yourself from drowning, but now you have to make it to land. People need to hear about what you've seen; it's unjust, it's
unfair but no one knows. The drums capture this struggle; 0:25-0:26 (5:22 drums-only) has you pushing back, fighting fighting fighting symbolized by the strikes against the cymbals, but then you miss the snare, instead hitting hard on the kick drum. It's like missing a step while walking and stumbling to your knees. Your determined stroke has faltered, and now you're just struggling to keep your head above water. Getting your message out will be harder than you thought it would be.
unfair but no one knows. The drums capture this struggle; 0:25-0:26 (5:22 drums-only) has you pushing back, fighting fighting fighting symbolized by the strikes against the cymbals, but then you miss the snare, instead hitting hard on the kick drum. It's like missing a step while walking and stumbling to your knees. Your determined stroke has faltered, and now you're just struggling to keep your head above water. Getting your message out will be harder than you thought it would be.
Slapped a price tag on my chest
Bit my tongue and shut my mouth
Tried to blend in with the rest
But I'm a square peg, I'm a sore thumb
And it seems to me self apathy
Kills the life in artistry
(And leaves us) ankle deep in industry
The steady rhythm from before is replaced with waves of pushing forward and regressing. Double bass pushes forward (0:38), single bass falling behind (0:39), forward again, left and right, we need to keep moving forward (0:44). 0:53-1:01 feels like moving in circles. The hits on the ride bell + snare give the feeling of a factory, a strike of a hammer on metal, with you just another product on a conveyer belt.
1:09 - 1:27
Ominous. The drums are surprisingly tricky. I love the weight of the guitars and bass here.
1:28 - 1:39 (6:28 in drums-only version)
The beginnings of success, a career taking off. It starts getting difficult to keep track of where you are as your career is taking off, spiraling, changing direction until it's a blur and you can't quite remember how you got here.
1:40 - 2:27 (6:40 in drums-only version)
All these songs sound so damn good
Even if their meaning's hollow
Hollow words dry out your mouth
You might find it hard to swallow
All this s*** that we keep feeding
To keep ourselves and you believing
That no money could change us
Then a door opens up and some devil persuades us
I absolutely love this section. The song here creates such an ominous, dark, and dreary atmosphere, more emotionally jarring than the use of screamed or growled vocals, fast drumming, or heavily distorted guitars. I envision a moment of self-realization in a room backstage after a big show. You lie reclined in a comfortable crimson chair with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth and half-drunk bottle of whiskey in your limp hand. You're in a dimly lit room full of laughing businessmen, beautiful women wearing revealing clothing, bottles of expensive liquor strewn about, the smoke of cigars floating above your bandmates 
doing things they'd promised twice in previous weeks they would stop doing. The bass guitar is a nagging thought at your temple refusing to disappear back into your mired consciousness, the guitars the blurry swaying lights above you struggling to come into focus as you think to yourself, "What am I doing here...."
doing things they'd promised twice in previous weeks they would stop doing. The bass guitar is a nagging thought at your temple refusing to disappear back into your mired consciousness, the guitars the blurry swaying lights above you struggling to come into focus as you think to yourself, "What am I doing here...."
The songs we sung
When we were just young
Have all but lost their meaning
But there's still a few things we keep on believing
2:28 - 2:39Reprise to the beginning, thoughts full of doubt, flashbacks to being an opening band for your idols, wondering what was happening behind the closed doors of their tour bus and wishing you could be a part of it.
2:40 - 3:17 (7:40 in drums-only version)
The tour continues with sold-out shows but somehow your bank account is still pitifully meager. What part of the contract said you would be eternally in debt to the label? The sooner you end this, the better.
S****y music just ain't worth making
Smiles and thank-yous just ain't worth faking
Some a**holes' hands just ain't worth shaking
And if it ain't broken, we need to break it
3:18 - 3:53 (8:18 in drums-only version)
These days I don't know
The people I'm supposed to trust
And I don't trust these people
That I'm supposed to know
The handlebars on my dreams slowly start to rust
They'll take everything and somehow you still owe
As the cocaine cowboys finally get their wings
And sell them all for blow
The guitar in the second verse... wow. After letting down your guard in the first verse, you shift to a sharp tongue in the last two lines, a premonition of the barrage in the next section.
3:54 - 4:19 (8:53 in drums-only version)
The drums in this intense section are super fun. I really like the alternating fast double bass and the choked hits on the hi-hats and cymbals (e.g. here in the drums-only version). Rody Walker, the vocalist, does such awesome angry/frustrated shouts. The double bass during the last lines (below) really accents the message.
I make music for myself
Not for hat tips from the upper tier and their undeserved wealth
Here's to their failing f***ing health
4:20 - 4:53
Some fancy guitarwork by guitarists Luke Hosin and Tim Millar, and more double bass drums and shouting at the system. Suddenly, it's over.
Protest the Hero followed up to "Dunsel" with a song on their next album criticizing musicians who don't appreciate their fans. The music video, involving hand puppets and pyrotechnics, is actually really well-done.
Image credits:
- Earth in a bottle: Erik Johansson
- Ewan McGregor: Trainspotting
- Rody Walker: last.fm
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