‘The Protest’ is the first full-length project in five years from one of Christian rock’s most beloved modern monoliths.
The Protest has released their first full-length project in five years with self-titled The Protest, a collection of songs representing perseverance, resilience, and what it looks like to have some fight left in you after all of life’s struggles. Fan-funded and sure to be fan-embraced, The Protest is streaming everywhere now.
“Life now looks nothing like it did when we started this band in 2009. Victories, losses, cradles, and coffins. The best of times and the worst of times. The mundane and the miraculous both present at the table. Gratitude and suffering became the band’s fifth and sixth members. All the while, we have continued on,” The Protest shares.
Some of those themes have already appeared in the singles leading into the album, “Cloudwalker” and “Griefcase.” These sonic juxtapositions beautifully capture the highs and lows, as does The Protest’s ever-expanding musical range as a definitive grassroots rock act of our era.
“Music, as they say, is the universal language of mankind. Some days we would wake up and could speak that language fluently. The music and lyrics couldn’t get out of us fast enough. Other days, we would tap our pens on paper and stare at the fretboard, void of inspiration,” the band reflects on the five years that this album was in process. “Five years is what was required to pour out our hearts and souls to speak the language of this album. In a world that is so fast-paced, five years have felt like twenty years to us. Though difficult to accept at times, it’s what God had planned for us. There were so many joys outside of music during these years, like starting families and great tour opportunities, but we also faced our share of adversities. These years have been some of the most rewarding but difficult of our lives. Yet through the storms and sometimes impossible circumstances, we pressed on. It is by the grace of God and the band’s ‘never say die’ attitude that this album came together the way it did.”
These definitive life events and revelations make the album’s self-titled moniker a given: no collection of songs has better described who The Protest is and what they have set out to accomplish with their band. Produced by Mitchell Marlow (A Skylit Drive, Stitched Up Heart, New Years Day) and featuring co-writes with Josiah Prince and Andrew Stanton (Disciple) and Matt Baird (Spoken), the album is the band’s heaviest to date, both thematically and musically. But as always, it carries the redemptive narrative the band has always been known for, rooted in their unwavering faith in God’s goodness and love.
“Our trials have made these songs and the record so special to us. We wrote about the doubt that we face, the immeasurable love that we feel, and the fight that lives in our bones,” the band says earnestly. “These songs were fought for. They feel earned, lived-in, and reflect The Protest at our most authentic selves. Every song features the distinct fingerprint of each member: our hearts, passions, joys, anguishes, tears, sweat, and laughter. If you’re reading this, we hope you find something on this album that fills you with hope, liberation, and strength.”
You can listen to The Protest on all major streaming services now and request “Griefcase” on your local or online rock radio station. For more from The Protest, find them on all social media platforms at https://bio.to/theprotestrocks.
In conclusion, The Protest says, “This new collection of songs reminds us who we are, calling us to courageously resist and defy the world, to speak truth when everything is counterfeit, despite what’s up against us. And when people ask, ‘Who is this group of tenacious Midwestern voyagers?’ We will say, ‘We are The Protest.’
