Formed in 1999 as Happy go Lucky, Protest the Hero is a Canadian rock band with punk and post-hardcore influences from Whitby, Ontario . They have released the EP A Calculated Use of Sound (2003) and their recent full length Kezia (2005) with the indie label Underground Operations. On January 23, 2006 the band officially signed with Vagrant Records for United States releases. Kezia was released in the US on April 4, 2006.

Many of their older lyrics contain obvious political/social commentary, especially concerning the United States. However, on their latest release Kezia, instead of political commentary, their album tells a story from the perspectives of three different characters in that story and a third-person finale as the final song, demonstrating their new outlook on the world and as song writers. Protest the Hero cites Between the Buried and Me, Jorge Salan and The Red Chord as some of their main musical influences, and Fyodor Dostoevsky and Dane Cook as some of their inspirational influences.

The band comprises 5 members: Rody Walker (lead vocals), Tim Millar (guitars, live backup vocals), Luke Hoskin (lead guitars, live backup vocals, piano), Moe Carlson (drums) and Arif Mirabdolbaghi (bass guitar, live death vocals). Each member of the band has developed their trade significantly over the years they have been together. For their most recent album, rather than writing songs in their musical boundaries, Protest wrote music that they could not play, and then forced themselves to learn how to play it over the last two years.

Protest the Hero's popularity is slowly expanding outside of punk/metal/hardcore scenes in and around the cities and towns they have performed in. Now teamed up with Universal Music Canada for distributional services, Protest the Hero hopes to become popular over most of Canada and, with their recent signing to Vagrant Records, the United States as well. In 2004 they won the Canadian Independent Music Award for Favourite Metal Artist/Group, beating out much more known Alexisonfire. They have been nominated for the 2006 Canadian Music Week Indie Awards' Favourite Metal Artist/Group, which will be presented during the first week in March. In addition, members of the band appeared in a televised commercial for the instrument store, Long & Mcquade.

A music video for their song These Colours Don't Run from the album A Calculated Use of Sound was released in 2003. The video begins with the band discussing the meaning of the song and features the band playing the song live at numerous locations in Toronto, Ontario, with the album music dubbed overtop of the actual live music. At each location, the band would hand out lyrics to passers-by and encourage them to listen or sing along.