“Go ahead and meet me in the afterlife.”
Following their departure from Fever 333, founding members Stephen Harrison (ex-The Chariot) and Aric Improta (Night Verses) re-emerged as House of Protection in 2024. With production helmed by Jordan Fish, the duo gained a significant amount of traction with their first EP, GALORE, released in September 2024. Following a feature on Architects’ newest album, the project’s name has arguably been shot to the forefront of heavy music, poising them for acclaim with their upcoming second EP, Outrun You All.
To bluntly out myself as an outlier, GALORE did not impress me much. My general disdain comes from Fish’s production style that seems to overtake any band he works with. Undoubtedly loud and catchy, his style seems to unfortunately be lacking in substance and frozen in time, with riffs and synth layers seemingly leftover from Post Human: Survival Horror. Outrun You All stood as a good opportunity for House of Protection to build an identity and craft a proper niche for themselves.
With first single “Afterlife”, it was fairly apparent that more of the same was to be expected. Glitchy, robotic synths pound on in the intro before devolving back into the predictable guitar and drum work that has plagued nearly all of Fish’s current projects. The anthemic chorus is fairly predictable and the song meanders on, pumped so full of noisy electronics that it starts to get tiresome. Harrison and Improta’s talk-shout vocals on the verses seem to be their niche, being a fairly prevalent element on GALORE. They’re interesting, but with such an uninteresting base, they don’t make much impact.
“Fire” takes the EDM-oriented direction to annoying levels, with a 2010s big room house melody and sirens layered over guitar chugs that just grate the ears. Lyrically it aims to be empowering, but they’re so devoid of any flair that it simply sounds amateur. A particularly infuriating crowd chant section going “F-I-R-E, ARE YOU WITH ME?” derails the song’s chance of ever being taken seriously by me. “Happy Song” did it way better; this ain’t it. The track ends on a one-note breakdown, a wearisome crutch that Fish has more than overused in an attempt to put a heavy edge on a song.
This bizarre fusion of electronic music and rock continues on “Godspeed”, and it’s with this track that my main issue with Outrun You All’s sound started to come to me; at their core, they’re fairly average modern rock songs with a heavy coat of EDM paint messily slapped over them. “Godspeed” probably is the most glaring example of this with its mind-numbing chorus and tepid vocal delivery. By this point, the talk-shout delivery has started to wear on me, predictably going from that to sung vocals on the chorus on nearly every track.
Pulling off an unintentionally impressive feat, “I Need More Than This” manages to be even less interesting than anything before it. By stripping away a lot of the electronic layers, the song succeeds at being a boring modern rock song. My sentiments about this EP so far are ironically best summed up by this song’s title.
“Phasing Out” is a silver lining of sorts, finally breaking into different territory with its predominantly breakcore-leaning composition. As soon as the guitars and drums kick in, the track swings back into predictable territory, but for what it’s worth, the verses have a genuinely captivating atmosphere. It leads me to wonder how differently it could have turned out if it had fully committed to one idea instead of safely defaulting to the same tired modern rock tropes. Closing track “Slide Away” unfortunately does away with any potential progress made with yet another weary, repetitive track that’s probably an appropriately underwhelming finish to Outrun You All.
In some ways, I can see the image House of Protection portray themselves to have; cutting edge, free of convention, and an audacious attitude. The disparity between this and what is being offered here is thus rather puzzling. Fish has proven his ability to make big, loud soundtracks, but the layers of messy, noisy electronics and one-note guitar work are all but fluff. Disappointingly, Outrun You All does not build upon the foundations set by GALORE, instead content to remain in the rubble.
3/10
Outrun You All releases on the 23rd of May via Red Bull Records. Pre-order links for the EP can be found here.