Naked women, cybernetic vultures and a full on war between Trekkies, Star Wars fans and LARPERS? That can only mean one thing: new Protest the Hero music is on the horizon. Nearly two and a half years after the release of Protest the Hero’s Scurrilous, the progressive titans from Canada are back with an album that is sure to melt faces of metal heads alike across galaxies. Prior to the release of this album, the band launched a successful Indiegogo campaign to fund it with a grand total of $341,000 – nearly tripling the original proposed goal of $125,000. This lead some skeptical fans to raise the question, “Is this money really worth the album they will be producing?” To answer that question, the answer is “OH YES.” The band had been hard at work on the album when they had announced that good friend Chris Adler of Lamb of God would be drumming on the album after the recent departure of drummer Moe Carlson. Although that was a heartbreaking announcement, Adler is nothing short of pure perfection on this album. The album starts off with a kickstarter of a song entitled “Clarity,” which is possibly one of the most intricate songs I have ever had the pleasure to listen to from a band of this caliber. The entire band shows that this album was not just pure hype, but pure love for the music they create. Catchy hooks, rooted crowd chants and melodies were practically handed down from God to Rody Walker on a golden platter.
The bass player in me leads to have the song “Without Prejudice” to be my complete favourite song because of Arif Mirabdolbaghi’s sheer song writing genius and completely flawless playing on record. With that being said, that doesn’t mean the other members of the band didn’t step up their games either. The guitar leads being played by Luke Hoskin throughout the album in conjunction with the rhythmic accompany by Tim Millar truly shows off the musicianship that is acquired through years of playing with each other.
Volition is nearly an hour’s worth of pure punch and kick of musical genius. It’s aggressive when it needs to be, it’s melodic and catchy on other hands – and it’s purely a masterpiece that was worth the entire wait. Be sure to check out Protest the Hero in a city near you when their tour stops by you this November.
