Review Summary: A completely objective review of Protest the Hero's "Volition."
"Volition" is Protest the Hero's fourth studio album. It is the band's first record not released through the label Underground Operations; instead, the group gathered funds for its recording through an Indiegogo campaign. It is also the band's first album to feature Chris Adler on drums after founding member and former drummer Moe Carlson's departure.
"Volition" has eleven songs on it. The first one is titled "Clarity" and is 5 minutes and 32 seconds long. The second one is titled "Drumhead Trial" and is 4 minutes and 28 seconds long. The rest of the songs on the album have different titles and lengths than those aforementioned.
The musicians who are featured on this album are Rody Walker on vocals, Tim Millar on guitar and piano, Luke Hoskin on guitar, Arif Mirabdolbaghi on bass, and of course, as previously mentioned, Chris Adler on drums. Rody Walker's vocals vary in pitch and volume throughout the album, as do his lyrics. The guitarists play many different notes at many different speeds throughout the record's 54 minute, 7 second runtime.
The producer of "Volition" was Cameron McLellan. The record was recorded from late 2012-2013 at Revolution Recording and Sunset Division, both located in Toronto, Ontario.
The album cover depicts a topless woman lying down with a group of birds looking at her, aside from three birds in the background who are looking away, and one bird in the foreground who is also looking away. One of the birds that is looking at her also appears to be raping her. Since the bird's penis isn't shown, though, this can't be said for certain. The bird could simply be looking at the woman very closely. It could even be a female bird, and since female birds don't have penises, that renders the possibility of rape very slim- unless the female bird tied a stick or a dildo or a banana to its crotch. However, since birds don't have hands, the chances of this are again very slim.
