Review Summary: Protest The Hero reckon with their identity and integrity whilst progressing to make a statement that they haven’t quite made before that is worth making.
A fact of life that all of us blessed enough to grow older have had to accept is that you will change as a person but that doesn’t need to be a bad thing despite what virtues youth hold out for. When Protest The Hero started out, they were a plucky bunch of school age kids with a love for punk and metal who first veered into somewhat clumsy, if not still charming, political aggression before releasing a debut LP that is equal parts opera and a treatise on feminism in western society. Further change was forced upon the band multiple times in their career; from the departure of main lyricist Arif Mirabdolbaghi leading to Rody taking over this duty, all the way to the now very unconventional nature of the bands formation where Luke Hoskin no longer tours with them but writes music a la Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys. If there is one thing longtime fans of musical groups/bands have consistently complained about, it is change (Hello Metallica). Enter Protest The Hero’s “Within”.
The trajectory of the bands work would suggest that they would pivot back around into full political messaging based on both the previous album “Palimpsest” as well as the lead single. This can be further reinforced with what Rody discusses on the following track “Fishhook” on a surface level reading of its lyrics, but the changes are already showing themselves here with the production, musical performances, and more nuance in the lyrical matter. PTH is lucky to have avoided the trappings of bozo levels of technical, djenty bull***, or keyboard-laden nouveau-prog many of their contemporaries fell into. As alluded to previously, the reasoning for this is likely their love of punk which is abundantly blatant on “Fishhook”. On this album, the boys have been able to make a new sound by melding together everything that they have done before which has the effect of making the material feel simultaneously fresh and familiar. Them not fully chasing the trends has earned them ire in the past by a few, but it is this exercise in integrity that allows for the changes in the band’s focus to work and come across as genuine.
Make no mistake, the technical guitar wizardry is still here in spades, but it never becomes the full dominant force in spite of some absolutely sick riffage on tracks such as “Grandfather’s Axe” and “Liberty Spike”. The band is able to retain their trademark melodicism and sprinkle in some amazing Sing-along-able passages throughout as they have proven capable of many times previously. “Grandfather’s Axe” and “The Mariner” are the perfect examples of this with their choice of topics as well as fresh dynamic instrumental parts and sing-song sections. The album’s track listing composition is a testament to staying on topic while shifting between interludes. The thirds of the album are focused on the political in personable relationships, change in identity and nostalgia, and an exploration on the very crisis of identity respectively. This solid choice leads to making “Within” the most consistent album in bands discography to date.
Of course, consistency is expected with such a short release; the band really needed to bat 100% here or the whole effort may have fallen flat considering there are realistically only 6 real tracks on this album. The album deserves an “all killer, no filler” ascription although the album fails to hit as many highs as their other top-tier works. This may be attributed to the fact that the band has a strictly lower number of times to hit this goal. The music injects some of their punk influences in a graceful manner again and the guitar work continues the tradition of playing on the likes of “Volition” and “Palimpsest”. The tracks individually all struggle with the balance of being concise and giving the fans strictly more material, which ends up being a microcosm of album as a whole. The lean-cut nature means the bass has few moments to truly shine aside from some tasteful work on the last track, and the heightened focus on Rody’s vocals creates a scenario where it is lamentable when the purely instrumental portions just retread a previous musical statement. Make no mistake, the focus on Rody is still a worthy choice considering this may be his most confident and dynamic work. I am sure the brevity of the whole thing may be a highlight for some, although it is a bit disappointing to get to the end wanting at least one or two more tracks. Luckily for fans wanting more, many signs hint that a companion album may be around the corner.
To circle back around to the youthful notion of being proud to never change, I think a young PTH could feel hopeful or proud of seeing this work and its addressing of the very fact that change happens regardless of virtue. The band is not quite the same band you will remember from the Warped Tour days of yore, but if you had something you liked or disliked on the previous works, it is likely to hold true today. Still, the band has come into their own with songwriting and performing talents that should warrant a few spins to dig into the dense meat of the album. The greatest praise I can heap upon this album is that I didn’t end the listening session saying “it’s been done before” and instead am very eagerly looking forward to the follow-up release.
