Protest The Hero- Volition Album Review

I've only been a Protest the Hero fan for a short while, probably a year or so, but I fell in love with the band. Their lyrics have a lot of value and they are fantastic musicians in their own right. When I heard that they had a new album coming out, I simply HAD to get it and write a review about it. This is the first album that I have listened to that made me want to listen to the full album. It gripped me like an action thriller and it took every fiber in me to hit stop and go to sleep. It should also be noted that Protest the Hero parted ways with their drummer Moe Carlson who was the original drummer of the band. The band have found a new drummer Mike Ieradi, but Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler is the session drummer for this album. Without further ado, onto the fantastic album that is Volition.

1.      Clarity- This track practically pulls you into the musical insanity that is Protest the Hero, and shows you what they really are made of. The intro riff really appeals to me and the progression of the drums is flawless. They beat flows so smoothly and the bass and guitar lock right in. What always appealed to me about Protest the Hero was that they had a second guitar that plays a funky rhythm over a progression. This track does not have a lot of screaming in it, but in this case it makes the song sound even better. The song overall is a consistent barrage of sound and it sounds beautiful and well arranged. 8/10

2.      Drumhead Trial- One of my favorite things about Protest The Hero are their 'broken' up intros. They play a quick little riff, then rest, then play the next part of the riff. It just sounds so badass and awesome to me. The song flows extremely well, especially with the tempo change at 1:34. It took me by surprise, but I was happily surprised to hear the song flow just as well as it did before. The song takes a turn for the softer side about three quarters through the song featuring guest vocalist Kayla Howran, a country vocalist who I have never heard of. Let me say this, she KILLED it. Her vocal range was spectacular and her voice fit the song perfectly. 8/10

3.      Tilting Against Windmills- This song is an immensely "heavy" song. The drums really push this song forward and vocalist Rody Walker really gets time to shine on this track, as well as bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi. The breakdown at the end of the song is one of the heaviest breakdowns I have heard in a long time. The song really makes me want to get up and break shit. It's that heavy of a track. The guitar solo in the album changes moods quite well, using the broke intro concept I mentioned in "Drumhead trial" With that being said, it is kind of similar to the opening track Clarity in some aspects. 6.75/10

4.      Without Prejudice- The song starts off with a trumpet sound that sounds like it came from an old 80's movie when the protagonist has caught the villain mid crime. With that being said, this is one of my favorite tracks off of the album. It has a lot of energy going for it, and the second half of the song is quite inspiring. What makes this song so amazing to me is the bass line in the midst of the third verse. It is signature Arif with his crazy bass lines, but the accents he used on the notes he hit were what really blew me away. The guitars eventually start following the bass line, as opposed to the bass line following the guitar parts. The bass leads the song for a full minute before the guitar takes over "control" of the song. Rody is flaunting his vocal range in this song, hitting high notes with ease and accentuating the song all the more. The composition and the execution of this song are simply mind blowing, and dare I say, flawless. 9.5/10  

5.      Yellow Teeth- Something about this song throws me off. I think it may have been the quiet part of the song, or maybe it was the overall progression of the song. The song does have a badass riff in with really cool licks and mini solos in it. The guitars really help the song transition from section to section within the song. With all of that being said, the song does not stand out at all in this album. It has flair, but it kind of blends into the album. There is nothing special about this song, but the song itself does sound good. Great even. I feel it could have been a little bit more dynamic though. 6/10

6.      Plato's Tripartite- Half way through the album! I feel that at this point the album, the songs really change and stand out more. Plato's Tripartite is a perfect example of this. The chorus and the verse are very distinct, and don't fade in and out of each other like the previous songs. This is not to say that it is a bad thing, but it very nice to see the variety in the song. The breakdown in the song is very dynamic and to top it all off, the band even adds an acoustic guitar outro for fifty five seconds in which Rody and Kayla overlay their vocals to create beautiful harmonies with a simple acoustic guitar in the background. I'd overall rate this song an 8/10.

7.      A Life Embossed- This song really means a lot to me. A friend of mine is very passionate about the BSL law that is discussed in this song and is doing everything she can to get it overturned. The song essentially talks about the law that is practically committing a genocide on Pitbulls. With that taken care of, this song musically is feels like something that could have been on Fortress. It has quite a bit of screaming and the drums and guitar work are simply stunning like always. The bass works really well in this song and compliments the drums and guitars quite well. 7.5/10

8.      Mist- This song is very upbeat. I can't tell if it is due to Rody's voice or the guitar section and the bright notes used, but it sounds very uplifting. In comparison to other songs, this one sounds very simple in terms of the composition of the song, but it works very well. They do add a very nice violin ending to it followed by an acoustic outro that bears no resemblance to the outro of Plato's Tripartite. This outro is fully decked out with piano, backup acoustic guitar and a lead acoustic guitar that plays a very interesting melody. The piano was a very nice touch to this song and adds to the beauty of this song. 7/10

9.      Underbite- This song pokes fun at the generic bands and artists that tour and become sellouts and record generic material to please the crowd. The song has a bunch of tempo changes and time signature making it very complex piece in all. My personal favorite was the second change that introduced the backup vocals around the three minute mark because the bass really shines and shows how layered it can really get. 7.5/10

10.  Animal Bones- This is, in my opinion, the heaviest song on the record. The double bass pounds away as Rody screams some of the heaviest screams I have heard from him. There aren't as many changes in this song in comparison to Underbite or Without Prejudice, but that doesn't change the fact that the song is still pretty good. The one thing I didn't like about this song was that they faded out. I felt they could have ended the song on the ending riff they used without having to fade out. Kind of ruined the feel of the song for me, but not by much. 6.5/10

11.  Skies- This song really has a lot going for it. It has a few soft parts where the bass takes the lead and Rody is able to show he does have a tender side to his voice, and then it has other sections where the guitar is ruling the song with some heavy riffs and insane shredding. Lyrics were strong and as passionate as the rest of the album and everyone was able to stand out musically without getting muddled and overplayed. The song overall was a great way to end the album. 8/10

Album Overall: This album is my favorite album of the year. It has a lot going for it and each song is very distinct and unique. The female vocalist Kayla Howran does a fantastic job in "Drumhead Trial". There's are large amount of guest musicians on this record as well, such as Jadea Kelly, a female folk vocalist who is practically a staple for back vocals for Protest the Hero, as well as various other vocalists and guitarists. The riffs are all memorable and very solid. Both lead guitarist Luke Hoskin and rhythm guitarist Tim Millar are stunning guitarists and have great chemistry as musicians. They are both very skilled and complement each other's strong suits very nicely. Bassist Arif remains as technical as always with his tapping bass sections and stunning slap technique. He is able to accent the guitar parts quite nicely, and he works with the intense drum parts that Chris Adler lays down on the album. Adler is a monster drummer and does a great job on this record as a studio drummer. His fills are amazing and he fits with the band quite well, despite the fact he only played drums on the album, and not live. The album overall is fantastic and I can't wait to hear more from them.

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Perrix MX-2000 Gaming Mouse Review

When I got into PC gaming, I realized I needed a better mouse for gaming. I usually play Counter Strike: Global Offensive, but I also play RPG games extensively and I wanted a  mouse that would be accurate, and hold up to my abuse. I had been using a cheap IBM mouse up until that point with a scroll wheel that was grounded down so much from usage that it was smoother than the floor! The mouse had a decent back to it and a moderate downward slope to it so I wanted to maintain that shape in the next mouse. I am a person who likes having options, regardless if I decide to take them so I wanted to have a mouse that would have lots of buttons and functions. I  viewed various mice that ranged from the Logitech to Cooler Master and Blue Cobra, but I finally decided on the Perixx MX-2000 gaming mouse with 11 buttons and DPI switch.

 

My old IBM Mouse on the left, the Perrix on the right. 

The mouse itself is really comfortable and economic. I play a claw grip style, which means that I arch my index, middle and ring finger on the left, middle, and right button respectively. The mouse works very well for claw grip players, but I feel it would be perfectly fine for palm grip players, a grip that essentially requires the user to place their palm on the mouse and let their hand naturally grip the mouse. My thumb comfortably rests on the accompanying thumb rest that has a button at the base of the rest. It is placed in such a way that it is easy to click, but only if one wants to. It is tough to 'accidentally' click it.

There are two buttons that are above the thumb rest on the side of the mouse that are traditionally for the "forward" and "backward" commands when in a browser or Windows Explorer to go to a previous page. The right side of the mouse has a button that is placed parallel to the forward button that is easy to reach with my ring finger as a claw grip player. Palm grip players would find it easy to click with their pinky finger when needed, but I have that button programmed to "F5" which is the refresh command when within a browser. The scroll wheel believe or not has 3 button functions. You can click on the scroll wheel for one function, tilt it to the left for another function, and tilt it to the right for the third and final function. At first, I thought the tilt on the scroll wheel would get in the way of me using it,, but it turns out it stays out of the way until only when needed. Last, but not least, the mouse also has DPI adjustment buttons. DPI, which stands for dots per inch, is how many dots the mouse 'understands' per inch the mouse itself moves. A high DPI means the mouse moves fast, whereas a lower DPI means the mouse speed is lower. These buttons are placed in a slightly inconvenient manner behind the scroll wheel. If they were about a millimeter or so closer to the scroll wheel it would be easier to reach. The buttons as is are easy to press, but it would be convenient for the user. Otherwise, all the buttons feel very natural and responsive, all in all making it a great mouse to use physically. Now for the fun stuff, the program.

What makes this mouse so useful to me is the software that comes with it. Each of the 11 buttons on the mouse can be reprogrammed to the users liking. The program lets the user switch out the default functions of the mouse to what the user wants. You can change a button to a basic function such as forwards, backwards, double click, and menu, or you can change it to media hotkey such as play or stop. In addition to that, basic edit functions such as copy and paste, as well as more advanced functions including run, close window, Lock PC and LED Color Switch. Probably most important for gamers is the Single Key and Macro buttons which allow users to create shortcuts that can be bound to their keys. These come in handy for me a lot when I play games such as Magicka, a game that requires you to make spells via key combinations that range across 8 keys on the keyboard. MMO players and MOBA players also benefit from this when they play their respective games because it makes them more efficient as players. The program also lets you change little things as well such as the color of the LED in the mouse, the sensitivity of the scroll wheel and the double click speed.

You will not have to worry about changing the button commands every two seconds since the mouse can handle up to five profiles. This means that you can have a profile just for browsing the internet and casual use, as well as profiles for your favorite games. On last point to touch on is the wire itself. The wire is braided, which means that it cannot get tangled up and wrapped up within itself like most other cables do. This for me is a fantastic feature since it makes it easier to take the mouse places without having to waste time untangling the cable once I reach my destination.

This mouse overall is a great value purchase and it has not failed me so far in the six months I have owned it. It is built to last in my opinion, and although the company is not well known or well advertised, I will be sure to buy more products from this company if the occasion arises. The mouse is quite comfortable and the accompanying program is quite useful and manageable. I would easily recommend this mouse for anyone who is into gaming or wants a comfortable mouse to use for their desktop or laptop.  

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