Fortress is the second studio album by Canadian band Protest the Hero which was released on January 29, 2008 on Vagrant Records in the US and Underground Operations in Canada. Fortress debuted at #95 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart with first week sales of 7,600 copies, also managing #10 spot on the Billboard Top Independent Album chart. In Canada, the album achieved #1 status the first week of its release. Mike Portnoy named this album one of his favourite albums of 2008 on his official web page. Fortress, like its predecessor Kezia, achieved universal acclaim with high regards Read more on Last.fm.
Similar to its predecessor, Kezia, “Fortress” is an album comprised of pro-feminine themes complete with progressive instrumentation and shifting vocals. It has been widely-acclaimed as Protest The Hero’s best album to date, and I would venture to say that it has established itself as a noteworthy, modern-day example of a solid progressive metal album. Though it’s difficult to claim Fortress (or Protest The Hero themselves) as one of the leading progressive metal albums of our time, largely due to the multitude of styles and influences with the genre, this album contains a fairly successful equation of talent, experimentation, and attitude to classify it as such.
The guitar work has a healthy mix of hard rock and punk influences, and smoothly shifts between rolling, technical melodies that rarely hold the same time signature for long. In the same vein, the drums hold a great deal of power that really shines through in songs like “Bloodmeat” and “Goddess Gagged”. One thing that helps me enjoy this album, in comparison to a lot of modern metal, is the heavily-utilized presence of bass guitar. You can hear good examples of this in songs like “The Dissentience” and “Sequoia Throne”, where the bass succeeds in helping to drive the songs along by keeping in time with the fast tempos, yet hitting as equally hard as the drums.
If there is one drawback to this album, it deals largely with the vocals. I’m personally a fan of Rody Walker’s sweeping melodies, but his harder, growled vocals don’t deliver as much of a punch as they’re intended to. Though they do have their place in this album, it would have been just as enjoyable, if not more, if the vocalist stuck with harder, rasped singing instead of growling, but this is simply my humble opinion.
All in all, Fortress is a great mix of technical guitar, unrelenting drum work, funky bass, and vocals that aren’t out of place in the progressive metal genre. I gave it a 4/5 rating due to my issue with the vocals, but I’d strongly encourage any budding metal fan to give it a listen. Songs like “Bloodmeat”, “Limb From Limb”, and “Wretch” will never stray too far from my playlists, but the whole album is worth your time.
Enjoy!
-Keith