Protest The Hero – Fortress
Posted on January 29, 2008 at 8:00 am by admin
Sometimes I’ll hear certain bands and artists boast about how creative they are, when in reality they simply recycle transparent cliches and buzzwords during interviews. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard or read any of the members of Protest The Hero talk about themselves in this fashion, so in that sense, I think they’ve really let the music speak for itself.
The music itself is difficult to pigeonhole, but since this is a review, my personal interpretation is a mixture of progressive, grind and several types of post-hardcore, ranging from the more caustic variety from the underground mid to late 90’s bands that would align themselves with the “noise” crowds, and the lighter more indie variety.
I’m finding “Fortress” to be a little less herky-jerky than the previous effort “Kezia”, with fewer big tempo jumps, and more song structures that are much closer to a verse/chorus style format (though they take a lot of creative liberties in those arrangements). Vocalist Rody still has that soaring clean power/progressive spliced with the stylings of indie/post-hardcore vocalists who can sing. And oh yes, there’s some screaming involved as well.
The big problem Protest The Hero has live is working in those breakdowns and slams properly, and unfortunately the problem is only half solved. Before on “Kezia”, such breakdowns and slams would often be done and over with so fast it was hard for the crowd to catch them. This time around, about half the songs do feature a breakdown or slam that linger a little longer than they did on “Kezia”, but they’re still short, and although very rare, I caught at least 2 instances of the dreaded single-note breakdown. Of course, those at home listeners probably aren’t too worried about such live focused musical events (it’s not like Morbid Angel worried much about that stuff either).
Protest The Hero is a tough band to copy, and they’ve certainly set a precedent for themselves that’s hard to copy (I heard a band attempt to clone Protest The Hero, but they ended up missing the point). “Fortress” is more streamlined, but still out-of-left-field different, yet still has plenty of hooking vocal lines and guitar parts (from runs to harmonies to melodies to riffs), yet quicker and more intense than their last effort. For most yins, they have a yang.
Released January 29th 2008
The Official Protest The Hero Website
Protest The Hero at MySpace
Protest The Hero at Vagrant Records
Underground Operations
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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