Fortress Protest The Hero Vagrant Records Rocks like: Avenged Sevenfold, Dragonforce

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Rock ‘n’ roll has always been at odds with itself. Traditional punk music has been on its way out the door, and with classic rock being gone for years, power metal bands seem more than willing to fill in the void left by former bands. Dragonforce, Power Quest and other guitar solo- and keyboard-oriented groups have been very successful lately, going on numerous tours and selling many CDs. People seem to love their rock ‘n’ roll really fast these days, and Protest The Hero is more than willing to deliver.

Fortress, Protest The Hero’s newest album, is an angry tour-de-force of rock. This is the progressive hard rock band’s second album. The songs on Fortress are an interesting mix of fast guitar riffs, heavy keyboard solos and hurried vocals. Each song unfolds as a mini-symphony divided into roughly three parts. Each part is moved along either by lyrics, guitar solos or a mixture of the two. This juxtaposition between melodic guitar chords and fast, angry lyrics is interesting but soon overstays its welcome.

The main problem with Fortress is that all of the songs sound way too similar. This is both a blessing and a curse for the band. If the listener plays through each song in a row, the songs all seamlessly flow together as one continuous album, rather than different songs just thrown together in any order.

However, the curse is that once the CD is over, there is not much to be remembered from the listening experience. Dragonforce rocks guitar solos like no other, and while it and Protest The Hero are strikingly similar in terms of musicianship and singing about mythology, Dragonforce has songs and solos that are much more memorable. This makes Fortress an entertaining listening experience but definitely not something worth playing over and over again.

Protest The Hero’s newest CD is a mixed bag. It features cool guitar parts mixed with enough background music to please Phil Spector. However, the overused and annoying screaming lyrics really detract from the listening experience. Protest The Hero is a band that would have a great live set if it played most of their songs off the album in order, so a recommendation for checking it out is in order. Since the band claims to be progressive, hopefully its next album builds on the successes of Fortress and changes the way its songs are sung.