Fortress

 

Rody Walker - vocals

Luke Hoskin - guitar, piano

Tim Millar - guitar, vocals

Arif Mirabdolbaghi - bass, vocals

Moe Carlson - drums

           

                 Another band coming out of Canada, I mean what are they putting in the water up there? The day that the band members finished their senior final exams they left on a three-week tour from Toronto to Halifax called "Cock the Vote" in order to gain recognition. They quickly teamed up with Universal Music Canada for distributional services, as well as recently signing to Vagrant Records for the United States. In 2004 they won the Canadian Independent Music Award for Favorite Metal Artist/Group. Back on January 29^th of ’08 the band finally released their second album Fortress after pushing it back from a late ’07 date. The album begins with the track “Bloodmeat.” It gets the party started with pounding drums and high flying guitars. Its like a time warp for metal fans as it took me back to the 80’s. “The Dissentience” is more of the same pounding drums and flying riffs from track one, but it does sound as if they aren’t playing and singing the same track in parts. It does take us back to the ‘00’s like a Coheed and Cambria type metal. The song also dances from one style to another. “Bone Marrow” begins with what seems to be a big bang then quickly adds in quickly sounds and a racing guitar. As the vocals come in the drums just unleash as rhyme that is nascar fast. “Sequoia Throne” which was released in the U.S. as a single in April ’08 spins off 4^th. It’s a high energy head rush as you don’t know what to pay attention to. It has a lot of stuff going on throughout the track, but it makes for a difficult time absorbing it. “Palms Read” which will be the second single for the U.S. off the album rounds out the first half with another outstanding riff filled track with the additions of some more pounding drums. The highlight of the track is defiantly the guitars. “Limb for Limb” follows in the footsteps of “Palms Read” with riff after riff plus super fast drums. It also presented for me a bearable vocal performance. “Spoils” doesn’t seem as dark as the other track musically from most of the track. It has almost an uplifting sound to it mainly because of the guitar beats that are flying from the instrument. “Wretch” features more super fast drums and a very strange but drawing vocal set. The album closes out with “Goddess Bound” and Goddess Gagged” the tracks are very interesting with the vocal sets and music. The music seems to grab you then slap you around a bit. Overall the album just seems to jump around a bit too much. They are very gifted musically. The writing ability has to be phenomenal to be able to write for the songs to jump as much as they do, but with that much jumping I didn’t think that it was very enjoyable to listen to. I do think that they are very gifted, but tone down the jumpiness of the tracks and it will do it justice.

 

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

My favorite tracks:

Palms Read, Limb from Limb

 

Track List:

1. Bloodmeat
2. The Dissentience
3. Bone Marrow
4. Sequoia Throne
5. Palms Read
6. Limb from Limb
7. Spoils
8. Wretch
9. Goddess Bound
10. Goddess Gagged

 

 

Website (s): www.protestthehero.com, www.vargrant.com