Title: Fortress
Artiste: Protest the Hero
Genre: Progressive Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: The Batlord
Expectations: Firstly, I see they're a progressive metal band, so that's a good start. I then see they utilise celtic mythology and so forth in their lyrics (at least for this album) so again that's good and finally it's a kind of concept album, or at least has a common thread running through it, so I expect there should be some thought put into the music. I have a good feeling about this one. Probably regret saying that later....
1. Bloodmeat: Strong, fast, powerful opening, good vocal.
2. The dissentience: Well, slipped into the second track without me actually realising it, which is probably not a good thing. But then, once it gets going this is pretty sweet too. Some great guitar work and the vocalist really stretches himself.
3. Bone marrow: It's good, but I'm kind of finding this a little too .... I don't know ... busy? Also each track has sounded rather similar to the others so far. Nice piano ending with some acoustic guitar. That was different. I was going to mark this one Orange, but...
4. Sequoia throne: Just passed by without making any real impression on me.
5. Palms read: I just don't see too much difference between the tracks here, not so much that I could really distinguish one from the other. That's not to say they're not good, but they all sound very similar to me.
6. Limb from limb: At least there's a bit of divergence here, with an interesting opening, but again it just sounds more of the same and I'm getting bored now. And quite disappointed.
7. Spoils: Maybe it's too technical, I don't know, but I hear a Dream Theateresque reliance on solos and clever passages rather than actual songs, for the most part. Hold on: another lovely piano piece gets this a change from White to Orange.
8. Wretch: There's a song lurking in here somewhere, hidden among all the twiddly guitars and hammering riffs.
9. Goddess bound: Again, nothing I can really hang my hat on. If I had a hat. Which I don't.
10. Goddess gagged: This has something about it, but you really have to dig through the maelstrom to get to the tune.
End result: Nowhere near as good as I had anticipated. Just very chaotic and over-the-top. There's definitely some great musicianship and songwriting in there, it's just I have a hard time digging it out of the overall confusion of sound. Hard to enjoy really.
So, Love or Hate? I can only give this a
Like.