Protest The Hero: Fortress

Though it entered the U.S. through the same label

that gave us the Get Up Kids and Dashboard Confessional, Canadian prog-metal whiz-kid

Protest The Hero proved closer to Dream Theater and Death (simultaneously!)

with its 2005 Vagrant debut, Kezia. The follow-up, Fortress, mines similar territory

but cranks the ferocity even higher. Divided into three suites, the album's 10

tracks shift from dizzying guitar runs ("Bone Marrow") to synthesized

orchestral swells to 900-mph meter changes that make The Dillinger Escape Plan

sound lazy. Still, in spite of virtuosic shredding and Cookie Monster vocal

accents (the most polarizing part of otherwise awesome cuts like "The

Dissentience"), Fortress ultimately sticks in the head off the power of PTH's

melodies. Maybe the jump from Get Up Kids to this stuff isn't so illogical

after all.