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These
Canadians always surprise me. Their previous full-length debut
Kezia was outstanding in all of its prog metal expertise.
It wasn’t only prog, there was a modern edge to their music that
could have them sharing the stage with harder edge bands and
have them able to compete. It wasn’t just because of a growl
(which they do), there was some innate nature to their sounds
that screamed of hardcore and even math metal. Fortress,
like Kezia, sounds like music from young virtuosos that
want to give the elder (read; Dream Theater) a lesson in
technicality and metal.
This time
around the hooks are much more lethal, more immediate, more
accentuated. There is something about PTH’s songs that is
utterly universal, and that considering prog metal is quite a
selective and splitting genre. But their songs, despite their
amazing technicality (they move and switch melodies and tempo so
often, yet it is never hard to follow them) have such clarity
and such delightful arrangements we must recognize their ability
to involve the listener. If one minute they have us eating off
their hands, by the next one we are like little birdies standing
on their shoulders while they walk us through a confusing
musical maze. And what for most progressive bands would come off
like a cut and paste work, Fortress comes off as totally
senseful. There is logic to their changes; to their increasing
and enervating tempo shifts, to their clean and dirty
progressions.
Like
Kezia before, Fortress reminds me of an improved version of
Toxik, but I am not even sure if these youngsters are aware of
their existence so I wouldn’t be bold enough as to cite them as
an influence. The similarities are striking, starting with the
high vocals of Rody Walker who to his advantage also doubles as
a growler with a real bite, and following with Luke Hoskin and
Tim Millar, both of whom are so talented they could replace John
Petrucci of Dream Theater without much practice. Protest The
Hero would be the band Toxik would have become had they made it
intact (and without selling out) with the Think This line
up all the way to 2007.
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