Fortress Review

Fortress is the upcoming second full-length studio album by Canadian band Protest the Hero. It is set to be released January 29, 2008.

Fortress was recorded at Silo Studios in Hamilton, Ontario during the summer of 2007. The album will contain 10 tracks broken into three movements, and will be approximately 45 minutes in length. The band has stated that the sound will be similar to Kezia but with a less poppy and more technical metal influence. Fortress will not revolve around a single concept, unlike their previous album. Instead, it will be more akin to "goddess worship in the tradition of Robert Graves," according to their bassist and lyricist Arif Mirabdolbaghi :

"It has to do with Goddess Worship, and how there has been this degendering of the Lord and Savior, and the suppressed feminine. A lot of it is based in Genghis Khan and old Irish Mythology, about the rise and fall of the Goddess of the forest. [The theme] can be more appreciated by more people. If I had to reduce it to its simplest form, the concept is about the re-emerging of goddess worship and the erosion of faith in scientific process."

Also, states lead singer Rody Walker:

"This album is nothing to be intellectualized. All talk of wonder, pathos and optimism (blindfolded) aside (hink). I feel it’s a very natural progression for us. A natural progression into further obscurity. I am of the belief a lot of the people who work for us were hoping for a stab at a more commercially viable album, however we wrote what we wanted without linear boundaries and created something less commercial than ever. Some fans of the band will hate it. And some people who hate the band will love it. All others can rot."

A music video has been shot for the song "Bloodmeat". A behind-the-scenes preview can be found at Black Top Guerillas, which contains part of the studio version of the song.

As of December 11th, "Bloodmeat" is available for download on the Canadian iTunes Music Store. Additionally, the band released the song "Sequoia Throne" on their MySpace page audio player, which was later replaced with "Bloodmeat".

The music video for "Bloodmeat" is available as of December 14th at Much Music.