07.
Protest The Hero
Fortress

Metal! The first record on the list to fall into the ‘heavy’ bracket, this is something of a revelation. I’m told that Protest The Hero are ‘math-core’ (much like Foals are ‘math-rock’). Adding ‘math’ clearly makes stuff cool in 2008. Except, Protest The Hero aren’t exactly cool. So far as I know, they’re virtually unknown outside of their native Canada (I discovered them whilst in Toronto), but they damn well should be. This is a band that have remembered that metal is supposed to be fun. Much in the same way that Muse play around with operatics in a less heavy context, Protest The Hero are flamboyant and overblown. The album sounds to me like some kind of bizarre hybrid of System Of A Down and Queen. Singer Roddy Walker is as camp as a camper van, every guitar solo is unashamedly whiddly, and at least two of the band have a perm. To top it off, the lyrics are simply awful (it is metal, after all). So, Protest The Hero are not even slightly cool, which seems to make them fearless in what they play. The tracks are adventurous (all too rare in metal), but also hark back to the pre-Nirvana pomp and speed of 80s thrash. Every track is genius. An absolute must have.