Fortress debuted at #95 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart with first week sales of 7,600 copies, also managing #10 spot on the Billboard Top Independent Album chart. In Canada, the album achieved #1 status the first week of its release. Mike Portnoy

Mike Portnoy

Michael Stephen "Mike" Portnoy is an American drummer primarily known as the former drummer, backing vocalist, and a co-founder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater, as well as the temporary drummer for the hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold. Known for his drumming prowess and technical...

 named this album one of his favourite albums of 2008 on his official web page.

Fortress, like its predecessor Kezia, achieved universal acclaim with high regards from many major publications, receiving a comprehensive score of 86 on Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 making it the 12th best reviewed album on the site for 2008. Tyler Patrick Munro of SputnikMusic states: "The album improves on everything established on Kezia (right down to the much more natural sounding piano codas), and it does so without the sometimes blatant repetition of its predecessor." He cites the track "Bone Marrow," stating: "While 'Bone Marrow' places more emphasis on the underpinning synths of the first two tracks, its heavy orchestration still takes a backseat to its varying structure, which fluidly transits from hyper-melodic up-tempo to ball-crushing gutturals and chugged syncopation, all of which are made twice as effective by the interwoven bass slapping," and compares the style of the opener "Bloodmeat" to the dissonance of The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Dillinger Escape Plan is an American mathcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey. The group originated in 1997 after the disbanding of Arcane, a hardcore punk trio consisting of Ben Weinman, Dimitri Minakakis, and Chris Pennie. The band's current line-up consists of guitarist Ben Weinman,...

 and Converge

Converge (band)

Converge is an American band from Salem, Massachusetts. Playing a blend of hardcore punk and metal since 1990, Converge has helped to define many of the elements of the metalcore genre.-Description:...

. John A. Hanson, also reviewing for Sputnikmusic, writes: "[W]ith Fortress, Protest the Hero have almost shed all of their past imperfections and crafted something really special," going on to praise frontman Rody Walker for his vocal range and improvement since Kezia. Katherine Fulton of Allmusic praised the band for their originality and boldness, writing: "More risks are taken, from the nearly hidden horns on 'The Dissentience' to the shimmering piano solo at the beginning of 'Sequoia Throne' and the playful interlude that bridges 'Palms Read' and 'Limb from Limb,'" though she ultimately criticized the album's "frantic" pace.

Track listing

Fortress is broken up into three sections, or movements, the first and last of which are titled.

Pre-gap

There are 7 songs on this album that contain pre-gaps. The pre-gap breakdown is as follows.

• Track -1, before "Bloodmeat," -0:53. Can be found by rewinding from the CD from the beginning. This pre-gap is not detected by iTunes.
• Track -3, before "Bone Marrow," -0:18. Added to the length of "The Dissentience" when uploaded to iTunes. Actual length of "The Dissentience" is 4:05.
• Track -4, before "Sequoia Throne," -0:55. Added to the length of "Bone Marrow." Actual length of "Bone Marrow" is 4:35.
• Track -5, before "Palms Read," -0:04. Added to the length of "Sequoia Throne." Actual length of "Sequoia Throne" is 3:08.
• Track -6, before "Limb From Limb," -1:22. Added to the length of "Palms Read." Actual length of "Palms Read" is 3:44.
• Track -8, before "Wretch," -0:44. Added to the length of "Spoils." Actual length of "Spoils" is 2:59.
• Track -9, before "Goddess Bound," -0:01. Added to the length of "Wretch." Actual length of Wretch is 4:11.

• Tracks -1, -4 and -8 contain piano instrumentals played by guitarist Luke Hoskin.
• Track -3 serves as an intro to "Bone Marrow."
• Track -5 is an audio sample from a song by Tom T. Hall
  Tom T. Hall
  Thomas "Tom T." Hall is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has written 11 #1 hit songs, with 26 more that reached the Top 10, including the pop crossover hit "I Love", which reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100...
  
   called "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died
  The Year That Clayton Delaney Died
  "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music artist Tom T. Hall. It was released in July 1971 as the only single from the album, In Search of a Song. "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" would be Tom T. Hall's second number one on the...
  
  " from the album In Search of a Song
  In Search of a Song
  In Search of a Song is a 1971 album by country singer and songwriter, Tom T. Hall. The album includes eleven songs based on Hall's observations of rural life...
  
  .
• Track -6 starts with a voice (possibly Rody) saying "Two minutes, and then the lads are in for a surprise," followed by a full band instrumental.
• Track -9 is an audio sample from the movie Starship Troopers
  Starship Troopers
  Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published hardcover in December, 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his...
  
  . This 2 second clip contains one of the characters from the movie saying "You wanna see the galaxy?"

Personnel

• Rody Walker - vocals
• Luke Hoskin - guitar, piano
• Tim Millar - guitar, vocals
• Arif Mirabdolbaghi - bass, vocals
• Moe Carlson - drums

Additional personnel

• Vadim Pruzhanov - keyboards on the track "Limb From Limb".
• Dan Fila - Additional percussion
• Julius "Juice" Butty - Producer
• Mark Spicoluk
  Mark Spicoluk
  Mark Spicoluk founded and played bass for the band Closet Monster from 1997 until December 8, 2005. Closet Monster reunited to play Wakestock on August 8, 2009. Spicoluk established the indie punk rock label Underground Operations in 1995.During his period with Closet Monster, Spicoluk played for...
  
   - Executive producer
• Nick Blagona - Engineer
• Sons of Nero
  Sons of Nero
  Sons of Nero is a graphic design group that was formed in 2000 by Matthew "Portland" Hay of the metalcore group Nora. It consists of four artists who primarily design artwork and packaging for bands and musical ensembles, but also design t-shirts and websites...
  
   - artwork

Charts

Chart	Provider(s)	Peak position	Weeks on chart
Canadian Album Chart	CRIA Cria A cria is the name for a baby camelid such as a llama, alpaca, vicuña, or guanaco. It comes from the Spanish word cría, meaning "baby". Its false cognate in English, crya , was coined by British sailors who explored Chile in the 18th century and were quick to describe the camelids onomatopoeically...	1	2
Top Independent Albums	Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...	10	3
Top Hard Rock Albums	Billboard	14	1
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	Billboard	95	1

External links