Sounds of scurrility from Canadian metal band

It’s entirely fitting that the title of the third LP from Canadian progressive metal outfit Protest the Hero refers to the use of language as a weapon.

True, frontman Rody Walker’s lyrics on “Scurrilous” sometimes veer into scurrility — he certainly knows his way around curse words — but the record’s brilliant employment of its verbose wordsmith is so much more profound than that.

In fact, it’s a feat in and of itself that on a collection of songs with some of the most jagged guitar work and jazzy rhythms on this side of King Crimson, the focus consistently remains on the attention-grabbing vocals and lyrics.

And all this talk of Walker’s emergence understates the greatness of the songs themselves. “Scurrilous” is 10 lean cuts of technically precise but never soulless modern metal, the kind of stuff that should make every band on Sumerian Records jealous. It’s the finest metal album thus far in a year rife with great metal albums, and it shouldn’t be ignored — not that ignoring it would be easy.