Fans of Protest the Hero should save some praise for Propagandhi. The Whitby, Ont., metal band began as happy-go-lucky punkers in 1999, but has since followed the similar route of its Portage la Prairie idols, getting positively more thrashing with every release.

"Propagandhi was a huge influence," says Rody Walker, Protest's vocalist. "As they got heavier, it sort of directed our tastes in the right direction. At that point we'd had enough of fun little pop-punk songs, so when they started putting out thrashier albums, like Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, it really affected us."

Indeed it did. Protest's latest release, Fortress, is a heavily concentrated mixture of many metal sub-genres, including progressive, power, death and thrash.

"There are a million things you can do within the metal framework, so why restrict yourself to one, when you can exist within all of them?" asks Walker, who's joined in Protest by guitarists Tim Millar and Luke Hoskin, bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi and drummer Morgan Carlson.

Yes, Protest embraces all that is metal, right down to its undeniable cheesiness. Fortress is ridiculously technical, full of over-the-top moments such as the ultra-hot keyboard solo on Limb From Limb by Dragonforce's Vadim Pruzhanov. Then there's the very metal-looking cover art, which features the Irish goddess Flidais.

"In what other genre can you talk about mystical creatures?" Walker asks. "It's all supposed to be taken pretty light-heartedly, even though it's said very seriously. When Rhapsody is singing about mighty dragons, I'm pretty sure those guys don't sit around at home and are just like 'Yeah, that's real.'"

Good point, but what about Manowar? The self-proclaimed Kings of Metal actually seem to believe their metallic warrior shtick.

"Oh, Manowar are dead serious," the 22-year-old singer says. "They grab their wrist above their head (Manowar's signature pose), that's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen anyone do. Manowar are sweet."

Ah, so Ronnie James Dio has the devil horns, Manowar has the wrist thing. What does Protest do?

"I think all the cool poses are taken," Walker says. "You get douchebags like Dane Cook doing that thing that he does. It's so contrived and lame."

Speaking of contrived and lame, it irks me that Protest stays relatively underground, while safe-rock Canadian bands such as Faber Drive and Marianas Trench get tons of radio play.

"If our culture wants to accept nonsense, then I don't think I want to be fully accepted by popular culture," Walker says.