Repetition and variation is the essence of style in art. Whitby, Canada band Protest the Hero have repetition down cold if you go by their CD 'Scurrilous', the band's third album. What they might work on is the variation except that their brand of variation happens to be spectacularly unnappealing.

The set-up is not new - a tour de force approach blending of aspects of different metal genres with solid instrumentation, powerful emotional vocals by singer Rody Walker and excellent studio production value. Like their other recordings it is terrific work with remarkably intricacy and musicianship. The actual material is pretty forgettable. They could play some utterly spectacular AOR if they chose to but they don't choosing stylings they refer to as progressive metal, metalcore and mathcore.

Track three 'Tandem' and its lyrical narrative about the ravages of cancer on women is pretty laboured. The lyrical theme of that track and pretty much all of the others is a colossul downer. Metal lyrics can go beyond drug references, sex acts, horror movie clichés, death, ancient mythology, etc. When you hear an album like 'Scurrilous' with its pretensions toward erudite social commentary you tend to miss the old lyrical stand-bys.

Track five 'Tapestry' is essentially about being bored and feeling as though one has wasted one's time. It was this track that struck me on the most personal level if for no other reason than listening to the album made me feel that way.

Their vocalist is a spectacular singer but only when he isn't screaming his testicles off like a human air raid siren or growling like a werewolf with a bad case of dysentery. His eccentric use of his pipes is in a vein heard from the vocalists of other Canadian acts like Our Lady Peace and Billy Talent and not in a good way.

You get the same chainsaw guitar almost throughout the album played with such chord consistency as to make it sound as though every track was begun with the same lick as the starting point.

Going over it track by track 'Cést La Vie', 'Hair Trigger', 'Tandem', 'Moonlight', 'Tapestry', 'Dunsei', 'The Reign Of Enending Terror', 'Termites', 'Tongue Splitter', 'Sex Tapes' was a relentless droning on of tedium.

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