Wayward Review: The Protomen self titled

Those of you who know me know that I love The Protomen. They are amazing and awesome and sexy...

But they are also an astounding band and just earlier today they released their second album, Act II: The Father Of Death. I preordered it as soon as I could but I still couldn't help myself. At 1 AM this morning I paid for it a second time to download it from Amazon. Yes, I paid twice to get the same album except the one I preordered has a booklet coming with it.

I just had to have it ASAP.

Well, I promised I would do a review of Act II they same day I got it. I figured I would elaborate and I meant the day I got the physical copy of Act II, which will happen sometime this week hopefully.

For now, I shall review their first album, the self titled "The Protomen."

I have an interesting problem here though.

See, since there is a story along with the songs, I do not want to spoil it. I want you to help support this amazing band by buying their album and getting the liner notes to follow the story yourself. However, I HAVE to spoil some aspects of the songs in order to review it so if you don't fancy spoilers, stop reading now and just buy the damned album.

Review time!


As I have mentioned before in another post, the story of The Protomen is based off off of the Mega Man games. The band have crafted a very interesting dystopian story out of the video game idol and turned it into a rock opera, with onstage battles and all. The songs have a refreshingly epic feel to them that I feel is missing from the modern music scene. The band jumps back and forth between extreme musicianship and extreme energy (while taking a hit to musicianship) with each song. Some songs are so frantic that understanding the lyrics is hard, and that my friends is literally the only problem with this album.

Some time before the beginning of the album, the evil Dr Wily has enslaved humanity using armies of robots. One brilliant man has an answer to Wily's control; a living, breathing fighting machine.

Song run down (spoilers ahoy):

Hope Rides Alone
The opener of the album starts like an ancient film you would watch in history class. It recounts the creation, fight, and fall of Protoman. Of particular importance is the lack of support that Protoman gets from the humans he fought for.

Funeral For A Son
A very somber instrumental that perfectly illustrates the feelings of Dr Light after Protoman's death. Light considered Protoman his son, and Protoman's fall was devastating to Light. It is not said in the song, but in the liner notes it is during the span of time this song represents that Light creates Mega Man, his second son and the younger brother of Protoman.

Unrest In The House Of Light
Mega Man has come of age and Light reveals to him that a bed time tale Light has been telling him was based off the fight of Protoman. Light reveals that he sees humanity as a lost cause and that though he may want to, Mega Man should not fight for the humans as the death of Protoman broke Light's will to be free.

The Will Of One
After being told the story of his older brother, Mega Man starts to doubt Light's convictions. Why should those with the power to save humanity not use it. He sees his father at the lowly level of those who will not fight for their freedom. In a fit, he leaves his father's home and finds his brother's grave. Inspired by graffiti his finds, he is resolved to fight for the humans, to finish his brother's fight. He rushes home, gathers a helmet and a gun, then rushes off to destroy the evil robots, much to Light's dismay.

Vengeance
After finding the army of robots "rallying" the humans around, Mega Man begins to massacre the robots mercilessly, all the while taunting them and their leader. He even tells those robots he didn't completely destroy to go back and get more robots for him to decimate. Of very important note is the fact that not once does Mega Man say he is there to fight for the humans, rather he is there to fight for his brother. Near the end of the song, he directly taunts the robot general but gets no response.

The Stand (Man Or Machine)
The robot general then steps out into the opening, revealing himself to be Protoman, shocking the humans and Mega Man. Light, however, knew what had happened to his first son and was hoping Mega Man would not find out. Light steps out from the crowd, lets Mega Man know that his fight was hopeless to begin with, then walks off. Protoman then challenges the humans to fight alongside his younger brother, knowing they won't. He then turns his attention to his brother, forcing Mega Man to realize that he truly stands alone, that the humans will condemn his name as soon as he falls, just as they had done for Protoman. The brothers have a tense standoff with their weapons trained on eachother, but since Mega Man was inspired to fight because of Protoman, he can't bring himself to shoot his older brother and drops his weapon to his side.

The Sons Of Fate
However, Mega Man still has hope. During Protoman's rant, he picked up that Protoman was more jaded than evil. Maybe Protoman could be swayed back to the side of good. The brothers have a quick argument during which it is revealed (subtly) that Protoman is indeed not evil, but after Mega Man confessing that he knows the humans won't fight, Protoman is resolved to fight alongside Wily. The humans chant to Mega Man to destroy Protoman as he is helping Wily enslave humanity. The brothers reluctantly fire at eachother, but only Protoman is wounded. After hearing his brother's last words and holding Protoman as he died, Mega Man begins to openly weep. He had just destroyed his cause for fighting. The humans attempt to show him that he is truly their hero now but instead, Mega Man abandons the humans and leaves them to their fate.

Due Vendetta
Not a part of the story, but still a good song. If the rest of the album were a movie, this song would play during the credits.


As I said before, sometimes the music overshadows the lyrics as far as hearabiltiy goes, especially during The Sons Of Fate. Despite that one discrepancy, this is an extremely solid album that any person should be able to enjoy.

I deem this album a pure win, and so should you.

Standout Song: There is this one part of the album that happens when Hope Rides Alone begins and Due Vendetta ends. That's the best part of it.