The Protomen (Self Titled)

The Protomen – Self Titled

1 Hope Rides Alone

2 Funeral for a Son

3. Unrest in the House of Light

4. The Will of One

5. Vengeance

6. The Stand (Man or Machine)

7. Sons of Fate

8. Due Vendetta

Bishop: This is a bit of a weird album, so I’ll try and explain it a bit for the readers before we dive in to reviewing it. This is the self-titled debut album release by American rockers The Protomen, occasionally referred to by its unofficial alternate title, Act I. The album is a rock opera that follows the events of the Megaman games. I don’t really follow the games because they do my nut in, so it’s worth pointing out that despite all the songs being about a particular franchise, familiarity with the source material is not required as they pretty much build their own story anyway. Anyway, it sort of has this 90’s metal vibe going on for me, not overly complex in terms of playing, but it’s made up for with the writing and sequencing. I remember reading that when the band formed most of the members were students in the same music class. The first song they wrote was ‘Due Vendetta’ I believe, which they wrote purposely to go against the pristine and clean recordings they were being told to do as part of the classes. After that track they ended up doing the rest of the album. Figured you’d like that point, considering they recorded it all analog rather than digital, I know you’re a sucker for bands doing that.

Elliott: Okay. Here's what I'll do: I'll rapid-fire all my complaints and you tell me where we can start. First off the singer sucks. The production is shit other than the drum sound. Every time the band does something interesting like have a melodic thing or feedback it's like they wanna go to any extreme to make up for that by putting shit parts in. The story is interesting but the songs don't flow together. The story might exist but the songs just feel randomly put on an album. Okay start dissection my bitching.

Bishop: Ha! I had a feeling I'd get this response from you. Where the hell do I start? Okay, I'll start at your first point: the singer sucks. There are two singers. One of them is, admittedly, awful. The other is pretty powerful though, especially on songs like "The Will Of One".

Elliott: They're both pretty bad. I just don't hear any sort of talent. I mean if it ain't punk or metal it better at least have good singers or maybe some melodic parts. Oh one more thing, this band doesn't know what the hell they are. Are we rock? Some sort of protometal thing? What are we? Very, very, very inconsistent. By the way, where in the states are these guys from?

Bishop: It's a rock opera, which generally tend to flitter around in a few different genres from most of the ones I've heard. Whatever is happening in the story tends to reflect in the music; although I'll give you that it's inconsistent - although I wouldn't agree with the wording. For a full album, there's very little progression story wise. It's not a fantastic example of a rock opera. Right, I'll move onto your next point: the production is shit. I'll accept this one too - it's entirely self-produced and pretty rough. I think for an independent and self-funded release it's pretty admirable though, I'd definitely heard worse from other beginner bands. At least these guys had the decency to properly record it, rather than just sticking a microphone in the middle of the garage like most beginner bands do.

Elliott: See, I know what the reader is thinking. I like grindcore and hardcore, but I base my like or dislike of the production on the type of music. For this type of music a raw production just isn't gonna cut it. For punk clean production doesn't cut it. The drum sound is pretty cool though

Bishop: To be honest I imagine that's exactly what everyone's thinking. The other point you make is about no melodic sections, which I think is unfair. The opening track is a six minute almost-instrumental, save for narration. Alright, so there's no traditional metal melodic sections, but that's fine by me, the tracks feel experimental and free flowing (not all the time, but we'll come to that later) and don't feel like someone's gone "Right, we need a chorus here, a verse here, oh, some melodic bit here!” It feels organic in terms of sequencing

Elliott: It feels like some 70’s rip-off where they try too hard to be original. I like melody, that's why I love NWOBHM and stuff. If I want non-melodic stuff I'll listen to Fear of God, but what annoys me is every time they're about to go into a melodic moment they seem to do everything possible to get away from it. Woops, sorry were we trying to be musical? I'm not really into weird arty music. I like melody and stuff. Don't know… that's just me. If you can be heavy and melodic that's awesome too. The intro is the best track on the album. Tt set me up for what I thought was gonna be an amazing album… my how let down I was.

Bishop: If you think this is "weird, arty music", I can show you some horrors. This, to me, is just rock, but not played by numbers.

Elliott: Right, slight problem, because in the 5 seconds it took for us to continue this review (5 seconds, 5 weeks, same thing - Bish) I've slightly changed my mind about this record.

Bishop: Oh Christ, I didn't expect that. Go on - what changed and, more importantly, why?

Elliott: Don't get your hopes up, I don't think this is the greatest album ever recorded, the mix is worse than many of my 80’s death metal demos, and the guy can't sing to save his life (singing to robots, I bet that's the next one), it's just… It has a weird charm to the album now, and the musicians are rather good at what they do.

Bishop: Yeah, there's nothing actually wrong here - it reminds me of when you hear a great band practice in a garage - of course it's going to sound gash. Sure, I think some of the artistic decisions are a bit weird at times, but I like the album at a whole. The second album is an incredibly polished rock album, and I think that only goes to show that this was a band trying to find its feet. And hell - I'd take this sort of thing than over a generic rock band playing the same ten songs over. Another thing to mention is that the liner notes on the album actually include additional bits between the lyrics - stage directions, etc. It's a good way of fleshing out the plot without having a narrator and it impeaching into the music itself.

Elliott: I'll have to look at the liner notes (because of the unique way political trendy is funded I had to listen to this on YouTube), but that's very cool. One of the pluses about this album is it's actually a consistent story. One of the flaws I found with Green Day's ‘American Idiot’ or My Chemical Romance's ‘The Black Parade’ (other than I just didn't like them) is that while they may have had some sort of subplot, I found that they didn't really tell a story. It was just sort of we'll link the songs together somehow. Oh we'll mention the Jesus of suburbia in 3 songs. Boom, story album. Gwar is about the only band who I think can really make an album with a story in it, but this comes pretty damn close.

Bishop: I think the thing you need to be aware of there is there's a difference between a concept album and a rock opera. Concept albums generally deal with the same themes strongly, whereas rock operas have it as a proper story. Personally, as far as plot goes, I prefer The Protomen's second album, "Act II: The Father of Death." There's just too little happening here for an album, it's more an EP - the short story of the music world, if you like. That said and plot aside, the music keeps me entertained. I've got this on vinyl, where the last track stretches on and in turns into a bit tune Phil Collins rendition, for some reason. The vinyl is split blue and red, very funky to look at. Also, this album got a chiptune remix by Vanity and Makeup Set - and I really like it. But I'm digressing now - I like this album, I like this band, but I prefer their follow up effort.

Elliott: Add King Diamond to the list of great story tellers through music. I agree, nothing really happens in this album story wise, but really it's not the worst thing I've heard. I still hate the singer but other than that I don't dislike this album. And you thought I'd hate it! I listen to 60’s psychedelic rock now so…

Bishop: Hey, I never said that - I was unsure though. Glad you came around in the end.

Elliott: Yeah, nothing more to say on this. Overall an enjoyable listen with a few minor problems.