A Review of the Album ``The Protomen (Act I)'' by The Protomen

Under review is another album of music I've liked, available for listening and purchase on Bandcamp:
https://theprotomen.bandcamp.com/album/the-protomen-act-i

It's odd to me, how much good music based on ``Mega Man'' is available on Bandcamp; unlike the other
such albums, I believe none of this music is based directly on songs from the video games; rather, a
story based very loosely on the events of the first few or so games is told as the album progresses.

The second album in this series is a masterpiece, a prequel to the first with a more original story,
far more disconnected from these video games, but will be reviewed later, as this album comes first.

This album holds eight songs, and the first listening should be experienced in-order.  Now following
are their ordering according to my preference, the track names, their durations, and album ordering:

                III: The Will of One 04:09 4
>                I: Hope Rides Alone 05:08 1
=                      IV: Vengeance 03:16 5
=      V: The Stand (Man or Machine) 05:57 6
>                   VI: Sons of Fate 08:12 7
>             EPILOGUE: Due Vendetta 04:03 8
> II B: Unrest in the House of Light 03:31 3
>            II A: Funeral For A Son 02:37 2

The first track begins with a story being told alongside the crackling of a fire or the static of an
electric speaker, at first using just a guitar, before instruments are added and the tale takes on a
more complex and then mechanical tone.  One can imagine the city and skyscrapers as the situation is
described, and the chaos of the first game occurs.  The third fifth of the track accurately reflects
that chaos, with the wild music, and only hooting and hollering for lyrics.  Immediately thereafter,
the song takes on a sad tone describing the hopelessness of that city's people, before again turning
chaotic even moreso than earlier, at Protoman's demise, with some of the lyrics like cries of agony.

The second track can only be described as not quite upbeat music for a wake.  It's fairly consistent
throughout, even though horns are added midway.  I'm left without much else to write concerning this
particular song.  Listening to the song brings to mind an empty funeral parlor with burning incense.

The third track is fairly consistent throughout, and its prime purpose is to communicate the album's
plot up to that point, in the form of a bedtime story from Dr. Light to Mega Man.  The song's choice
of instruments make it feel like an old Western cowboy tale, with its guitar and the particular drum
and its tale of a long-passed death and remorse.  Dr. Light's speaking overcome with grief at points
works well to emphasize and accompany short changes in the song's tempo or its instrument selection.

The fourth track starts out strong, unlike the first three, and appears to describe the title screen
of ``Mega Man 2'' depicting Mega Man standing on a building overlooking the city; shortly before the
first half finishes, the song's instruments mostly go quiet, before returning stronger in the second
half.  This latter half, particularly the final eighth, makes this song my favourite, as the singing
largely stops, and is slowly drowned out and replaced with the growing chanting about hope from what
I figure to be police robots, which contrasts powerfully with the words of hope in the prior tracks.

The fourth track segues into the fifth track with that chanting, before becoming a fast-paced battle
song.  It switches back-and-forth between fairly normal rock-and-roll music and its chorus that uses
softer instruments alongside more emotional vocalization.  The song detours at around the two-thirds
mark for a small bit with new effects, otherwise maintaining a similar sound and feeling throughout.

The sixth track begins with gentle piano and keeps it as the primary instrument throughout the song,
although the type of piano changes to electronic at times, and later adding drums and segments using
guitar.  The song revisits the hopelessness and man's inaction in the face of evil, described in the
first and third tracks, and functions as a dialogue between Mega Man and the still-working Protoman.
This track is difficult to describe, and I'm not doing justice to its sweet sound with sour meaning.

The seventh track is that longest, and describes the fight between Mega Man and Protoman.  It's most
similar, soundwise, to the fifth track.  This track is that most difficult to describe in the entire
album, changing extremely several times throughout its play.  It begins with a quick-paced argument,
with lyrics constantly switching between the two.  This is the only track with Dr. Wily's voice, and
the first may have featured the cries of the city's people, but they're certainly given voice herein
to yell for Mega Man to kill Protoman, and later to insult him.  The second quarter is he talking to
himself about hope, and man's future.  The latter half is entirely unlike the former, with the track
replaying, with the crowd's chanting replacing the argument; the chanting gives way to environmental
noise, and then a single guitar plays, not unlike how the album began, but now with no lyrics.  This
song's second half could've been its own track, and perhaps should've been; it's as if the first and
second track, completely unlike one another, had been joined as a whole, rather than split in twain.

The eighth and final track is odd but entertaining, feeling like an amalgamation of prior resources,
even if none were reused for it.  All of the song's lyrics are character names, mostly robot masters
from the video games, and this song has no story whatsoever.  I once again describe a song as fairly
consistent throughout; the song's experimental nature leaves it hard to categorize.  Its hooting and
hollering is nearly laughter, unlike other tracks.  It sounds like the band had fun while making it.

I highly recommend this album, and anticipate reviewing the second in the series at some later date.
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