What I think about Act I and Act II by The Protomen

The Protomen are a Nashville-based band who, in 2005 and 2009 respectively, released the concept albums The Protomen (which I'll refer to as Act I) and Act II: The Father of Death, which use Mega Man characters as a jumping-off point for a dark and dystopian story.

In Act I, Dr Wily, a Big-Brother-esque ruler, uses his evil robots to control the City. Dr Thomas Light creates a machine to save the City: Proto Man. Proto Man battles through Wily's armies but is ultimately killed, and in his devastation, Light creates Mega Man as his son. Despite Light's attempts to dissuade him, Mega Man runs away to save the city, managing to destroy any robots trying to stop him. He encounters a corrupted Proto Man, who he battles and kills, and runs away as the remainder of Wily's army slaughters the watching crowd.

The album's overall sound is dark, dirty, and somewhat unpolished (due to it being recorded entirely on tape), reflecting the mood of the City itself. It contains pops and blown-out noises, as well as some distorted 8-bit synths harking back to their inspiration in the games. This is, by the way, most evident in Hope Rides Alone and Due Vendetta, which bookend the album. 

This album manages to denote different characters by the music surrounding them. Mega Man's tracks make up the body of the album, the hard rock of The Will of One veering violently into punk in Vengeance. Proto Man's go from a raw, unpolished version of that style to a mournful power ballad. The acoustic and more varied instrumentation of Dr Light's songs, Funeral for a Son and Unrest in the House of Light, form the skeleton of the beginning of Act II's sound. The Will of One, Mega Man's first song, is about him, somewhat naively, resolving to save the City. As such, the singing takes on a kind of adolescent aspect, with voice cracks and amateurish half-screaming, half-singing ("Hope rides ALOOOOOOYYEEEAAAAAOONNE!!!"). I'm not saying playing a character is an excuse for poor singing, but if it's deliberate, and it works... well, I like it anyway. 

Act I utilises repetition of short, punchy phrases reminiscent of battle cries in several songs, most prominently "Ready, willing, prepared to fight", "We are the dead" and "Even now there is hope for man". These quite succinctly sum up the themes of heroism and triumph against all odds that are so prevalent in The Protomen's work even beyond these two albums. And that's really how I would characterise Act I - heroic.

Act II elucidates the events which brought the City under Wily's control. Thomas Light partners with Albert Wily to create robots to aid humans with hard labour. After activating the robots, Wily tries to take Light's wife Emily away, and uses a robot to kill her when she refuses. He frames Light, and though he is found not guilty he has to leave town to escape a lynch mob. Years later, Joe, a young man, attempts to escape the City, but encounters a red-eyed demon. He manages to fend off the robot long enough for an aged Dr Light to appear and kill it. The two plan to cripple Wily's systems and kill him, but Joe is killed in the attempt and Wily releases an army of combat robots in the name of keeping the city safe. Light resolves himself to continuing to try and stop Wily.

This album is a hell of a lot cleaner-sounding than Act I, probably because it was produced by Alan Shacklock, Meat Loaf's producer. And if there's one person who knows power ballads and rock operas, it's Meat Loaf. Narratively, the reason for the clean sound is that it takes place in the past; indeed, one can hear the western, folkish, country-influenced sound slowly turn to the synthy rock with the development of the City; an echo of Light's music in Act I and representative of his failure to stop Wily early on.

Something about this album that's worse than Act I is the clarity of the plot, hinted at in the song titles no longer denoting chapters (in Act I, every track has a numeral before it, with the only exception being EPILOGUE: Due Vendetta). Both albums have lyric notes, but Act I only has one necessary to understand the plot: the one stating that Mega Man runs away from the scene in The Sons of Fate. Likewise, every character in Act I is introduced in the first song except Mega Man, who isn't named until Due Vendetta, but his status as the protagonist from Unrest in the House of Light onwards is obvious.

Conversely, in Act II, the introduction of Joe is very unclear without lyric notes, especially since the singer uses a very similar voice to that of Dr Light. For the same reason, the reintroduction of Light is unclear, although differentiation between the two is clearer when they're talking in Light Up the Night. The only time Act I comes close to this is The Stand (Man or Machine), which is very easily read as Mega Man and Proto Man conversing, though is canonically sung only by Proto Man (I'd personally prefer the former). The death of Emily in The Father of Death ostensibly occurs over two and a half minutes before it's actually mentioned in The Hounds, so there's no punch to it like there is with Proto Man's death. Joe and Light's plan and the death of Joe - the entire conclusion of the album - require lyric notes in The Fall.

All that said, Act II's songs are able to further the plot and stand on their own much more so than those in Act I; indeed, this may even be a natural consequence of the lack of narrative clarity, and subtle repeated lyrics help prevent it from merely being a collection of standalone songs, such as those in The Good Doctor and Light Up the Night respectively.

The former:

Wily: Tom listen to yourself, then listen carefully to me
If you replace the working parts, you get a different machine
The man who turns the wheels, they will follow
Anywhere he leads

The latter:

Light: Well, a friend once told me
Men, they would follow any man who would turn the wheels
But now the wheels are spinning out of control
What would they do if we held them still
If you destroy the working parts, what you'll get is a broken machine
A beacon of light from a burning screen

This is, in the essentials, very similar to the repeated phrases in Act I, though it's arguably put to broader use here, such as portraying Joe's girlfriend as 'too far gone' in Wily's society by having her sing the phrase "Don't turn your back on the City", echoing Wily's demand to Light, "Don't turn your back on me". In fact, Act II does a great job of establishing Wily as a bad egg from the moment he's introduced; note that he says "the man who turns the wheels", man singular. He never intended to rule alongside Light. The elaboration on Wily's personality, lust for power, and entitled nature was something lacking in Act I and serves to make him a much more substantial villain figure.

Act II is great in its own way. I definitely listen to individual songs from this album more than from Act I. But I've listened to Act I all the way through way more than I have Act II - it just works together so well, and to me, that's much more valuable.

In an interview with Tor.com in 2011, band member Commander B Hawkins describes an early version of Due Vendetta being turned in as a school project:

"It was specifically going against all of the things the teachers wanted us to do in terms of making things sound pretty... So, judging by that, they should have all hated it. And, generally, most of them all hated it, but there was a good contingent of teachers that thought it was the funniest shit they had ever heard."

This honest take on their sound was both surprising and refreshing, since on stage and in other interviews the band tends to be deliberately overdramatic. And it is just that - honest. And true. It is silly, making a rock opera about Mega Man and playing it totally straight, and actually pulling it off. And it's because of that - cynics might say despite that - The Protomen are such great storytellers; it's why they're so utterly entertaining, and it's why I'm in eager anticipation for Act III.