The Protomen (album)
The Protomen, colloquially referred to by the band in retrospect as Act I, is the debut concept album release by Nashville, Tennessee-based rock band the Protomen. The hard rock music features elements of noise rock, analog distortion, and synth. In this rock opera, genius scientist Dr. Thomas Light builds two robotic sons who attempt to defeat their dystopian city's Orwellian dictator and meet tragedy when they fail. The plot of the album is inspired by the Mega Man games.
The Protomen formed in 2003 as students in the studio recording program at Middle Tennessee State University. The album was produced between 2003 and 2005 in multiple locations because the graduated students lost access to the university recording equipment. Themes of rebellion against unjust authorities and the use of analog effects like mastering on tape to intentionally retain the analog distotion were responses to being taught recording industry conventions at university, which favor digitally produced tracks with mainstream sounds.
The album had a positive response from video game publications, internet gaming communities, and the local Murfreesboro, Tennessee music community. The response to the album led to a trilogy of albums on this theme. The prequel Act II: The Father of Death was released on September 8, 2009, and the sequel Act III: This City Made Us was released on January 9th, 2026.
Plot
The album begins with a narrator describing a dystopia ruled by Dr. Albert Wily and his army of robots. Dr. Thomas Light builds a robot to lead a rebellion, who is named Protoman. Protoman fights against Wily's army, however, after defeating many of Wily's robots, Protoman is weakened, and the robot army launches a final assault. The human crowd that gathers to watch Protoman fight feels hopeless and does not assist him, standing aside and allowing him to die.The crowd takes Protoman's helmet to a grave site as Dr. Light reflects on his grief at Protoman's death and realizes Protoman was not just a fighting robot, but his son. In rage, he sets out to destroy his apartment workshop, but unintentionally builds another robot son, named Megaman. Years later, people still talk about Protoman, and Light knows that Megaman will soon find out about his brother. To dissuade Megaman from attempting to rebel against Wily, Light reluctantly tells Megaman Protoman's story, and explains that the people have "chosen their own end"—they will not fight to save themselves. Megaman defies Light and sets out to defeat Wily, stopping at Protoman's grave before running towards Wily's fortress, seeking to avenge his brother's death.
In a rage now that he has learned of his brother and seen his grave, Megaman fights through Wily's army of robots, as the commander of the army watches from a shadow. Megaman sees that the commander is like him and dares him to fight. The commander steps out of the darkness and reveals himself as Protoman. Light explains to Megaman that he cannot save humanity and avenge his brother before Protoman begins to speak. He expresses his rage at humanity for their inability to fight for themselves and that they only want a hero to die for the cause. He warns Megaman that they will not fight with him and that is up to them to decide the fate of mankind.
Megaman is reluctant to fight and attempts to convince Protoman to leave Wily and fight to free humanity once again. Protoman refuses him, still in anger that the crowd refuses to fight for themselves. The crowd shouts for Megaman to destroy Protoman, saying that his death will save them. With a blinding powershot, Megaman delivers a mortal wound to his brother. Protoman tells Megaman that one day the crowd will realize a hero is just a man who knows he is free before dying. Distraught and convinced of Protoman's earlier view that humanity is not worth saving, Megaman drops his helmet and walks away from the fortress as Wily's robots massacre the crowd that was watching the battle.
Track listing
All tracks written and composed by the Protomen.Concepts and analysis
Physical copies of CD albums are accompanied with libretto printed in liner note booklets that include narration and stage direction not present in the songs.Act I is a tragedy in the same vein as its prequel rock opera Act II: The Father of Death.
The relationship between the crowd and heroes in the Protomen's music and performances has explicit parallels to Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Video game reporter Benjamin Lamoreux explained, "Both stories have a very pronounced theme that the common man need to stand up and fight. It’s not a enough for a Hero to take a stand."
The Act I crowd refrain "we are the dead" is a phrase from Nineteen Eighty-Four prophesying the characters' doom that is reinforced by the ubiquitous propaganda telescreens. In The Protomen, it reinforces the crowd's lack of will to free themselves.
Interpreting Act I in combination with the events of Act II, Sharp describes the inaction of the crowd in Act I as a function of hero worship from lack of agency under totalitarianism: "There was never an organized resistance to Wily's totalitarian society because once the people were deprived of a sense of responsibility for their own survival – when they no longer needed to work to live, they also psychologically gave up responsibility for their own destinies. They came to expect someone else to take care of all of their needs, leading to hero worship." Sharp calls Wily's city a "social auto-totality", a phrase coined by Václav Havel for a totalitarian system that relies on demoralizing the populace.
Science fiction tropes underpin the rock opera, such as the character of Wily, who is a mad scientist. The rock opera is inspired by the first six NES Mega Man games and the franchise's characters, who are primarily robots named after music genres such as blues and rock and roll. The Mega Man franchise has canonical storylines that the Protomen rock opera plot diverges from significantly. Many characters have names and roles from Mega Man, but the setting is a dark reimagining of the game's underlying world. Video game and science fiction inspired sound effects and electronic motifs crossover with the hard rock and rock and roll musical style, causing some critics to dub the group's style "science fiction rock."
Critical and press reception
The album received favorable press from 1UP and The Escapist. Nintendo Power said the album was in a league of its own, and recommended it especially to fans of the Mega Man games. Pushstart praised the album as "one of the most interesting albums, or sagas, related to video games" and called the multimedia storytelling format "significant for the world of video games." Mix said "he emotion, the music and performance's power certainly landed" and positively described "Unrest in the House of Light" as a "bizarre, heavy crash-and-burn blend of Spaghetti Western distorto-rock and dark country". Piero Scaruffi describes the album as a "style reminiscent of prog-rock of the 1970s, simply updated to the videogame subculture of their age and with the occasional heavy-metal discharge."The Commercial Appeal recommended the album for people who thought rock opera Kilroy Was Here by Styx "just didn't go far enough," and highly rated the stage performance: "Folks owe it to themselves to check out the band's self-titled CD. Better yet, go to the show."
The album has gained a number of supporters from fans of the Mega Man games and music listeners in general, highlighting the storytelling, music, and dark interpretation of the game's mythology. The success of the album, bolstered by an article in the gaming magazine Nintendo Power, began a huge cult following for the band, with fans attending concerts in costumes inspired by the band's storyline and participating by way of singing along with the band's music, which was further exemplified by the group's work in Act II: The Father of Death.