Review Summary: Let the world keep living its life
We had to wait a very long time for this third part. The second act of the rock opera, inspired by the popular Mega Man video game series, saw the light of day back in the distant year of 2009 – meaning it took a staggering 17 years for the concluding chapter of the story to arrive! One could say that by this metric, the band has effectively set a new record, surpassing such slow-paced mastodons as
Tool,
Guns N' Roses, and
Karnivool. Of course, such an achievement might be called dubious, but something else is far more interesting: will the new work reach the heights of
Act II: The Father of Death, or will it fall victim to the curse that plagues so many movie trilogy conclusions?
Act III: This City Made Us continues the tale of the confrontation between two warring doctors, bringing the plot to an inevitable direct clash. Albert Wily has created an army of robots, using it to seize power in the city where the events unfold, while his former colleague Thomas Light – limiting himself to the construction of two sentient machines – challenges the regime of the self-appointed ruler. Drawing inspiration not only from the source material but also from dark 80s dystopian tropes, The Protomen lean on the sweeping style of Jim Steinman’s works, the most famous of which is the album
Bat Out of Hell. The band takes the rock opera and hard rock as its fundamental base, generously seasoning the latter on
Act III with an increased number of synthesizers and bringing the cinematic nature of their sound to the forefront, while skillfully bypassing the overly theatrical traps of traditional musicals.
And the opening pair of tracks vividly and immediately demonstrates their mastery. The instrumental piece
The Calm sets the listener in the right mood thanks to a lingering intertwining of synthesizer drone and solemn keyboards. It is immediately followed by
Hold Back the Night, where vocalist Raul Panther III exclaims with operatic grandeur, "I know a hero will come!" And of course, the long-awaited savior is bound to be found, fully in accordance with narrative conventions.
Unfolding the narrative, the album maintains a steady pace, reliably delivering diverse and memorable numbers. Among them stand out the forceful rock bursts of the title track and
Hold On (The Distance Between);
Buried in the Red, infused with bluesy notes featuring an organ, virtuoso guitar solos, and powerful 80s-style drums;
Calling Out, which relies on modern synth-retro motifs;
No Way Back, playing the role of a true rock opera canvas where, among other things, one of the album’s most epic moments awaits us; as well as
Light’s Last Stand, which describes the final confrontation in a prog-rock form with an unexpected saxophone solo.
The Protomen manage to finish the story on a high note, delivering a striking and convincing conclusion. Wily and Light clash in a decisive duel for the fate of the city amidst bursts of orchestral swells, militant drum rolls, and piercing trumpet sounds. Of course, such a clash is a mandatory and long-exhausted trope, but even those who are tired of such a predictable finale will hardly remain indifferent to the scale of what is happening.
Act III: This City Made Us has taken on a musically mature form, acting as an incendiary and intoxicating conclusion to the story. Naturally, one can always accuse the rock opera undertaken by The Protomen of conceptual absurdity, but it is hard to deny the fact that the band executes it with sincere earnestness and impressive scale.
