VGBA 18 - The Cover Up

WELL! The original plan was to have this a few days after the release, but then I completely dropped the ball. Here it is regardless though!

The Cover Up

The Protomen are covering up something... classic rock!

The best I could find for album art at the moment.

Buy the album here!

Band - The Protomen
Sites - Home. Facebook.
Type of Album - Rock cover album.
Genres - Rock. Metal. Things along that line.
Favorite Song - The Trooper

Review - Time for something a little different! For those who don't know, The Protomen are a video game band of sorts, but rather than cover material from games, like most bands I review, they went out and crafted an original video game rock opera of sorts based on the Mega Man series. (Thus the name Protomen taken from the name Protoman.)

Now, generally the material The Protomen produce is original and goes kind of all over the place with genre. (Generally sticks to something of an 80s rock sounds though.) In more recent years though, they have been playing music covers and even released a couple cover albums. The first one was A Night of Queen. It was a live show of Queen covers. Great stuff! Definitely go give it a shot. And while we slowly wait for them to complete the epic tale of The Protomen in Act III... We are currently given a small taste of tasty Protomen beats with The Cover Up.

This cover album is filled to the brim with quite a few great and even some lesser known (to me) classic hits. For ease, I'll list what tracks are on here plus their original artist.

1. Pick Up*
2. Because The Night - Patti Smith Group
3. Princes of the Universe - Queen
4. Mr. Roboto - Styx
5. No Easy Way Out - Robert Tepper
6. Last Stop*
7. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
8. I Drove All Night - Cyndi Lauper
9. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
10. Hunted*
11. The Trooper - Iron Maiden
12. I Still Believe (Great Design) - The Call
13. Results*
14. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
15. Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) - Mike + The Mechanics

* - These are skits.

It's a really diverse selection of songs. I only knew half of the tracks original artists and had to look up the rest. It's nice to see a group try to look around and pick a variety when they do something like this. It's the same awesomeness that came out of the Queen cover album. True, they did pick some well known and liked Queen, but they also went out of their way and picked a few lesser known (but still awesome) tracks.

Honestly? I don't have much more to say about this album. The only true negative I have to say... It's not Act 3! But if you are a Protomen fan, you know they are getting close to finishing it. They've been working on it for a while now... only 6 years. Like many fans, I've just been eager to get my ears on that new tasty album....

ANYWAYS! Beyond that, this is still a great album. Definitely worth a listen for those who enjoy some classic rock mixed in with a few extras. It's also got some bits for the true Protomen fans as well. On top of it all, you can get yourself a tape cassette (you read that right) copy of it alongside your digital copy for only $10! Do yourself a favor and get this great album while you wait in anticipation for Act 3.

Pros - Another great release from the legendary Protomen. Really well done covers of some classic rock songs. Still manage to throw in some story bits even among all the great covers.
Cons - It's not Act 3.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~