The more and more I listen to The Protomen's self-titled album, the more and more brilliance I find with it after each listen.

I'm a big believer that lyrics in music are complete crap and a waste of time. Comedy is the only genre where lyrics are the focal point, but in other genres, the lyrics are basically there to mask the poor music performance going on behind the singer. Lyrics give you a biased opinion of what the song is supposed to about, rather than having the song relay that message on its own. You should be able to dip into the music like a pool of emotion and float along with everyone else.

This is why I hate nearly all music. As a kid, I hated Pop and Rock.. I couldn't stand it. It just sounded like a bunch of noise with no cohesion and poorly crafted lyrics that were inaudible. Some of my friends started getting me into Electronica which built itself on repetition, layers and absolutely no lyrics in the way.. It was the first time I actually started listening to music, rather than just hearing it.

After understanding music a little more, lyrics are still pretty annoying, but work incredibly well with some songs. Electronica is historically known for having the worst written lyrics, but they're always easier to learn. Then you can add your own noise to the aural atmosphere. You are right there with the singer and everyone else chanting the lyrics. The lyrics are generally strategically placed in the song to build on the mood rather than tell you how to feel.

The Protomen is a metal/garage rock opera. It's a 38 minute story in 7 parts that I wrote about before. It tells of Protoman's epic struggle and death, and Megaman's rise to follow in his footsteps and eventually confront him circa Megaman 3.

Each lyric is a sentence of the story that serves telling this story and flowing in harmony with the guitars, keyboards and drums. The lyrics are another instrument in this symphony that is not more or less important than another. I've rarely heard lyrics used this way before. ^_^ Maybe that's because the lyrics are telling a story with an overall emotion rather than constantly explaining that emotion.

Anywho.. Check them out if you get a chance.