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in a rather touching turn of events the protomen’s 3rd and final album was announced by bandcamp last week as their most pre-ordered album of 2025. whilst completely unexpected, this felt like a just reward for the unique way in which we and the band handled the album’s artwork and preorder process.

thanks to bandcamp’s setup the protomen were able to reveal the album’s cover artwork, start the preorder and then release a song from the album each week like a TV episode. any fans who preordered or signed up to the band’s mailing list were notified of each episode’s release each week. each week they were then sent the song’s “single artwork”, which was created in the form of a film poster / comic book cover. inspired by the covers of the AKIRA manga by katsuhiro otomo seen below, john delucca did a drawing each week, and caspar took care of its colouring, typography, texturing and layout.

all of this perfectly suited the long-form narrative nature of the protomen’s music. every song on a protomen record is part of a larger story told chronologically and cinematically. therefore to miss a song or to listen to the songs in the wrong order, is akin to missing the beginning of a movie or reading the last chapter of a book first. this all might sound insane, but the protomen formed in the late 90s to tell one story as a rock ‘n’ roll opera, and to deliver that story in just three acts. the band released the first act in 2005, and here 20 years later is the last. if you’re new to the band we suggest, of course, that you start at the beginning.

below are four of the posters we made each week with the release of each new song.