They Ain’t No Flock Of Seagulls

They are the

Legend of the Seagullmen

“Self Titled” – Vinyl // CD // DD

Dine Along Records – released February 9, 2018

By Terry ‘The Ancient One’ Cuyler

Legend of the Seagullmen are
Danny Carey – drums (Tool)
Brent Hinds – guitars (Mastodon)
Jimmy Hayward – guitar (Director – Jonah Hex)
David ‘The Doctor’ Dreyer – vocals
Zappa Meets Zappa’s Peter Griffin – bass
Chris DiGiovanni – synth // keys

<a href="http://legendoftheseagullmen.bandcamp.com/album/legend-of-the-seagullmen">Legend of the Seagullmen by Legend of the Seagullmen</a>

Hello friends this is the Ancient One and recently I found myself having a flashback to some of the crappy music that MTV tried to force feed music fans in the 1980’s. Specifically the music of A Flock of Seagulls. Yes I hated that band. So when my friend “Matthew Thomas” Messaged me and said “Hey Ancient One you gotta listen to these guys called Legend of the Seagullmen.” I had a name association flashback and like a punch drunk boxer that hears a distant bell, I flew off the handle and responded with a stream of profanity in all caps about how I despised that band. Thankfully I kept my cool and looked up their website…

When I eyeballed the Legend of the Seagullmen’s website I was still a little hesitant but the Ancient One isn’t one to knock any music till he hears it first. While some may automatically look into who a band is before listening I try not to do that so I can keep any personal bias out of my listening experience so I skipped looking up the press release that was used to hype the band to the audience, and instead followed the link I was given by “Matthew” to the album. From the moment I hit play to the end of the album I found myself entertained by the Legend of the Seagullmen’s with some amazing, eclectic rock.

Hooked like a fish, I had to know more about this band that calls themselves Legend of the Seagullmen. In their description on Bandcamp and their band page Legend of the Seagullmen states “ Legend of the Seagullmen is a genre destroying super-group crafting conceptual rock ‘n’ roll hymns of epic proportions.” What I managed to learn from their Bandcamp page is the band is made up of Tool’s Danny Carey on drums, Mastodon’s Brent Hinds on guitar, the director of films such as Jonah Hex Jimmy Hayward on guitar, Zappa Meets Zappa’s Peter Griffin on bass, Chris DiGiovanni on synth/keys & David ‘The Doctor’ Dreyer on vocals. Seeking more info about the front man I searched the web until I came across an article in the The mighty Rolling Stone Magazine that said “The Seagullmen concept is the brainchild of three brothers, Frank, Chris and David Dreyer, who have put on appropriately theatrical concerts and made movies about the band’s long-running legend in recent years” Which is as far as I could seem to get with details about him. Well no matter I loved the music.

I could easily heap praise upon Legend of the Seagullmen’s Danny Carey, Brent Hinds, and Peter Griffin because they are the three most well known musicians but would be unfair to the band as a whole. They also have a guitar playing film director Jimmy Hayward, a keyboard playing Production Manager from Blue Sky Animation Studios Chris DiGiovanni and a mysterious vocalist David ‘The Doctor’ Dreyer are able to take their place on stage and in the studio with them and not embarrass themselves is quite a feat in itself.

If I were to describe the music I’d say it’s a wonderfully cheesy Rock ‘N’ Roll meets, Spaghetti Western meets, Nautical Adventure movie. Some of my favorite tunes on this are…all of them!! I recommend listening to this gem straight through like being at a Drive-In Movie Theater watching a double feature of kick ass B movie re-runs. This is definitely an album I’d recommend.

SAUTRUS

Anthony Hill – Vinyl // CD // DD

Pink Tank Records – Release Date: May 2017

Reviewed by Ric “Suisyko” Dorr

Band Members: Weno Winter- Vocals / Michał Nowak- Guitar /

Piotr ‘Ochota’ Ochociński- Drums / Michał Młyniec – Bass

From: North Poland

Formed: 2010

Previous Releases: “Kuelmaggah Mysticism” EP (2012) / “Reed: Chapter 1” (2014)

SAUTRUS describe themselves as a ‘heavily tuned psych-rock band skillfully combining elements of 60’s rock with contemporary metal creating a completely mind blowing sound’. Bringing everything to the table and then some is how I read that and believe me, they have done just that with this latest offering. From harmonica to throat-singing, they have not left a lot out of the frying pan here and each flavor adds to each of the seven tracks served up and you can tell from the outset that this is not some new group of guys trying to find their way, but are indeed seasoned musicians that have spent their time honing their identity from endless rehearsals to studio time to sharing the stages with a vast array including acts ranging from URIAH HEEP to SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT and beyond.

Forty one minutes in length, opener ‘The Way’ sets a great pace for this album with so many different segments strung seamlessly together for the entire seven minutes plus. ‘Good Mourning’ starts with a smoky blues harp intro before the rest of the band kicks in and punches you right in the chest with one of those tempos that pulls you along like a train and you can’t help but reach out and turn up to ‘still not loud enough’!! That harmonica keeps it’s hold on your head as the band shows a solidity of form that had been hinted at with previous tracks but not realized until this album. ‘The Fungus’ comes right out with a jazz-swing tempo that makes you sway until the SABBATH sounding body of the song really begins and you can almost taste the smoke in the air as the bass rumbles your walls throughout this stoner/sludge epic feeds the need for exactly this, something so solid and dripping in the energy of pure music, even as it fades off to the PURE psych ‘Cats On The Fence’ that drips of a HANS KERSHI style vocal amid the loopy science-fiction frequency bounces showing yet another side that we may not have exactly expected but have to smile with none the less.

‘Synopticon’ wastes zero time in stepping up as a pummeler with a driving run up and down the necks of the stringed instruments and multi-layered vocals swirling as so many embers glowing in their combined dance through the air surrounding you, even as each step follows this tale unfolding with the passion pushed into this tortured mic “To survive, survive…” The break at 5 minutes is right on time, letting you grab a deep breathe as the guitars scream to and against each other until the cymbal run picks it back up to resume the run to the end, staying up front to catch each note and word given. ‘Shotgun’ is the perfect shifting of gears and right away, you are moving along. Complex and savory, the flavor is dark and heavy as you can want it and when that vocal hits, full forward is the only way to travel alongside. So many elements perfectly combined to create what I would hope is a staple of SAUTRUS’ live set that a crowd would have zero options but to whip it up to full frenzy as these guys hammer away showing a mastery of their craft with a musicianship that is lacking with so many.

Closer ‘When The War Is Over’ is amazing in it’s acoustic simplicity after the previous six tracks, each showing a complexity of their own and if I didn’t know, I would swear was indeed H. Kirsh doing a new BLIND GUARDIAN song. Perfect cap on an amazing release. BUY it the second you can get it and support them if you are lucky enough to have them in your area!!

Legend Of The Seagullmen “Self Titled” Album Review + Stream…