“Hope And Dream Explosion”

Drill Team

There is something very strange about Drill Team.

Drummer Apollo Strange fashioned his own kit out of copper and isn’t allowed a microphone due to his strange grunting.

Timothy LaRue designed his own analog/digital/organic synthesizer, and lead singer Michael Long has been known to shout out names, births and future deaths of concert-goers and levitates sometimes in the studio.

It seems that bassist Jeff Watson is the only normal one.

Drill Team has also been rumored to have ties to the Knights of the Templar and the Druid priesthood.

It is also said that each member of the band represents the earth, wind, fire and water of the Zodiac.

Yet sifting through all the rumors — when it comes down to it — Drill Team is simply a great band

Drill Team’s latest, “Hope And Dream Explosion,” is a mind-boggling experience.

Enclosed in it is a complete essay, filled with strange subliminal messages that describe all of the songs, or incantations, if you will. (Long is accused of being a Mage and doesn’t sing songs but speaks spells.)

The album opens with “Hold You Down,” a song with a strange, new, inviting sound that pulls the listener into the musical journey. The band’s use of the LaRue Circuitry System along with its other “normal” instruments is astounding.

The intense, driving “Bumble Bee” follows with some Neanderthalic chanting.

Following is “Peppermint,” a fictitious look at the Confectionary Days of 1616-21.

The title track, “Hope And Dream Explosion,” is a mystifying song, but perhaps even better is “Stars Fly,” a screaming ballad of hope that when played backwards, reveals the mantra “Ego alpha et omega,” meaning “I am the alpha and the omega,” the beginning and the end.

Following is “Overflow,” which ends in a completely spellbinding anarchy of guitars, leading into “Sorrow Marry Me,” a song inspired by tapes from Long’s hypnotism sessions.

The final song, “Drippin,” is very enchanting with its messages of death and innovative yet schizophrenic use of guitars.

Drill Team is the Pink Floyd of the ’90s, and “Hope And Dream Explosion” is comparable to the innovation of “The Wall.”

Although Drill Team is not inspired by chemical stimulants and visions, the band finds its niche in spells, mystical powers and music.

5 stars out of five

— Kevin Hosbond