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Ryan Dinosaur, aka Ryan Bell, known for his work in GG King, Predator, Hyena, and more, has returned after a lengthy absence with a walloping full length to show for it. Chapter One: The Final Chapter is a 40-minute joyride through a wonderland of DIY songcraft that epitomizes the sound Mr. Dino has championed with his label, Scavenger of Death.
Tracked over the course of four years with a revolving door of musicians from some of the best groups out of Atlanta (GG King himself sings on two numbers), this is an immersive document, one human’s idiosyncratic vision of their place in the world. Oscillating between serious and joking, between aggression and introspection, Chapter One rambles through a wealth of punk rock influences: Kiwi-pop jangle, heavy metal worship, soot-black hardcore, and more. If you like your jams apocalyptic and otherworldly, there’s something here for you. If you think life is a joke, there’s plenty here to make you laugh. Includes lyric sheet and digital download.
Our take: Ryan Dino is a project from Ryan Bell, whom you may know from Atlanta bands like Bukkake Boys, Hyena, and GG King, as well as having recorded quite a few of the Atlanta punk releases that have received national attention over the past decade or more. I’m a big proponent of the Atlanta punk scene… while some people think of it as a garage-punk kind of town, my favorite bands from there are quirky and unique. It seems like, in Atlanta, it’s popular to slam together diverse influences, resulting in unique projects like GG King, Uniform, and Näg. Add in the pop sensibility that seems ingrained into Atlanta punk bands at a deep level and you have a heap of unique and memorable bands. This Ryan Dino LP feels like a product of that scene, mixing post-punk, black metal, hard rock, and hardcore while keeping the whole thing super catchy. Several tracks like the stunning opener “Ordnance Map,” “Basking in Shadow,” and “Stranger” remind me of Total Control at their best, but then there are tracks like “Black Cliffs,” which sounds like it could have been a Bukkake Boys or Hyena song, the black metal-influenced “I Don’t Believe,” and the NWOBHM parody (?) “Breakin’ the Danelaw.” The aggressive eclecticism and the subtle undercurrent of humor seem designed to bait self-serious punk and hardcore types, but I like both aspects of the record a lot. It seems very southern… our punk scenes here are smaller and less segregated by style and genre, and a lot of us carry a chip on our shoulder because our projects don’t get the same attention as what happens in the bigger metropolitan centers. What I’m getting at is that this record may be too Atlanta for some people, but if you’ve been following the bands coming out of that city (particularly the ones on Scavenger of Death), you’ll recognize this as, perhaps, the ultimate Atlanta record.