It’s hard to decide exactly what to make of the Legend Of The Seagullmen, a new high-concept “supergroup” featuring Tool’s Danny Carey and Mastodon’s Brent Hinds (alongside OFF!’s Dimitri Coats and film director Jimmy Hayward). On one hand, it’s a garishly nautical-themed project played for maximum kitsch: The graphics harken back to ’60s pulp novels; the leading men are given aliases Captain Red-Beard (Hinds, natch) and Crusty The Sea-Captain (Carey). On the other hand, it’s not like Tool or Mastodon have shied away from their own high-concept endeavors, and they do so with total sincerity. Heck, Mastodon have their own nautical-themed concept album, 2004’s Moby Dick-retelling Leviathan, and it’s a fucking classic. And it’s not like nautical-themed concept albums, in general, lend themselves to jokiness: Ween’s The Mollusk finds that band operating with unusually low degrees of irony; the San Francisco prog-doom band Giant Squid have built a career on their obsession with the ocean. The two songs released by the Legend Of The Seagullmen via the band’s website, “The Deep-Sea Diver” and “Ships Wreck,” feature some vocals and lyrics that sound proudly mock-stentorian, but those songs also deal in some wicked hooks that absolutely deserve to be taken seriously. A day after novelty band Tenacious D took home the Grammy for Best Metal Performance (beating out Mastodon, no less), it’s fair to wonder if anyone should attempt to draw lines between “joke metal” and “real metal,” and the Legend Of The Seagullmen further blur those lines. I don’t know how to receive these songs, but I’m inclined to endorse them just the same. Listen (and download) them below, let me know what you think.

Legend Of The Seagullmen – “The Deep-Sea Diver”

Legend Of The Seagullmen – “Ship’s Wreck”