I do rather admire Flotsam and Jetsam for sticking with it. They’re not one of the “Thrash is popular again – let’s reform” type bands, they’ve kept plugging away since that debut in 1986. Best known for giving Metallica a bass player that no-one could ever hear, their career since then has been long but patchy. “No Place For Disgrace” was an excellent piece of 80’s Speed Metal, the follow-up might have been good but the production was so awful that it was hard to tell. The 90’s albums were rather direction-less, showing moments of past glories but usually in amongst a sea of dirge and confusion. 2005’s “Dreams Of Death” was a much more determined and enjoyable album that felt like the band had finally found a sound to call their own, and I’m happy to say that this has carried through to the present day.
The main factor in F&J having a unique sound is generally down the vocals of Eric A.K. who really doesn’t sound like anyone else. No matter what era of the band, you can always spot a Flots song. A rare trait in a band nowadays. He’s on fine form here too and the title track/opener sets the scene nicely – catchy, crunchy, heavy and varied. Utilising a simple piano riff to as much effect as the double-kick driven chorus. Unfortunately, the next track ‘GittyUp’ sounds like a “St. Anger” reject, which is disappointing but third track ‘Run and Hide’ puts things back on track. A fine chug-fest of mid-paced Dark/Doom Metal, it has an epic feel. Huge drums, bass driven riffs and a simple, unexpected synth riff, all tied together by a great vocal performance. My only criticism would be that it sets the scene, builds and develops…then finishes! There was so much more the band could have done with the song and unfortunately, this starts to become a common trend on the album. It’s like the band are terrified of writing a song longer than 5 minutes. There are some good tracks on “Ugly Noise”, but there are some decidedly average ones as well. Each song feels like “This is the style of this song – now here’s the next one…”, where as if the band had combined some of the song ideas together it would make for a much more interesting album. Instead you kind of know exactly what style a song will be within the first 30 seconds…and you are usually right. There’s all sorts of Metal mixed in too – ‘Rage’ sounds like very early Savatage or Overkill, ‘To Be Free’ again nods towards latter-day Metallica, yet ‘Play Your Part’ and ‘Cross The Sky’ remind me of Lethal (“Programmed” era) with their darker Queensryche type sound, as well as a couple of tracks that could only be Flotsam and Jetsam. There’s a few fillers on here too, but then what exactly did I expect from a song called ‘Motherfuckery’…?
It’s not like F&J haven’t had plenty of song writing practice over the years so who am I to suggest that they need to mix it up a little more within a song? I’m sure they know what they are doing and what their many fans expect of them, I just found myself picking through the album, hitting the fast-forward button more and more on each subsequent listen to get to a song with something memorable in it…only to find the band fade it out or just abruptly end it, which is a shame.
There’s still plenty to enjoy on “Ugly Noise” and it’s great to see the band back with Metal Blade again…and I’m still more interested in hearing a new Flotsam and Jetsam album than a Metallica one!
(6/10 – Andy Barker)
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