Red Blood In The Water

Flotsam And Jetsam surprised the hell out of me back when I checked out their self titled album in 2016. I hadn't paid any attention to the band in about 25 years, and suddenly they were blowing me the fuck away. I'd kept up with a lot of other older thrash bands from the 80's, like Overkill, Testament and Death Angel, but for some reason Flots fell off the radar and I was surprised to find that they were still going strong and packing a hell of a punch.

Blood In The Water is the third album from Flotsam And Jetsam since I've rediscovered them, and it does not disappoint. The opening track, Blood In The Water, sets the tone that this band can still bring the heat, and I'm in awe that bands can still release such strong material this late into their career.

I didn't have a convenient option for a US seller with this album, and I had to order from overseas. 500 pressed on red vinyl.

Flotsam And Chaos

First new release of 2019! I did a rather shitty job of managing my posts for new releases last year, and it put me so far behind the eight ball, that I had to focus on nothing but 2018 releases for the last two months of the year. For this year, I'm going to try to stick to a new plan and get them up on the blog when they come in, as opposed to burying them in the used record backlog...well, hopefully I can avoid the backlog all together, but sometimes that just seems unavoidable at times.

Flotsam and Jetsam surprised the hell out of me back in 2016, when they released their self titled album. I hadn't paid attention to the band since their 1990 album, When The Storm Comes Down, so it was quite the shock when I decided to give their new record a shot a couple years ago. Man, that album absolutely melted my face, and it shot to my number one spot for my Best of 2016 list. So when I discovered that Flotsam and Jetsam had a new record coming out this year, I didn't hesitate to order a copy.

The End Of Chaos is a solid follow up. It is too early to tell how it stacks up against their last one, but this is a vicious thrash attack. I love this shit. With this new Flots album, and records on the way from Death Angel and Overkill, 2019 is going to be a great year.

No Place For European Disgrace

Recently, there was a post on the Braveboard, asking what your two favorite songs were off of Flotsam & Jetsam's No Place For Disgrace album. The first song to come to mind was I Live You Die, but after that, I was at a loss as to what song number two might be. The only way to find the answer was to give the album a spin.

I love this album, but I only owned my original CD pressing that I bought back when I was 17 or 18 years old. When I started checking discogs for what it may cost me to finally add the vinyl to my collection, I noticed that the cover for the European pressing looked slightly different from the US version. This was all it took for me to go from a casual "I'd like to own this album on vinyl" to an immediate "I need this right fucking now".

Sometimes it is the little differences, and after years of being familiar with the blue cover for No Place For Disgrace, owning the red and black cover was something fresh, and just seemed cool.

This album is a straight up Thrash classic, and can easily stand toe to toe with some of the other heavy hitters that were released in 1988.

Oh...and for the record, the second song that I chose as my favorite would be the title track, No Place For Disgrace. Hari Kari!

Flotsam And Jetsam

I'm continually impressed when older Metal bands can still come roaring out of the gates with a new album...when bands that were a part of my teenage DNA, can still make me bang my head like a nut as I head into the later part of my 40's. 2016 has already seen Metal Church and Death Angel shoot to the top of my Top 10 list, but the biggest surprise has been the new album from Flotsam And Jetsam.

I haven't bothered with Flotsam And Jetsam since When The Storm Comes Down was released back in 1990. Nine albums, and twenty six years later, I'm surprised to find myself interested to check out what the band have to offer again.

I've ignored everything the band has done to this point, but one again, the Bravewords messageboard sucked me in when people started talking highly of the new Flotsam single for their song Iron Maiden. I really wasn't expecting much, and the song really surprised me. I didn't want to get my hopes up based on just the one song, so I kept myself in check. When the second single, Time To Go, was released, I decided to check it out to see if that first song was a fluke. Nope! Not a chance. The second song the band released was even better. Oh damn, it's time to track down the vinyl.

Only 500 pressed, so I'm glad that I didn't wait on this one.

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

I got a message from Jeff the other week...he had decided to clean out his record collection, getting rid of doubles and stuff that he no longer wanted. He was planning on putting a large number of records up for sale on eBay, but he offered to give me first crack at them. I wasn't sure what I would find, but he gave me a $2.00 price tag on everything, so I was looking forward to a little shopping.

Jeff ended up having lots of Metal up for sale, and I found more records than I was expecting.

• Anthrax : One of the first things I picked out of the pile were these three Anthrax albums...the Armed and Dangerous EP, Spreading the Disease, and Among the Living. I was around 15 years old, and Spreading the Disease was one of the first albums that introduced me to thrash and speed metal. The following year, I specifically remember going to the Mall to buy Among the Living with my friend Bill...sitting outside studying the packaging of the cassette tape, looking at every detail, while we waited for his father to pick us up.
• Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell : I didn't have Heaven and Hell on vinyl for my Sabbath collection, so I picked it up. Sabbath is currently touring, with Ronnie James Dio back singing for them. Unfortunately the band is unable to use the Sabbath name without Ozzy, so they are using the name Heaven and Hell. Jeff and I are going to Massachusetts in May to catch them live.

  

  Some stuff I picked up because it was in such mint condition, and some stuff I took a chance on.

  • Heathen - Breaking the Silence : I bought this on tape as a teenager. Cassette tapes are a complete waste of space, and this album was in such great condition that I bought it. Listening to this again, I was surprised at how good some of their songs were.
  • Flotsam & Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver : The band that had Jason Newsted as the bassist before he went on to play in Metallica. This album is the bands best. An album that I hadn't really heard for a while, and hearing it again I was reminded just how much fun it is. Great speed metal.
  • Rage - Reign of Fear : I had never heard this album before, but it was one of the early releases on Noise records (which released records from bands like Celtic Frost, Grave Digger, Kreator, etc). The record is alright, at times reminding me of Metal Church...not great, but still entertaining.
  • E-X-E - Stricken by Might : I pulled this out of the pile because of the "Thrash With Class" sticker on the cover. Flipping the album cover over reveals photos of the band members, with the one of the bass player looking "evil" covered in blood...yeah, that must be the class they were advertising. I would have bought it for that alone. The music on the album is a direct attempt at the early Slayer sound. It works for me.

    

    Then there were the records that I was especially thrilled to get. A steal at $2.00 a piece.

    • Danzig : The first and the best. Complete with mint condition gatefold album cover, and gold promo stamp...it doesn't get any more collectible than that. I put the album on Jeff's turn table, and when the needle hit the first note of Twist of Cain, the power of those chords as they roared out of the speakers was so insanely heavy.
    • D.R.I. - Dealing With It : I first owned a copy of this on cassette tape. These days I despise this format, but as a teenager, before the introduction of CDs, I preferred cassettes because they were so convenient. Sure the artwork and liner notes were so small to non-existent, or that they were so fragile that few of my cassettes lasted through my teenage years. I kick myself for wasting my money on tapes, instead of buying vinyl. Anyway, first I owned this on tape, and then bought the CD...now I have the vinyl. Everyone should own at least one copy of this classic.
    • Slayer - South of Heaven : I had seen this Slayer album in Jeff's collection before. I was surprised, because this isn't typically his style of music. I was hoping it was going to be in the pile that he was selling, but it wasn't. I asked him about it and he didn't even know that he owned it. I found it in his collection and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders and sold it to me for $2.00. When this album first came out, I didn't like it too much since it was such a departure from Reign in Blood. Over time, I came to really appreciate this record, and now I would say this is one of my favorites from the band.

      

      Other than the Slayer record, there was one other record that I was hoping Jeff would have up for sale.

      • The Metal Massacre Limited Edition Picture Disc Box Set : I don't expect anyone else to grasp how f'n cool this thing is. Hand stamped as number 90 out of 1000. This box set contains picture discs of the first five Metal Massacre complications on Metal Blade Records. The record label left me in awe as a kid, as I would drool over their ads in Metal magazines...hoping that the local record store would carry some of their stuff. From Metallica and Slayer to Armored Saint and Lizzy Borden to Voivod and Hallows Eve. One of the coolest Heavy Metal record labels from the 80's. This one was all mine for $15.

      There were so many other records that Jeff was selling that I wanted, but at $37 for the lot, I had already spent more than I was planning on. He still had a section of Metal that he had yet to sort through, so I am looking forward to going back and taking more cool shit off his hands.