Vektor/Cryptosis - Transmissions of Chaos (2021)

 Transmissions of Chaos is the first Vektor release since the band's troubles and dissolution in 2016, and they've chosen to share it with the comparable Dutch act Cryptosis, who were poised to release a pretty good debut in Bionic Swarm that same year. The pairing is a good one, both bands having a fusion of technical thrash and death elements, without sounding quite the same, but complementary to the other, which is more than I can say for a lot of bands that decide to share wax (or tape) like this. The futurist/sci-fi/cyborg thematic elements also jive pretty well in unison, and if there were any hope for a New Wave of Science Fiction Death/Thrash, these would certainly be two of the flag carriers launching their vessels out in the cosmos.

The Arizonans had been doing it for years, after all, and their contribution here pretty much picks up from where they left off on the great Terminal Redux. Kinetic riffing passages powered by David's nasty vocals, flurries of clinical melodies that give it that cosmic or otherworldly feel, hearkening back to Voivod although Vektor doesn't quite play with the same guitar language that Piggy created for the Canadians; instead it's more of a cutting edge progressive metal style with a bit more consonance to it, lots of lines reminiscent of Florida's Cynic and other bands of that ilk. The tunes here are not their catchiest, and a little chaotic in how there is the flux between the cleaner guitars and the space-shark-like frenzy in "Activate", or the cleaner vocal sections of "Dead by Dawn", a more elaborate track on which they're trying something new. Interesting material, and the bass playing of Stephen Coon is a standout, along with the estimable duo of DiSanto and Nelson, but probably better to have been committed to this limited release rather than a proper new full album.

I think it is Cryptosis who have penned the more cohesive material for this, and I was really feeling the hyper-riffing and ravenous barks of "Decypher" that break out into some catchy, Middle Eastern sounding melodies. The drumming is sick here, the production explosive and it just feels more impressive as a song than anything on 'Side A'. "Prospect of Immortality" is another strong piece, slower but longer and more involved (the second side is set up quite like Vektor's). I also loved the leads, the bass tone, honestly these are two of the band's better tracks...but that's also where Transmissions loses a bit of value. Both of these would appear on Bionic Swarm, and though they do match well enough with Vektor, they match a lot better with themselves, and are thus better experienced on that full-length. Assuming DiSanto and company might remix or re-record or include them with a future release, either as part of the core track list or bonus content, this split might become completely irrelevant. So bear that in mind, but if you're a big fan of the Arizonans, and this is the only place it's ever available, it might just be worth it.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/VektorOfficial

https://cryptosis.net/

Vektor - Terminal Redux (2016)

By the time Terminal Redux dropped, Vektor was already on a trajectory towards the stars, and I don't just mean the ones out in space that they so love to sing about, but the popularity contest that is American brutal or technical death metal, deathcore, and such. Though they already had two fantastic records under their belts, it seemed like it was this one where suddenly everyone started chattering about them everywhere, placing them on their year's end lists and starting to take it all very seriously. It's not hard to understand why, because the musicianship was formidable, there's a lot of weaponry DiSanto and company could attack with, and they were just plain ambitious when the idea of a technical death/thrash band seemed like an idea that was restrained to Florida and certain parts of Europe in the later 80s and early 90s.

There just weren't a lot of bands channeling Voivod, Cynic, Atheist, Deathrow, old Pestilence, and the like, and these are all components you might hear in Vektor's sound, though to their great credit, they are a copy of none of these. These cats have their own ideas, and Terminal Redux is quite a progressive offering, from the constantly shifting tone and riffing styles, to the ideas like the ethereal backing vocals on a couple of the tracks. This record is an adventure, one in which you don't know where all the turns are coming until you've experienced the entirely a few times over, and that's one of its strengths. Although Dave DiSanto's raspy vocals unify the whole, there's a huge plethora of rhythmic dynamics here, riffing sequences that feel like they took quite some effort to put together with all the instruments, and a penchant for longer tunes that don't ever really grow too tiresome or boring. Is there a bit of self-indulgence and excess? Perhaps, but nothing that terribly surpasses or even rivals many other technical death metal acts or shredders of the past, and it all comes together into a varied assault that largely sticks the landing.

The lyrics are nerdy, excellent excursions into science and science fictional concepts, which can transport the listener to the extra-terrestrial realms the band wants to inhabit, I wasn't paying attention enough to tell if this was a coherent story, but each of the tracks has so much going for it that it wouldn't be necessary. It must be pretty hard to memorize this stuff, so to pull it off in the studio without sounding too artificial is a feat unto itself, and the production is a great complement, crystal clear but honest and never too drowned out in effects or atmosphere that you can't get to the meat of the instrumentation. Terminal Redux does live up to its heights, but it lacked the surprise for me that Black Future achieved, and to a fractionally lesser extent its follow-up Outer Isolation. So this one remains in third place with me, but it certainly feels the most complex and progressive and I can totally understand why others might feel otherwise. Of course, Vektor would hit a wall after this one with the sketchy personal behavior, ensuing breakup and social media shitstorm, so it's a wonder if the band would ever be able to get even crazier than this...certainly the two tracks on the split with Cryptosis do not compare to this material, so we'll have to see if the writing is on the starship walls, or if they can outdo themselves once again with even more labyrinthine song structures.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/VektorOfficial

Fluids - Ignorance Exalted EP (2020)

It was somewhere in that 2019-2020 range when word about this band really began to blow up my feeds. Maggot Stomp was a (rightfully) hot new label at the time, known for producing gruesome and catchy old school caveman death metal, and Fluids was one of its most hyped acts, at least in my recollection. So I gave the debut Exploitative Practices a spin, and just wasn't feeling it quite so much as I was Vomit Forth or Sanguisugabogg, but there was at least something tangibly grotesque and repulsive enough about it that I can understand the attraction. As you can already tell from the disgusting collage artwork that you'll not soon (or ever) unsee, there's a bit of a throwback here to vintage Carcass, only what results is more akin to the style that New York butcher squad Mortician popularized through their career.

Ignorance Exalted is pretty much par for that entrails-splatter course. Essentially you've got deathgrind slowed and reduced to its most primal urges...slow, chugging rhythms, hightly distorted over programmed drums that are just as ugly and raw. The vocals are a monotonous blur of gutturals which serve as this massive, ominous shadow over the grime created behind the super distorted blend of beats and chords. There is nowhere near anything resembling a catchy riff on this album, and so once again it begs that Mortician comparison, because for all the fun that band brings, it's not one you listen to for a couple tunes that are going to stick out in your head, but rather that overall effect of crushing sickness which gives you both a genuine feeling of dread and a bellyful of ironic laughter. I think the small difference here is that Fluids uses more of an industrial/electronic influence here on cuts like "Quartered", and they don't stick to the same sample parameters that those Will and Roger are so fond of. So this gets a more bizarrely urban and apocalyptic vibe to it, and sometimes the percussion is even kind of funny by its own right.

It's heavy as fuck, there is no debate on that, but I did find myself getting really bored because of the lack of anything interesting happening in the rhythm guitars. Even if the vocals might come across as generic, they're still very monstrous and effective, and I wish some of the riffs churning along below them would better catch my attention, rather than just seeming like the first patterns that come to mind. If the band transitions into blasting, it feels too stark and sudden and thus doesn't transition too successfully at all other than in the most rigid and modular fashion. There's also a gimmick with the song titling where they just use the past of some verb common to the brutal death metal and grind lexicon..."Capped", "Smothered", "Chunked", "Coerced", you get the drift; it's amusing for the first couple times, but then the commitment to the practice just doesn't seem to yield anything amazing. There are certainly some fun bits, like that messy lead in "Chunked" that I wasn't really expecting, and I think there's a TON of potential if they could keep this immensely oppressive sound and then write some earworm riffs to complement it, but I just don't know that I'm there yet.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://fluids666.bandcamp.com/releases

Flotsam & Jetsam - The End of Chaos (2019)

It is truly euphoric when a band you so idolized as a youth seems to have come back swinging in full. Flotsam & Jetsam recorded two seminal teen thrash albums for me, but then as early as their third full-length seemed to proceed into a slump that would last several decades. A handful of catchy tunes stood out here or there, but not anything with the attitude and catchiness of their 1988 pinnacle No Place for Disgrace, or even their debut Doomsday for the Deceiver, which was never a favorite, but far better than what they would be phoning in throughout the 90s and 00s. When 2016's eponymous 12th studio album came along, and we were back to good songs again, I was ecstatic...and here I am, even more so, since The End of Chaos is the best material the Phoenix mainstays have produced in over 30 years...

The production on this album is a marvel, crystal clear but perfectly potent for each of the players, which is important on an effort in which every minute detail is formidable. I mean, with the possible exception of some plebeian, ambiguous 'resistance' style lyrics and cheesy cover art, there is nothing at all cringeworthy across the 50 minutes of this disc. Michael Spencer's bass lines are throbbing, interesting and take on a life of their own at nearly every point on the album. Ex-Fifth Angel basher Ken Mary, in  his debut with the band, delivers an excellent set of beats, grooves and fills which are often fun enough that I could listen to them independent of the other instruments. The riff-set is nothing out of the ordinary for Flotsam & Jetsam, you've been hearing sprinkles of this bright, engaging power/thrash style for much of their career, but here they take familiar frames and sequences and then pair them up with nuanced melodies and genuine passion which engages in the intros, the verses, the choruses, and below the competent leads. I especially like it when they get a few layers of picking going, the album gains a lot of depth and is sure to thrill fans of either of the constituent sub-genres which feed this material. Accessible and straight to the face, but also intricate and detailed.

Most importantly, Erik A. K. is once again on point here, sounding even more youthful perhaps than he did on their 80s albums. Granted, he doesn't really go for a lot of higher shrieks, but he gets so much personality out of that manic, shaky mid-to-high range he excels in, and bullrushes into each chorus part with gusto. There are times when he's singing along over a particularly melodic, more trad/power metal element in the guitars where The End of Chaos almost feels like a high intensity 'thrash' answer to Iron Maiden...not the first time I've felt that way, but really polished off here because the tunes deliver. I'm not lying to say when I say that I cranked this sucker and just found myself repeatedly focusing in on each little detail...it's not something I often do when so many albums go more for the sum than the parts, but this one just had me at attention for every single measure, churning out a pure neck-frenzy moment after moment, and never predictable to the point that I could guess what exactly would happen next.

It's a little hard to choose favorites, but some of the cuts on the first half, like "Control", "Recover" and "Slowly Insane" really kicked ass. But even the bonus tunes work, and they mess around with the songwriting dynamics enough that it never grows remotely dull. If you've been avoiding the band since the Cuatros, Drifts and My Gods let you down, then it's probably safe to get back on the wagon now; or if you're a fan for power/thrash ala Artillery and Heathen, and somehow missed out, this could very well be your thing. This is one of those albums that had me smiling from beginning to end, after having only scant expectations for it. These guys are in their 50s now...when I'm in my 50s, I'll be lucky if I've got the strength of limb left to drag my fluid bags around whatever hospice my wife and kids toss me into, trying to sneak a pudding cup after Bingo. So to hear The End of Chaos is nothing short of inspiring. It's got to be that dry, desert air or something.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam & Jetsam - Flotsam & Jetsam (2016)

The eponymous record. Inevitable in the hands of nearly any long time musical artist. The obligatory statement of 'self', of purpose or re-purpose, commitment or re-commitment. Arizona's long ailing, but unflinchingly persistent power/thrashers Flotsam & Jetsam waited until studio LP #12 to resort to the tactic, adorning it with a simple logo & skull image that seems to suggest a humbling of tone and expression, which ironically is not at all how this album feels. While it's no question that Flotsam & Jetsam is comprised of and composed of a gestalt of riffing styles and tempos that the band has explored throughout its 30+ years of existence, it's put together really well. To my surprise, bordering on shock, I've gotten more enjoyment and replay value out of this in the last couple weeks than I have any album they've put out since No Place for Disgrace in 1988, and while it's no rival for that classic, it's evidence enough that old dogs don't always need new tricks, just a proper ratio of bite to bark.

One might argue that the album plays it fairly safe, and I can't argue that, but it does so with a solid slew of engaging riffs and well-developed vocal lines and choruses that almost all integrated into my memory even on the first flight through the record. Pounding, mid-paced thrash rhythms capture a lot of the 'gladiatorial' feel you'll recall from No Place, and a few of the tunes were supposedly written in that era, but here they are clad with the clarity and pomp of the guitar productions they've used on a lot of their modern albums. There is the occasional deferral to the meaty groove/thrash that bands like Pantera or Machine Head made viable in the 90s, and that's a minor distraction, but even there the material is handled tastefully, serving as a means to an end that is achieved with glorious confidence, or a neck-pumping exercise to make bands like an Exodus in its prime proud. Workmanlike rhythms are affected with NWOBHM-like melodies that strive and attain a good balance, and the leads whip into their furors with cautious ease, slightly short of remarkable but light and entertaining. The fact they've got a tune here called "Iron Maiden" sort of tapes into the self-referential genre examination which highly characterized their 1997 effort High, but without the disposable mediocrity.

The disc doesn't suffer from the production pratfalls that even their fantastic sophomore fell victim to, but at the expense that it definitely feels a little overly clean, like you'll hear from a lot of the modern efforts from these veteran acts (Overkill, Queensrÿche, etc). That said, it has its benefits, like the fluid thump of Michael Spencer's bass lines or the concrete consistency of the drumming, which is simple but effective at helping hammer out a lot of the record's simpler, 'been there' riffs. The MVP here, however, is Erik A.K.'s vocals, which sound emotional and detailed on nearly every line he spits out over the 55 minutes. The lyrics are often loaded with tireless streams of cliches, but when he hits the choruses in tunes like "Time to Go" or "Verge of Tragedy" he really shows a seasoned patience and mastery of exactly what ranges to strike to drive a tune from just 'alright' to one I wanted to hit repeat on numerous times. He might not have the wailing, brash rage of his youth, but the voice still has a lot of that same character we can remember from Doomsday or No Place and its certainly a far cry better than his performance on the latter's remake two years ago.

And better, by extension, than the long procession of disappointments I've experienced at their hands over these last several decades. To be clear, Flotsam & Jetsam HAVE put out some decent songs in the interim. Albums like The Cold or Dreams of Death had their moments, just precious few of them, whereas this disc is the first in forever where I'd actually play straight through the track list and then do so again, without any desire to skip over anything. That doesn't mean all the riffs or songs here are written equally, and the album still lacks in a few areas where the energy lags, or the lyrics just seem effete that they drag down the music below them, but it's very much enjoyable and if not a classic for a new generation, it's at least a solid enough execution that one can hold out hope that the fires have not now, or may never fully wane for the Phoenix elite.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (a bed of spikes for eternity)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam & Jetsam - No Place for Disgrace 2014 (20...2014)

It's not all that uncommon these days for veteran thrash and heavy metal acts to offer up re-recordings of particular albums, or even to throw together a compilation of hand picked tracks that have been reworked in a studio to give the modern fanbase a taste of what their classic material should sound like when brought up to the standards of their recent fare. Perhaps it's a bunch of songs the band uses live, and they want kids to be able to grab the newer versions to play on their .mp3 players with more compression. Whatever the cause, it generally fails, and also serves to confuse and convolute a legacy best appreciated through experiencing the originals, for all their flaws. That's not ALWAYS the case...for instance, I rather dug Destruction's ironclad Thrash Anthems re-recordings, the songs seemed to work in the context of their modern hits like those found on The Antichrist. But the odds, they are against it.

I consider Flotsam & Jetsam's sophomore No Place for Disgrace (1988) to be their seminal work, unrivaled by anything else they've ever recorded. Maybe they felt the same, since they saw fit to spend the effort re-recording it. Granted, if I had one complaint about the original, it would have been in the production department, since it just doesn't hold up quite like other albums I own from its era. The guitars and bass seem a little thin, and it's lacking some punch. However, the fantastic tracks there easily overcame, and continue to overcome such nitpicking, and that's sort of what I meant above. It's 'flawed', but despite that one of the more memorable second tier US thrash albums of its day and age. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for this remake once becoming aware of it, because this is just not a band that has really delivered consistently, and I expected them to flub it up. They've had a couple good songs strewn about their substantial discography of the 90s and 00s, but they were vastly outnumbered by all of the disappointments. Reviewing this now, after hearing their latest eponymous disc, which I actually enjoy, I think they might also have been trying to fire up some inspiration by revisiting this material...

And to its credit, the 2014 No Place for Disgrace doesn't suck. It's not good, not even really worth the while, but I've certainly heard bands shit all over their histories, when this is just sort of taking a long leak on one. The rhythm guitars are 'richer' and have a little more punch commensurate with their most recent material, and certainly this lacks some of the issues with the original. But it also springs up more...Flotsam & Jetsam just doesn't sound as vital and hopeful as they once were. Part of this is in Eric A.K.'s performance, which doesn't seem as engaging or high pitched as it once felt. He's firing for a wider range on these recordings, and a long-time fan will notice the gulfs where he missed the mark at some of those critical moments. The clarity of several guitars seems to have leeched the speed from a number of the riffs, and this might even have been intentional, I didn't sit there keeping pace with both simultaneously, but the vivacious energy is missing, especially during slower parts like the the breakdown in "N.E. Terror" which feels like a slog, and in which Knudson's voice does seem a little processed (as it does elsewhere here).

Now, there are a few sequences in which the remake does feel solid, as in the intro to "I Live You Die", but even there I don't think I'd choose this over the old one. The drums and bass are much better balanced, especially the latter, which is all over the thing...so I might not have reminded a 'remaster', maybe using this bassist (he had appeared on a prior demo, but only rejoined the band for this and their new album). On the whole, though, this just feels like a band trying to tap into a prior impulse and coming up slightly short. It's not offensive, and a lot of the note patterns come together with that same magic they once did, yet I don't really think I'd ever require another listen to this after jotting down some thoughts. Fortunately, the band has since produced some newer material which is a lot more exciting to me, but I hope there are no plans to give Doomsday for the Deceiver such a treatment.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Vehemence - Forward Without Motion (2015)

If there is one thing I can say unflinchingly in Forward Without Motion's favor, it absolutely sounds like a collection of riffs that spanned about a decade of planning. If the music on this record had been released soon after God Was Created in 2002, I feel as if the Arizona outfit might have catapulted upon the buzz of that album to the level that peers like The Black Dahlia Murder have achieved via their intense permutations of the Swedish melodic death metal style, because there are just loads of guitars here which would have thrilled that same audience for the time. Vehemence does not sound so insipidly driven to emulate any of the same bands, and never really has, which is why the band once cultivated so much praise as a genuine evolution of the medium. Now, with the vast selection of melodies on this new album, I would say that there is indeed some influence per At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, and so forth, but it's always tasteful and always embellished with some of the band's own personality. But I can't help but feel the title the band chose here is a little tongue-in-cheek...or at the very least, dead accurate.

Going off the guitars alone, there is so much on offer here that you could fill a half-dozen lower tier melodeath discs circa Sweden in the late 90s or early Oughts. Vibrant, glorious melodies springing in near endless succession, often with the density of an early Insomnium. Leads are well plotted and always seem to emotionally capitalize on the sequences leading up to them, and with the exception of a few driving, predictable chord patterns across the nine tunes, I don't think there's any argument to be made that this aspect of the album wasn't the product of great effort. That being said, there was just something about the drumming, the vocals, and the mix of Forward Without Motion that turned me off immediately. The bludgeoning and splashing of the kick and snare drum seem a little too overt and distracting, so when I found my imagination glued to one of the melodies the percussion served only to sever that adhesive bond. The vocals were never really a strong point for Vehemence, since they just lack an original or broad enough guttural charisma to give a proper 'beauty and the beast' balance to those licks. Combined with the drumming, the entire package feels murky and cluttered and somehow unpolished to the level that so many albums of this style seem to thrive on.

And that might not be such a bad thing if the chemistry and effort put into the guitars didn't sound as if it deserved so much more...which they really do. Not all of the riffs are melancholic or sugary or catchy enough to really stand on their own, but they clearly expose a pair of guitarists who have their fingers on the pulse of what has always made this melodic death metal stepchild so distinct from its more visceral sire. It's just a shame that the sum of the disc doesn't come together to highlight them, since they are the beating heart of this material and its one shot at salvation. Granted, if you're an addict for more aggressive/brutal melodic death metal like Japan's Intestine Baalism, or you swear by a lot of those bands that broke in the early 21st century like TBDM or Beyond the Embrace, or you were a die hard for the first three Vehemence records, then I think you're at least going to be impressed by the painstaking effort that went into a chunk of this material. Not a bad comeback by any means. A few miles above their lackluster Helping the World to See, which was their previous swan song with Metal Blade Records, but certain components just have so much more staying power than others here, that it created an incongruous (if consistent) experience, from the production to the lyrics ("She Fucks Like She's Alive" seems somewhat out of place), that put me off.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vehemence-Band/161809840511896

Job for a Cowboy - Sun Eater (2014)

Man, where to even start with this one? Sun Eater, the lesser of two death metal-related albums to bear that title in 2014, and Job for a Cowboy's fourth full-length, is an exercise in variation and ability which at the very least sounds like it required a lot of effort in both its conception and execution. The question is, whether or not that was all worth it? My answer is very, very nearly. This is not a band that I'd ever accuse of having a 'personality', despite the quirky name, which many have already ranted over but at least isn't just another -tion, -tory, for you to file away under redundant. Once they shifted away from their insipid meathead deathcore roots into a more decidedly West Coast approximation of modern, semi-tech death which traced its lineage to all the 'right' acts in the field (Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse could all be heard in the controlled chaos), they seemed to translate into a more respectable, though still highly divisive act. I've enjoyed a few of their efforts (Demonocracy, Genesis, etc) to an extent, but greatness has ever eluded the Arizona quartet, and despite a very painstakingly wrought effort here, it still does...

Much like Fallujah transformed into a modern approximation of classic Cynic, with whirlwind technicality alternated against a more ambient/jazzy fusion, Job for a Cowboy have done the next best thing and decided to channel Atheist. Alright, not exactly, but a number of times I was sitting through this I kept getting Unquestionable Presence impressions, with some of the cleaner guitar patterns reminiscent also of Gorguts' Obscura. This is an acrobatic, eccentric slab of technical death and thrash metal which goes to great lengths to try and distinguish itself from its aesthetic ancestors, applying a modern studio context to their now antiquated, but once innovative ideas. But like so many other young death metal bands with athletic instrumental skill, it seems to rely a little too much on its own frenetic diversity and not on the strong songwriting chops that will make or break a death metal record throughout eternity. I'm not saying Sun Eater is void of a few gorgeous lead sequences, or riffs that perk my interest, but where The Flesh Prevails became this largely consistent pendulum of ethereal melodies and butchering brutality, this one just never develops much of an identity beyond the 'hey, wow, listen to that' mentality, where you're temporarily blown away by a band's proficiency set and not at any risk of remembering what they are actually setting down.

Oh, don't get me wrong, this one is compelling...to an extent. Jonny Davy's gruesome snarls and growls are splattered all over the polished, punchy instrumentation like cattle organs in some spit-shined slaughterhouse whose death machines are fresh off the assembly line. But did I like them? Nah, they try really hard but accomplish little since he just can't contort them into interesting syllabic patterns. Danny Walker's guest drumming on this is technically brilliant but I found a few of the components like the snares and toms to feel a little too Tupperware at points. The bass is amazing in general, with lines highly similar to those used in prog thrash and prog death classics like Control and Resistance, Unquestionable Presence, Focus, etc, and there are parts of the album where I really felt like I could just listen to Nick Schendzielos isolated from the rest of the band and be happy. But at the same time, it's actually the Glassman/Sannicandro guitar duo which keeps the busiest, and offers us the most contrast and variation between the different levels of distorted excess. The album boasts a Jason Suecof production with Eyal Levi and several other engineers, so you know it's going to have that pristine, clinical 21st century death metal gloss that most of the 'forward thinking' acts strive towards, but then again that's just not anything new at this point.

Effort was extended towards the lyrics, also, but they end up the sort that feel like they're waxing all philosophical about the digital age, moral relativity; poetic and neatly scrawled imagery, sure, but for some reason it felt like a bunch of fancy words strung together which are ultimately as meaningless as taking a hearty poop. But I guess I could say that about almost any death metal band that dares transcend the serial killings, gore menageries and so forth. Job for a Cowboy tried, it's just such a fine line between an actual message of substance and mere pretentious twaddle. I felt like these were keeping one foot on either side of that line. And that's sort of symptomatic of Sun Eater in general: a Herculean attempt to progress and expand one further circumference beyond the burly BroStep brutality of the band's origins than even their last few albums dared. Nothing to scoff at, since tunes like "Buried Monuments" rank among their better compositions, but ultimately I just felt hollow after a few spins, like I was watching some flashy action movie which had a couple impressive stunts but no quotable one-liners like Commando or Terminator. This is more like the last four Jason Statham flicks you caught. Huge, kinetic, smarmy, lots of explosions and special effects, but more of a rental than a purchase.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (my relentless knocking is constantly ignored)

https://www.facebook.com/jobforacowboy

Sjenovik - On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (2012)

The US black metal underground is in a state of flux at the moment, with two of its most infamous practitioners in somewhat of a hiatus from the medium. Malefic (Xasthur) has turned his attention to acoustic music, and who can say how much more output we'll be getting from Wrest (Leviathan), who has also slowed down for real life reasons. Well, I'd cast a vote into a hat any day for a band like Arizona's Sjenovik to take up some of that slack. Primal and inventive in equal measures, they've got a specific take on the genre that, while certainly comparable to other tortured specters of the past, seems quite renewed and fresh, as it strips down to the raw components of the style and then slightly reinvents them to provide a truly visceral, compelling and ultimately harrowing listen.

On the Infinite Universe and Worlds is a short album, admittedly, with just four tracks and not specifically lengthy ones at that. It's also a lot less experimental than its predecessor, the excellent Zephaniah (2009), removing many of the atmospheric elements like keys, or the noisy soundscapes like what manifest in the perturbing but incredibly "Day of Wrath". This yields more of a metallic core, plodding along for most of its duration at a measured pace, with lots of double-bass driven rhythms that occasionally break into a faster, more traditional fit of speed. The riffing style is straight black metal: tremolo picked progressions that are just dissonant enough to precipitate an unsettling darkness on the listener, but hardly chaotic or calamitous. A bit of a Scandinavian architecture to their composition, with a lineage from Burzum, Darkthrone or Ildjarn, but only in terms of mood and surface tension. The bass is loaded with slight and immersive grooves that help compensate for the fact that a lot of the guitars are cycled quite repetitiously. It's not very complex in structure, but the tracks are actually pretty varied. For instance, the closer "...Nothing" is more melodic and airy than those leading up to it, with just a hint of a 'blackgaze' appeal, but it's still aesthetically consistent with the remainder of the cassette.

Where this is really different is in the drumming and vocals. Sure, the techniques of the percussion are nothing out of the ordinary, but the duo's focus on playing slow as the rule and not the exception, giving the music a more warlike, deliberate effect than if they were running off into blast beats for most of the play length. The vocals are absolutely incredible, blood-curdling cries that come across more emotionally than the lion's share of raspers you'll hear across the underground. Burzum-like in origin, but the level of isolation and suffering they contribute to the music immediately elevates the simpler riff-set and the subtle curves of the bass. This sounds like someone parched and freezing to death on some cold desert night, voicing the experience to the uncaring stars above, and it scared the piss out of me much like a great black metal front man always should. I'd hazard a guess that On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, despite its stripped down nature, will hold more appeal to those interested in the atmospheric spectrum of the genre; acts like Mortualia and maybe the less ambient Lunar Aurora material.

Be warned, though, Sjenovik is not your average Scandinavian blast fest laden with obvious tremolo melodies, corpse paint and spikes. This is lonely, painful, personal, and hollow, best served out of earshot of other human beings who just wouldn't understand. In summation, this obviously didn't evoke that same wealth of noise and suffering that so captivated me on the sophomore album, but nonetheless it delivers an effectively nihilistic, emotionally crippling experience in the short time it allows itself. Suicide from your speakers.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.sjenovik.com/

Flotsam & Jetsam - Ugly Noise (2012)

Sometimes it's a bit tricky to discern the trajectory a band has chosen, and with Flotsam & Jetsam those 'sometimes' equate to mires of stylistically outmoded experimentation which was frankly never cool to begin with. The big selling points to Ugly Noise were that the band was self-releasing it, a DIY/Kickstarter sort of operation where no label would muddy the waters between the artist and its fanbase; and that this featured the full Cuatro-era lineup, with 4 out of 5 original members from the classic 80s records alongside bassist Jason Ward (who has remained a member since '91). Now, if you ask me, I haven't a fucking clue why Flotsam & Jetsam would return to that easy accessibility period of watered down thrash/power saturated with banal radio hooks and weak riffing that often brought it out of the metal spectrum entirely. The 90s produced nothing but mediocrity from this outfit, despite their major label presence and any delusions to the contrary. They've never capitalized on No Place for Disgrace or written anything that approached that same benchmark of quality, but at least their 2010 effort Cold showed some signs of life; some pretty intense songwriting that simply wasn't consistent enough.

As soon as I saw the dilapidated piano on the cover, and read the self-deprecatory album title, I knew that this was going to be yet another mid-life crisis ordeal where the band is trying to maturate their material with a more friendly appeal to the masses, sort of a retread of where they were at on Cuatro. You get little traces of generic palm-muted thrash rhythms here or there, but nothing bordering on complexity or originality which they once possessed in spades. Half the time this is sterilized hard rock fare with a few misleading traces of progressive rock influences not unlike those awful Megadeth, Savatage and Queensryche records of the mid-90s, and when the band finally picks up the hammer it becomes a mixture of cheesy electronics and bad groove/bounce metal rhythms as on "Cross the Sky", "Run and Hide", etc. From the perspective of pure verse/chorus sculpting, they're not poorly written, but the punchy polish of the production and the lack of compelling guitars (apart from a few gleaming, atmospheric leads) really moor this album down into a box of tissues. About the only person here who is delivering consistently is Erik A.K., whose voice still carries a fraction of its distinct silk, fire and grit, but even he can't really save the songwriting process, especially not with pathetic lyrics of individualism and rebellion which wouldn't have even seemed deep to a castigated teen in 1988...oh wait, that was me.

Granted, Flotsam & Jetsam have never been poets laureate, but once they charge into a chorus like on "To Be Free" I found myself keeling over in laughter, and not the fun kind. The sad kind. Just take a brief tour of the song titles. "Rage"? "I Believe"? "To Be Free?" "Machine Gun"? "Carry On"? All have been implemented countless times by any number of artists, and despite being a mere aesthetic detail, this lack of creativity still contributes to Ugly Noise's underwhelming nature. I do not at all mind the little bits of experimentation, like the dark, deep pianos used in the opening title track, or the Queen-like choral syncopation striking out through "Rage", in fact I encourage such risks, but overall Flotsam & Jetsam really don't contribute to the thrash, speed or power metal traditions that birthed them, nor can they rival their own formative works. Tunes like "Rabbit's Foot" are simply too safe and disposable to take seriously, and a few catchy vocal lines just can't coalesce the experience into something worth the time. Generally, veteran bands like this will try to trace their steps and return to the eager, hungry sounds of their upward swinging youths, so it's a little strange that the Arizonans are interested in bringing back that sterile and uninteresting sound from the height of their MCA years. At one time this all might have helped push some units, but Ugly Noise is ultimately offensive to both its predecessor and the band's roots...

Not total shit, perhaps, but bad enough that I'd rather listen to My God. This just wasn't my thing, and while I can't ever expect No Place for Disgrace II to manifest, it'd be great if Flotsam & Jetsam could get back to kicking our asses again (which they very nearly did in 2010). I know they're capable. The question is: do they?

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/flotsamandjetsam.official

Job for a Cowboy - Demonocracy (2012)

Much has been said about Job for a Cowboy's transition from an admittedly standard deathcore style to a more technical evolution that thrust them squarely into the death metal classification. Some people seem to rue the loss of their youthful moshing simplicity, while others loathe the modern tech death stylings so much to begin with that they're even less likely to accept the band's transformation. Others can't get over how much they hate the name, how the band grew out their hair, how their t-shirts and CDs are available at their local mall, or the brand of sneakers they wear. I tend towards a general rule: if I can head to any local VFW gig on the weekend and hear a half dozen derivative bands with dull and unimaginative chug grooves and overbearing metalcore growls that were more effective in the mid 90s, yet sound EXACTLY like your music, then chances are, you will not interest me. This is the reason I didn't care for the Arizona band's earlier material (in particular the divisive Doom EP).

And this is the very SAME reason that I applaud the band's effort to challenge itself, expand its musical potential and engage in a more strenuous discourse. The path they've taken on the full length albums has been hit or miss. Genesis in 2007 was a welcome surprise, but I found the sophomore Ruination (2009) somewhat less compelling. Sure, the style the band is courting is old hat for fans of technical or brutal death and death/thrash, but I don't see how anyone could listen through this latest, Demonocracy (cheesy title) and not come away at least impressed by the sheer amount of effort placed in its architecture. Riffs, riffs and more riffs seems to be the equation Job for a Cowboy had marked upon their chalkboard, and for about 40 minutes here there is an incessant onslaught of the things, some missing the mark but others driving the point that perhaps they shouldn't be taken so lightly. If Suffocation or Cryptopsy had written this album, with their own respective vocal styles applied, you'd probably never hear the end of it...

Now, I'm not saying I love Demonocracy, or that it's some year end contender, but there are certain qualities that I just can't deny. For one, the album is completely void of the worthless, dry groove sequences that characterize so many artists in this niche. There is always something else happening, whether a lead or another guitar, or something with the drums or vocals that helps keep the music blinding and incendiary. A metric ton of faster paced guitars and blasts are woven through "Children of Deceit", "Nourishment Through Bloodshed", "Black Discharge", and, really, most of the damned album. The guitars are taut, punctual, and more acrobatic than what you'd hear on any of their earlier releases, and the leads in particular seem well plotted to blend frivolous, warped excitement with a more majestic sense of melody. Job for a Cowboy keeps the music so damned busy that the ear is always drawn towards something, whether that's the frenetic performance of the bass and guitars or the rigorous foundation laid out by Jon Rice.

The one area in which they don't really excel musically would be the vocals, but then, they keep these varied up between the louder guttural bark and the higher pitched snarls enough so they don't become monotonous, and they're mixed pretty well against the structure of the music, with a number of effects thrown here or there to complement the brute force. The intro sequences, which often involve samples or simpler guitars that tease into the more complex labyrinth of carnal riffing, are well laid, and though the album as a whole tends towards a speedier element, there is enough dynamic range here to keep the ears perked, especially on the latter half of the track list. Favorites personally would include "The Deity Misconception" which is this relentless beast of a cut which blends dense, destructive rhythms with all manner of technical, clinical chokehold riffs and more muscle than you could pack on a dozen rhinos, "Black Discharge" which thrills with some of the athletic guitars, and "Imperium Wolves" for much the same reason.

The skills here have been sharpened, the lyrics are an average if ambiguous assault on politics, economics, and the media, and the Job for a Four Year Old jock mosh left has thankfully been left behind sitting by the curb. It's undoubtedly a more complex work than either of the previous full-lengths, on par with a lot of the modern West Coast death in terms of its skill level and songwriting, but I think I'd place it just behind Genesis as far as how memorable of an impact the songs had for me. This isn't likely something that I'd find much time for in a month or two, but it's well rounded and entertaining in the meantime, and love 'em or hate 'em, there is no shortage of aspiration. So, in summary: is Demonocracy irrepressibly nostalgic, cavernous and drawn from Autopsy and Incantation worship? No. Is it the stuff of legends? No. Is it surgical, polished, proficient and promoting those similar soulless aesthetics that divide the death metal audience straight down the middle? Most assuredly. Did I just answer whether or not you'd like the record with those last three questions? You bet your ass.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (tonight this adolescent says hello to his ruination)

http://www.facebook.com/jobforacowboy

Flotsam and Jetsam - No Place for Disgrace (1988)

Not only is No Place for Disgrace my favorite album in the entire Flotsam and Jetsam legacy, but it's another of those many 1988 classics which arrived at precisely the proper time to augment and evolve the genre beyond the cruder, often unrefined aesthetics of its earliest expressions. Not that there was anything wrong with those timeless, primal thrashing roots, but this Arizona quintet's welcome application of melodic/power metal riffing patterns and the higher pitched, unique tone of front man Eric A.K. Knutson added an epic, itinerant nuance to the palm muted chugging and aggression which many US acts were settling upon, and No Place for Disgrace put the band well beyond fellow statesman Atrophy and Sacred Reich who had shepherded meatier, violent sounds (though to be fair, both of those bands were once quite great in their own right).

This record also heralded the band's transition from the young Metal Blade to the major label circuit via Elektra Records, following their former bassist Jason Newsted. He had left Flotsam for the coveted and difficult role of replacing Cliff Burton in Metallica, who were pretty much the biggest band in the land at the time coming off Master of Puppets, at least for this style of epic speed/thrash architecture. I'm sure this connection must have had something to do with the signing, but Flotsam and Jetsam were no 'also ran'. Newsted was still involved with some of the writing of this album, specifically "I Live You Die", "N.E. Terror" and the title track, and as anyone who had heard Doomsday to the Deceiver knew, his own shoes were also pretty hard to fill, as his muscular chops and performance were one of the clear strong points of the debut. In flew Troy Gregory, no slouch himself, but perhaps a part victim to what I'd consider the one gaping flaw in what is otherwise a tremendous sophomore: the production.

Metal Blade in houses Bill Metoyer, who had coincidentally worked with those other Arizonan bands I mentioned, as well as took part in the Doomsday sessions, was at the helm here, and he's credited with both production and engineering. The guy's somewhat of a legend himself, and certainly he's got an impressive track record through the 80s (scan his credentials and then try to conceal your ensuing metal erection), but No Place for Disgrace is not one of his finer hours. The mix is admittedly clear, and not constrained enough through its faults to hinder the nearly 25 years of enjoyment I've derived from the album, but there were some problems. For one, the guitar tone was far too crisp and crunchy. For the flightier, rapid melodies it worked well enough, but the heavier breakdown elements used in songs like "Hard On You" and instrumental finale "The Jones" would have been better served with something smoother.

Also, the bass tone, which had been really robust on the debut, seems a bit too thin for Gregory's lines. Overall, the drums and vocals had an airier presence to them which was not so compact as or level as Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood, yet suitable to the more melodic use of the vocal sequences and the spry picking sequences. The clean guitar segments like the intro to "Escape from Within" or the bridge to "No Place for Disgrace" also feel a little flimsy, a pity because the actual writing of the guitars is unflinchingly memorable. Otherwise, it's not a bad mix, but even Doomsday for the Deceiver was stronger in this area. I'm not sure if it was due to temporal constraints, misunderstandings or disagreements between the band and various studio staff, or just that their vision didn't agree with my ears, but I always felt that an album coming out on a fairly big deal imprint like Elektra could have sounded better even in '88; and I wonder if this was not partially responsible for the band not reaching the audience it deserved.

Otherwise, No Place for Disgrace was completely off the hook, and anyone committing seppuku upon its release would have been robbing themselves of years of headbanging enjoyment. The songs here were among the best composed for their day, and the pacing of the album as a whole is just another reminder why I loved this late 80s period. Dynamic tempos abound here, with only a few instances where they retread themselves. Blazing leads and melodic picking patterns which are almost invariably unforgettable, and what is by far the most exciting performance from Eric A.K., if not the richest or most rounded. Where his screams were often rather silly sounding on the first album, here they just seem to hit that perfect siren pitch where glass might shatter out of sheer reverence, like that one he pulls out in the center of "Dreams of Death" or the escalating, vaulted heights in "I Live You Die". Knutson sounds like he is literally being forced to sit on some Judas Chair, and he lends each of the 9 vocal tracks this aggressive desperation so well matched to the force of the music itself.

Also, the fucking guitars! I doubt I could find a single riff on this whole disc which couldn't pass muster, from the shrill, gladiatorial dual melodies rifling through "I Live You Die" to the muted triplets of "Dreams of Death" to that immortal melody inaugurating "No Place for Disgrace" itself with a very Maiden vibe. Edward Carlson and Michael Gilbert were simply loaded with ideas, and their constant runs up and down the necks of their guitars were structured and inspired from a mesh of thrash and traditional/speed metal influences not limited to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden or the Bay Area elephant in everyone's room. Even the muted mosh instrumental "The Jones", tucked conveniently away at the close of the album manages to score points, morphing from chugging pit hymns to ghostly melodies and back again. I can remember a time when you'd hear so much of this novel, exciting composition in the field, in fact you could reliably expect it in most cases, and No Place for Disgrace stands alongside other masterworks like Sabbat's History of a Time to Come, Scanner's Hypertrace, Riot's Thundersteel and Realm's Endless War as an example of ephemeral enlightenment where axes and charismatic vocals collided.

Even the lyrics and subject matter feel epic on this thing, from the non-judgmental harakiri anthem ("No Place to Disgrace") to authoritarian corruption ("N.E. Terror") to the mother fucking gladiatorial epoch of ancient Rome ("I Live You Die"). They take one of the better stabs in recollection at the whole music censorship/PMRC scenario of the late 80s in "Hard On You", with that amazing and threatening chorus of 'if you're hard on us, we're gonna be hard on you!', Knutson transforming into a living embodiment of the First Amendment. Flotsam also brought us one of the finer thrash covers of a classic rock tune in memory with Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", surprisingly loyal aside from the few instances where they supplant terms like 'rock' and 'dolly' with 'mosh' and 'bitch', and the 'drink' of the original is given a label in 'Jack'. In retrospect, it might seem like an incredibly cheesy idea, but here's a case where the execution is so razor sharp that it might still cut you decades later.

Ultimately, No Place is the pinnacle of achievement for the band, something they've never since been able to either reproduce or rival with any of their subsequent mutations. Perfectly written but imperfectly captured to audio, advanced in every way over its predecessor (a decent album in its own right, but not nearly so impressive) aside from the breadth of the bass and guitars. I still feel just as excited when I hear this today as I was when I was 14, angrily delivering the daily newspapers to my neighborhood, Walkman cranked to maximum to shut out the world around me as my unformed mind sorted through both the onslaught of puberty and geekier escapes. It kicked my ass in hard, like a bunch of thrash bullies hanging out on your corner, ready and willing to mete punishment and build character in their victims. If you've never experienced it, then I look forward to seeing similar imprints on your own posterior in the years to come. I promise not to stare and make it awkward.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (honor even in death)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - Dreams of Death (2005)

While I admire Flotsam and Jetsam their longevity amidst the constant turning of the wheel that is metal music, I can't say that I've been excited for or looking towards anything they've put out since When the Storm Comes Down, which in itself was a disappointing followup to the band's magnum opus No Place for Disgrace. Dreams of Death is just another case of the band falling short of its untapped potential, and it's not the phoenix we all hoped would rise from these undying ashes, but hell if it doesn't at least start out with a bang, and it proceeds to outclass My God in just about every department other than its production quality.

The Travis Smith cover art is admittedly trendy, but along with the simplified font of the band's moniker, it lends the album a mature character that had been absent for a great many years. Hell, with the exception of the similarly dressed 2010 effort The Cold (also by Smith), it's the best cover in their whole canon, No Place... included. But what's more, there was a simultaneous sense that Flotsam and Jetsam had fully returned to the hybrid power/thrash which spawned them, and executed a fluid grace in the first few songs here that were easily better than anything the band had put out in 17 years prior. Unfortunately, like the album before it, Dreams of Death treats us with the better material up front, and then sort of fades off into the backdrop with the ensuing songwriting. But this time, at least the first few tracks have a semblance of enduring quality to them.

"Straight to Hell" is one such piece, opening with a straight surge of energy that includes some clinical tremolo riffing that one would never really expect from the Arizonans, and then a lush dual melody sequence flowing alongside the verse. The tune seamlessly shifts between eloquence and power, and while it wasn't perfect thanks to the pretty mundane mid-paced palm muted guitars used to transition the better bits. "Parasychic, Paranoid" is likewise strong, a brief and controlled burst of surgical thrash that seems like a tag-team between late 80s Flotsam and Denmark's Artillery from the same period. Love the little melodies, once again woven through the verse, though they are almost done a disservice by the low volume. Again, they belt out this tremolo riff akin to old school thrash/death metal that takes one by surprise as it lurches into the playful leads, and by this point I had every hope that Dreams of Death was really the album I had been waiting for...

Well, it doesn't really hold up, as much as the band tries. Later thrashers like "Childhood Hero" are rooted in banal, mediocre mosh riffing, and there are far too many slow spots on the album like "Bathing in Red" or "Bleed" that continue that wannabe progressive nature of the previous album. Also, the bloated closer "Out of Mind" is an unfortunate contrast of bland thrash guitars and more inspired spikes of melody that in no way fills out its 12 minute bulk with anything hinging on the level of attention holding required for such a feat. I also didn't care for the piece "Nascentes Morimar", an instrumental with generally clean guitars that seems like something Joe Satriani would have included with Flying in a Blue Dream...sans the catchy leads.

Eric A.K. sounds decent, but this is not one of his more memorable performances as most of the vocal lines are entirely throwaway. I also felt that the mix was a bit dry, lacking the depth of its predecessor and perhaps that went a long way to subduing some of the heavier riffs. So, really, Dreams of Death plays out like a massive swan dive, opening with some attitude, charisma and well purposed riffing and then quickly plummeting into more of the same mediocrity they had been releasing for years. The lyrics were still mediocre, though not so sorry as a few of the albums before it, and the riffing quality just not prevalent. Again, we're not talking an awful record by any means, but a sinking ship. A shame, really, but not the first or last for this band.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10] (do I see a future or just a memory)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - My God (2001)

Of all the ten Flotsam and Jetsam full-lengths to date, My God is easily my least favorite, because even if you strapped me onto a gurney, grafted earphones to my flesh and subjected me to some Pavlovian therapy of rewards for repeated listens, I doubt I could remember a damned thing about it come the following day. It's just that underwhelming, which is sad considering that it features what must be the best production on one of their albums since arguably the debut. Musically, this is a fraction more 'thrash' than Unnatural Selection, but otherwise quite similar with its incorporation of more modern groove metal elements and attempts at a melodic, accessible balance of its elements that might mainstream it. Most notably, there are a lot of clean guitar sequences that sound like wimpy 90s duds circa something like Queensrÿche that disperse the heavier build-ups.

My God frontloads its better content with the solid, mute-strewn melodic thrasher "Dig Me Up to Bury Me", which if nothing else highlights just how much cleaner the record is than any of those to come before, and Eric A.K. Knutson's vocals sound quite good here. However, despite its level of aggression and suitable complexity, there are zero money shot riffs, and the bouncy groove bisecting the tune is quite weak in of itself. "Keep Breathing" is another number that features a few stronger guitar sequences, but the grooves and clean segments don't do the spikes of inspiration much of a service. And then, with both of the following tracks you get more of these proggy cleans that feel all too wimpy for Flotsam; just as numbing as any of the more ballad directed pieces on, say Drift or Cuatro. The leads here are admittedly superior to those found on Unnatural Selection: songs like "Camera Eye" have a sense of excitement to the solos that feels more engaging anything else in their environs, and clearly the addition of Mark Simpson to replace former guitarist Michael Gilbert wasn't a detriment.

Alas, My God suffers heavily from lack of memorable songwriting and more of those everyman, uninteresting lyrics in which they try to craft these clever lines like 'I'd show you all my self esteem/but I lost it somewhere down the road' or 'I don't know if I'm down in the dumps/But it sure smells like trash to me'. While I can somewhat agree with the sentiment of the subject, I really don't think Islam, even that practiced by extremists, is quite so easy to pigeonhole as they do in the title track. "Trash" in general is a pretty dumb prog metal song, and the acoustic/blues version included as a hidden track is even more regrettable. At best, this is painfully average and fizzles out considerably after the first few tracks, never to restore itself or compel the listener to give a damn. Like Unnatural Selection, it seemed a bit out of touch with everything else going on around it, and the best I can say is that this would be the last album to feature that shitty logo they started using on High. Perhaps it isn't completely terrible, but My God is best avoided unless you really, REALLY loved Unnatural Selection, Drift and Cuatro.

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10] (all I see is sand in my eye)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - Unnatural Selection (1999)

Unnatural Selection has a bit of a bad rap for incorporating notable elements of the groove metal that was popular in the mid 90s, but I have to say that it's at least better than the three albums leading up to it. The band's second album after returning to the Metal Blade stable, it suffered somewhat from not having any relevance to what was going on in its day, and thus a general lack of interest, since the Gothic/fairy metal, melodeath and metalcore scenes were really vaulting into the stratosphere. There was also a bit of redundancy here to the lyrics, a lot focusing around personal addictions ("Liquid Noose", "Chemical Noose", etc). In general they're quite bad, with one song ("Fuckers") particularly awkward and embarrassing, but Flotsam and Jetsam were never strong in this department, and just about everything scripted from When the Storm Comes Down on could have used revision, even if the actual subjects were appropriate.

A lot of the groove elements hit up front, with "Dream Scrape" hammering out some rhythmic bounce circa Sepultura's Chaos A.D. and a dense, funky bass tone that is more than a little reminiscent of Korn, if not as utterly dominant. The second song here, "Chemical Noose" might as well be a Prong song, it uses the same percussive sense of harmonics and muted thrashing momentum that would have placed it comfortably on, say, Beg to Differ if not for the lyrics. A little ironic, considering their former bassist Troy Gregory had joined that band. However, what I found appreciable about this album were the catchy vocal lines conceived by Eric A.K. and the gang. There's a lot of melody and passion to songs like "Brain Dead" and "Promise Keepers" which shows that those years spent flirting with the mainstream on Cuatro or Drift were not entirely wasted. In particular, that latter song has an interesting fluctuation of Pantera groove and these ethereal male choirs in the chorus that feels totally unexpected.

The guitar lines are also quite creative here, a mix of hard rock, thrash and even some semi industrial or post-hardcore sounding structures that obviously were pretty well thought out even when they don't completely deliver the goods. New drummer Craig Nielsen stepped in for Kelly David Smith (who has since returned), and his busy rock beats are a good match for Jason Ward's thick, plunking bass. The leads are frivolous and rarely memorable, but I feel like there's a more distinctly 'thrash' feel to this record that trumps its predecessors between 1992-1997 even if it still relies on some degree of accessibility. Knutson's work here is pretty catchy, with the possible exceptions of "Falling" where it seems a little more melodic than necessary and of course the aforementioned "Fuckers", which is one of those lame ranting songs that seems, to the audience, targeted to no particular individual, but to the band probably a critic or backstabbing friend or ex-girlfriend. The lyrics suck, the boring grooves supporting it suck, and it should have been left off.

On the whole, though, I found myself playing the songs in my head more repeatedly than any others since maybe "The Master Sleeps", so I can't claim that Unnatural Selection is quite so miserable as it's oft made out to be. A lot of the riffs are dead weight, I couldn't care less about some of the groovier tunes like "Dream Scrape" or the slow burn of closer "Welcome to the Bottom", but a few tunes like "Brain Dead" are loaded. Not a triumphant return to form, but it's certainly not scraping the bottom of the barrel either like its all too mediocre successor...

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (how many beatings do I have to take)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - High (1997)

It's sad to me that the first thing most will remember about the sixth Flotsam and Jetsam full-length High will be the fact that they listed the song titles on the back each with their own knockoff logo of a famous metal act that influenced them. A sweet little gimmick, but if you thought that this some how would infer that the band were going to put out an effort WORTHY of those roots, then I'm afraid you would have been mistaken. High is a more metallic effort than either Cuatro or Drift, to be sure, and there are a number of tunes I wouldn't kick out of bed for crackers, but in the end it's just another of those many, modernized thrashings of the mid to late 90s that fail to evoke the power and potential of the prior decade, the immortality that for some strange reason the genre exuded before succumbing to a trite and dated commodity.

Songs like "Hallucinational", "Your Hands" and "It's On Me" certainly have their hooks, and they at least seem to recognize the band's power/thrashing foundation if not fully implement it, but then there is another chunk of the album devoted which pursues a more trendy, groovy rock side that I'd expect out of Black Label Society or Corrosion of Conformity (after they stopped being cool). "High Noon" is particularly guilty of this, a rather blase bluesy stoner rock oriented song, but songs like "High" itself and the moody saloon rocker "7 Lucky Day" are also more or less barking up the same tree. "Monster" wouldn't have been out of place on the previous album, a rather quirky hard rocker with a bit of that Black Album or later Metallica groove, and even some of the more straight and aggressive pieces like "Toast" seem to suffer from a lack of strong riffing progressions or compelling ideas.

I think the production here also took a slight nosedive from the prior two albums, having switched from Neil Kernon over to long-term Metal Blade associate, A&R director and at one time vice president Bill Metoyer. The lyrics are pedestrian at best. The vocals feel more repressed, the guitars a little more humdrum and sludgy, though to be truthful it does rather match the more groove oriented, low end writing, the burning bluesy leads, wah wah pedaling and other components. This was still the same lineup as they'd been using for two albums prior, and they certainly feel gelled together and on the same page, but ultimately High delivers nothing more than a steady pummeling at its faster moments, the sort you'd not scoff at if you were looking for a Friday night bar fight in some obscure suburb in the middle of fuck. But it's no 'Saturday Night', if you catch my drift, and the switchblades and motorbikes have been supplanted by butter knives, Tonka three wheelers, and the dulled fisticuffs of missed opportunities.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (I know it seems like I like falling)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - Drift (1995)

I remember first seeing the optical illusion cover image for the fifth Flotsam and Jetsam album and filed it away in the 'different but cool' cabinet. Of course, after Cuatro, I was not exactly looking forward to any output from the once great Arizonans, but inevitably my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see if the music itself had undergone some sort of revolutionary evolution along with the choice in artwork. I was surprised to discover that Drift was a bit more straightforward and metallic than its predecessor, and honestly a fraction superior in terms of quality. The lineup from Cuatro had remained, and they'd even reined in Neil Kernon once again to handle the production and some of the mixing. However, it's ultimately just as banal as its predecessor, and there's a good reason why so many I've spoken to struggle to even recall its very existence...

Drift opens with a tune called "Me" which is a bit of a choppy hard rocker with a few melodic tremolo mute patterns that collide into the rock configuration of the chorus, but despite the questionable use of 'what I take I take on the chin' as a vocal line, it's peppy enough to have a little fun with. Once "Empty Air" arrives with that electronic intro that bursts into the big bass lines and guitar grooves, though, you can tell that Flotsam were still pretty settled into the idea of becoming a more commercially viable heavy rock band with only traces of their former selves present in the songwriting; that they were still trying to rise to the shifting landscape of the 90s and unearth some fresh new sound that was going to rejuvenate their following. Not bloody likely when half the album consists of rock songs like "Pick a Window" or the almost Western feeling power ballad "Destructive Signs" (which feels a little like Death Angel's "A Room with a View"), but at least they prove that, in a kinder world, they may have had the chops for the passive, mainstream radio rock audience.

A couple of the songs, like the bass driven "Smoked Out" or the biting groove-fest "Blindside" manage to retain a bit of the band's original aggression, though once again we might argue that these were trying to be alt-metal or grunge and have very little to do with the power/thrash that initially fueled Doomsday for the Deceiver. Lot of bluesy little guitar fills and leads, and really there are only a few cuts here like "Remember" that possess the proper muted thrash riffs you might recall from When the Storm Comes Down. Eric A.K. sounds decent once more, but the performance here is a little less balanced or dynamic than Cuatro. He's a little more incendiary, or acidic, and in places redolent of No Place for Disgrace, though I wonder why the rest of the band couldn't also 'regress' and beat the tar out of us with the actual music.

In the end, though, despite my stylistic indifference towards a lot of the sounds that went into Drift, it's not poorly written for what it is. A number of the tracks are weak, and few of them are compelling beyond a few minutes' exposure, but I feel like it's an inch harder than Cuatro and pretty tightly structured. Just be warned that it's NOT the Flotsam and Jetsam you worshiped from 1986-1988: aside from the vocals, and a few throwback riffs, this is a polished, modern take on hard rock. The lyrics suck, the worst they had written to its day. It did not do well for the Arizonans, who would in turn not be able to renew their deal with MCA, and instead drift back over to their alma mater Metal Blade Records...hopefully to come to their senses and remember exactly what the fuck they were doing in the first place.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (reaching out to empty air)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - Cuatro (1992)

So the 90s managed to smack Flotsam and Jetsam across the face just like any other thrashing 80s hopeful. Slight changes in style were to be expected, and Cuatro, their second album for MCA put them in collaboration with Neil Kernon, a pretty big time producer and studio engineer who had worked with huge names like Judas Priest and Dokken. To their credit, they didn't morph quite as much as other acts from their niche, and Cuatro is more or less a more progressive extension of When the Storm Comes Down, if not in complexity than in dynamic range. But this album really starts to sag after a pair of passable opening tracks, and despite the fact that they were 'growing' as artists and experimenting with more rock-like structures, it just about severed all interest I had in the band's future...

I feel like Flotsam and Jetsam couldn't quite shake the specter of Metallica which hung over them even here, because there are a lot of simpler songs involving leaden grooves like the openers "Natural Enemies" and "Swatting at Flies" that kept making me think of "Sad But True" or "Enter Sandman" from The Black Album. Granted, Eric A.K.'s vocals are vastly different than James Hetfield's, but it's this 'dumbing down' sensation, this mainstreaming of the band's base thrash/power/speed sound into something contemporary, heavily overdubbed and generally safe for radio play with its anti-drug, anti-gang, we're all the same victims inside, good will to all men schtick that thrash bands were sort of forced into to cope with the ever-liberalized world of the 'open minded' that the 90s helped catalyze. A rage against nothing. There are thrash riffs here or there, peppered about the bulk of Cuatro, but so many of its constituent tracks are far too moody and rock-inflected that they feel like they're fighting at the straightjacket to escape the asylum of their past. Why? I've no idea.

Granted, Cuatro is far better produced than its predecessor. They got that right, at least. The guitars are still thick and effective but the heavier chords, chugging and melodic leads that glaze most of the facts are in close balance with the cleaner guitar sequences. Troy Gregory had left to join Prong, but the Arizonans did well in bringing on Jason Ward, a skilled, busy player with a deep tone who keeps the listener engaged with the thrumming of "Forget About Heaven" and several other cuts. More importantly, Eric A.K. himself sounds loads better than When the Storm Comes Down, richer and fuller in the mix, but this comes at the expense of some of his aggression. He's very soulful throughout this track list, and implements soothing harmonies that once in a while remind me of Layne Stayley of Alice in Chains. It's a decent fit for all these grooving songs spliced with melodies, and in particular he really blows up during "Secret Square" when he shifts from the low, deep range to screaming.

Alas, the album just fails to register beyond a handful of tolerable tracks like the pumping, uppity Anthrax-like momentum that opens "Natural Enemies" or the mild, mid-tempo groove of "Swatting at Flies", and there are some like "Wading Through the Darkness" and "Double Zero" that were admittedly pretty terrible. Who the hell were they writing this for? The alternative Doc Martin crowd was not going to like it, the loyal 80s thrashers weren't going to like it, the grunge guys weren't going to bite from this metallic-tinted apple. Was there a hidden scene for pseudo-funk rock-progressive-groove-post-thrashers I was blissfully unaware of? If so, then I'd imagine they might consider Cuatro a masterwork of expression, but for myself it was a prime example of how experimentation and enrichment can occasionally backfire and sully everything you've worked for. Flotsam and Jetsam's fourth outing isn't completely terrible, and there are moments where a catchy melody or impressive array of musicianship save it from the slag pit, but it was unfortunately a product of its time that simply doesn't belong in any other.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (take it from me, I'm broken too)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/

Flotsam and Jetsam - When the Storm Comes Down (1990)

While Flotsam and Jetsam's relationship with Elektra Records was rather short-lived, they were fortunate enough to sign over to an imprint of comparable magnitude in MCA for its followup to No Place for Disgrace. I can remember this as being one of those 'make or break it' moments for a thrash band in the later 80s. They had the momentum, they had the musicians, and they were coming off a fan favorite debut and an even mightier sophomore, so When the Storm Comes Down was essentially projected to become the band's Master of Puppets, a goal that was sadly not met at all. This was met with a lukewarm at best reaction, and I'd say that, despite the band's continued slot on the rosters of decent labels, this was more or less the beginning of their sink back into obscurity...

Not that the music here sucks by any means, but there are certain faults in the production that do the rather adventurous writing little justice, and a few stupid songs that mar the remainder. I wasn't the hugest fan of the mix on the previous album (my favorite), and things seemed to only grow worse here, though arguably it falters in different ways. Erik A.K.'s stringy, melodic vocals feel too pinched and tinny in the mix, an unwelcome contrast against the meatier production of the rhythm guitars which were akin to ...And Justice for All or Persistence of Time. A lot of the curious little spikes of melody as in the verses to "6, Six, VI" just felt as if they were lingering far too much in the background, behind even A.K. in potency, and the funkiness of Troy Gregory's bass lines on this album, which show no lack of fluency and creativity, still came off rather flat. Not to mention that there was one song here, "No More Fun" which was a little too 'funky' for its own good, like Infectious Grooves or something and adjoined with goofy guitars and weird druggy lyrics alongside the bouncy pace. The drums are also just 'meh' in the mix.

On the other hand, there was no shortage here of decent and effective riffs that constructed themselves into some mildly memorable songs. Again, while I don't like the blaring funkiness of the bass tone in "The Master Sleeps", it's pretty well structured with those dense thrashing rhythm guitars and melodies that would thrill fans of mid to late 80s Metallica, Testament and so forth. "Suffer the Masses", while not a favorite, is definitely a well written mid paced head banger in which Knutson belted out stronger melodies, even if the backing vocals in the chorus were lackluster when leveraged against the soaring guitar lines. "Burned Device" is also a pretty solid performance from Eric over the glinted acoustics of the intro, and at 6 and a half minutes it has a lot going for it, while pieces like "October Thorns" and "E.M.T.E.K." are also effectively incendiary and show some thought in their own architecture.

However, even these are not quite good enough to scale to the summit of excellent achieved with "No Place for Disgrace", "Hammerhead", or the rebellious "Hard On You", and unlike the second album, I found that one shed a bit of its resonance with subsequent listens. Not to mention that "No More Fun" is a hands down dumb idea, and the closer "K.A.B.", one of those dorky acronym tunes from the 80s which is like 28 seconds of repeating the same vocal line 'Kill all bastards' is neither interesting or particularly humorous. It should be an unwritten law that you can not feature two acronym songs on your album! But beyond that, When the Storm Comes Down is too clean, and too polished in general, and the nasal vocals and imbalance of muscular thrash riffs and melodies really threw me off and continues to do so over 20 years later. Fans of the more progressive West Coast speed/thrash records like Heathen's sophomore Victims of Deception or Mordred's first two efforts Fool's Game and In This Life might want to check this out for its comparable creativity and tone, but for myself this was the opening chapter in a long stretch of mediocrity from a band I had very high hopes for.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (our time slips away)

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com/