Flotsam & Jetsam : "Blood in the Water"

 

Most metal bands say our next album is going to be our heaviest . What else can they say? We are really looking at selling out and just playing rock music this time around. fucking do It without saying a word. I did not even know this album was coming out. The first song fucking rips.  The production is really dialed in giving them a much bigger sound.  Ken Mary who played on Alice Cooper's album "Raise Your Fist and Yell" plays on this one. Making it is second outing with the band. The second song finds Eric's vocals which stay in a gritty chest register the bulk of the album yet still commanding an epic enough croon to create more of a power metal feel . They happens to a lesser extent on " A Place to Die" , which proves to be a better song thanks to catchier melodies.

They make the most of catchy melodies thanks to Eric's voice on "the Walls".  Guitarist Michael Gilbert is the only other original member , which proves to be enough to come close to capturing their classic sound , though the bulk of this falls on Eric's voice.  "Cry For the Dead" opens with a more power ballad like tone, recalling their earlier work. Eric almost gets back up to where he used to though the falsetto metal yodels are at this juncture not present . They are not relying on their thrash chops from yesteryear to do all the work and perhaps the fresh blood in the band keeps on foot in the present . The attack of "the Wicked Hour" is not rooted in their old 80s sound. At times this brings more thunder to the thrash gallop they kick up "Too Many Lives" is an example of this. Eric gets up their without being in falsetto on the verses here. 

"Gray Dragon" is the only that relies too much on the standard heavy metal tropes. While some of these are in play for "Reagression " benefits from some of the album's best song writing. " Undone" would be the closest thing this album has to a radio song. "Seven Seconds Til the End of the World" is somewhat typical power thrash, but it is written so well that it works because let's face it these guys were the masters of that. I will give this album a 9.5 , as it is amazing these guys are making some of their best music this late into their careers .