Flotsam and Jetsam - The Cold

I’m sure that most of the Trash Metal fans out there when listening to the name Flotsam and Jetsam they immediately think of Jason Newsted, former Metallica bass player. It’s no wonder why Newsted’s name is linked with the band since he gave Flotsam and Jetsam the popularity they didn’t manage to achieve all these years.
\r\nBesides Newsted, the band is very well known for the first two legendary albums “Doomsday For The Deceiver” and “No Place For Disgrace” that are considered classics. Bt all these happened back in the day (almost 25 years ago). Today’s Flotsam and Jetsam are releasing their 10th studio album titled “The Cold” and unfortunately they didn’t manage to impress me.
\r\nThe fact that the album is way better than their previous releases doesn’t necessarily make it a good one. In our land of the blind the one eyed man is not king!
\r\nSo with only one remaining member from the original line up, the singer Eric "A.K." Knutson, Flotsam and Jetsam are composing 10 songs of powerful but ordinary Power/Thrash metal that sounds a bit controversial to my ears. Their sound is solid and the guitars are shining in some songs but Eric’s singing style in most of the songs sounds like a mixture of Nevermore’s Warrel Dane with Evergrey’s Tom Englund resulting in unavoidable comparison with the above mentioned bands while in songs like “Black Cloud” Eric’s vocals reminded me that of Disturbed!!
\r\nAs for the music, well there are some very decent songs like “The Cold”, “Κ.Υ.Α” and the awesome “Better Off Dead” but that alone is not enough to drag the album out of mediocrity. That’s too bad ‘cause I think that the band has great potential and this album doesn’t reflect its abilities. For the time being I’ll continue listening to the first two gems!
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\r\nDimitris Karantounias\r\n