Artist: Flotsam and Jetsam
Label: Elektra Records
Release Date: 1988
Rating: 5 Skulls
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Title: No Place for Disgrace Artist: Flotsam and Jetsam Label: Elektra Records Release Date: 1988 Rating: 5 Skulls |
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Death's Review:
Like everyone else who was a metalhead at the time, I first heard Flotsam and Jetsam when I found out bassist Jason Newsted was going to replace Cliff Burton in Metallica. I liked the classic thrash of Doomsday for the Deceiver a lot, but it wasn’t until the next album, No Place for Disgrace (the first album without Newsted) which came out in May 1988 on the same major label as Metallica, Elektra Records, that I would become a huge fan of the band for all sorts of other reasons. Primarily, those reasons included the band’s creative and catchy yet heavy and thrashy riffing, and the unique yet captivating and angry yet powerful vocals of Erik A.K.What resulted was the perfect balance of cool songs from a hungry band playing interesting and emotional thrash metal with technical elements and a degree of commercial expectation. This album epitomizes the long, lost art of a certain type of thrash metal that was just under the mainstream yet totally metal. Today the word “thrash” evokes images of drunken Germans drinking beer in a muddy field wearing denim vests covered with Sodom, Kreator and Destruction patches. But I’m talking about the thrash played by American bands like Testament, Anthrax, Overkill and Metal Church in the late eighties and early nineties (the so-called second and third waves of thrash bands)- all were major label bands at some point in their careers and that meant, well-financed, well-produced records which often showcased real singers and diverse musical dynamics. Flotsam and Jetsam made a run at this stuff too, in a time between 1998 and 1994 when the latest songs from bands like Testament and Anthrax were actually shopped to AOR commercial radio stations. Flotsam actually achieved a tiny bit of radio success with their Cuatro album in 1992, but this one didn’t really go anywhere as best I can remember. Still, that doesn’t mean the music wasn’t killer though - it was.
No Place is a killer example of this interesting moment in time for metal music, but it was also an amazing album in its own right. The songs on No Place For Disgrace are memorable to this day. Seeing them perform this stuff at 2001’s Thrash of the Titans concert was one of my all-time favorite metal moments. The title track shreds and rips your skull off right out of the box. AK hits some glass shattering high notes, but also knows how to create a killer mood as well, especially on tracks like “Dreams of Death” and “Escape From Within.” “Hard On You” is very heavy and very catchy. I love the balls-out thrash of the classic Samurai neck-snapper “I Live, You Die,” and even the Elton John cover (having thrash bands cover classic rock tunes was all the range for a while as a major label ploy to get these bands on the radio), “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” is interesting.
All in all, this is a lost thrash classic that should not be ignored. If you are looking for something else from that era, and you’ve worn out most of the other better known material then by all means go back and check out this Flotsam and Jetsam material. You won’t be disappointed.
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