FLOTSAM & JETSAM - DOOMSDAY FOR THE DECEIVER + 1 (*NEW-CASSETTE, 2022, Brutal Planet Records)

• Authentically licensed and faithfully reissued
• Limited to just 300 LIME GREEN cassettes world-wide
• Featuring Jason Newsted (Metallica) on bass! 
• Elite remaster by Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound
• Three 100% reviews on Metal-Archives.com
• Engineered by Bill Metoyer
• Part of the exclusive Metal Icon Series on Brutal Planet Records
• Includes the bonus track instrumental not on the original release, "Flotzilla"
• Includes the bonus track, "I Live You Die" (Metal Shock '85)
  
• Original 1986 release received a rating of "6 out of a possible 5" from Kerrang! Magazine 
• Part of Decibel Magazine's Hall of Fame
  

Few artists have had the impact of FLOTSAM & JETSAM.  The band put the Power Metal & Thrash crowd on its feet with the 1986 iconic classic, DOOMSDAY and the band never took the foot off the gas - building a legacy of brilliant FULL-ON HEAVY METAL!  Mentioned in the same breath, with hushed reverence as Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, and Megadeth - Brutal Planet Records brings you elite remasters with all the stuff collector's crave!

FLOTS TIL DEATH!

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT DOOMSDAY FOR THE DECEIVER...

Upon conclusion "Doomsday for the Deceiver" is an original sounding US thrash metal release. I hear some nods toward early Metallica, Megadeth, and Judas Priest, but Flotsam and Jetsam have managed to forge a pretty unique and recognisable sound, which was no easy treat in those days, when the scene was overflowing with new thrash metal acts trying to make it big. The fact that this is a debut album, just makes the accomplishment even more impressive. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is well deserved.
                                                        METAL-ARCHIVES.COM

Hailing from Arizona and named after a chapter in The Lord of the Rings, Flotsam and Jetsam is best known for having coughed up bassist (and main songwriter) Jason Newsted to Metallica. But the Phoenix band’s gloriously dense and intense 1986 debut — their only album with Newsted — stands on its own merits. The influence of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden looms large, but this is NWOBHM on speed....
                                    REVOLVER MAGAZINE 

30 years later, “Doomsday For The Deceiver” is still a fresh speed/thrash diamond, essential for every self-respecting metal collection.
                                                METALPATHS.COM

Flotsam & Jetsam, though commonly referred to as a thrash metal band, rode a fence between early speed metal and traditional heavy metal. Back in '86 we never referred to Flots as thrash metal. Rather, they were just heavy metal. In hindsight, "Doomsday for the Deceiver" is a blueprint for raging American power metal, somewhat along the lines of early Metal Church. "Doomsday" had everything we were looking for in a metal band in the 80's; thrashing aggression ("Desecrator," "Iron Tears", "She Took An Axe"), long epic songs ("Metalshock," "Doomsday"), a bit of humor ("Hammerhead") and a cleverly titled instrumental ("Flotzilla"). The was all accented by Eric AK's killer vocals throughout....1986 wasn't about pristine production, it was about energy, attitude, shredding guitar solos, crunchy riffs, screaming vocals, etc. All those things are present here in abundance. For those who are just the right age, "Doomsday" was one of the soundtracks to our youth.
                          SCOTT WATERS - NOLIFETILMETAL

ABOUT THE ALBUM
The arrival of Flotsam and Jetsam’s debut album caused a stir on many fronts. Doomsday for the Deceiver may have been released by Metal Blade—one of America’s leading independent metal lights—on Independence Day in 1986, but it was the Brits who took an exceptional shine to the pack of Arizona wild dogs (repped by Flotzilla, their jacked-up, Godzilla-meets-anglerfish mascot). Famously, Kerrang! gave the album a review glowing enough to power the grid of the band’s Phoenix home, topping high praise with an improbable six out of a possible five “K” score.

Granted, Kerrang!’s hyperbole concerning Flotsam’s classy-yet-blue-collar, energetic-but-virtuosic thrash was fully justified. Ribald hook-up anthem “Hammerhead” was a stadium-sized ripper powered by Jason Newsted’s walking basslines; “Iron Tears” had the guitar tandem of Edward Carlson and Michael Gilbert playing off drummer Kelly David-Smith’s precise pounding to deliver an infectious staccato shuffle; “Desecrator” combined galloping classic rock with sinister speed metal; and the title track was an epic, progressive marvel. Then there was frontman Erik “A.K.” Knutson, who quickly shot to the top of metal’s vocal pack with an unbelievable range, contagious vocal lines and the ability to punch holes in cloud cover, especially with the classically inspired, high-pitched harmonization in “Fade to Black” and “She Took an Axe.”

The hard-working quintet had a classic at the ready, one which the press had rolled out the red carpet for. But as quickly as the future appeared to be theirs for the taking, all plans were detoured after Metallica’s Cliff Burton was killed and bassist/bandleader Jason Newsted secured the gig that every thrashing four-stringer would have traded their grandma to get. For all involved, Doomsday for the Deceiver meant different things. For Newsted, it was an inadvertent stepping stone to 14 years spent with the biggest band in metal. For Gilbert and Knutson, it was the first of a 15-album career that continues to this day. For David-Smith and Carlson, it was the dominating force of their creative lives until they both stepped down in 2014. For thrash metal fans, it remains a genre highlight and one easily inducted into induct the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame.

This remastered LIME GREEN cassette-only reissue comes with a full-color layout in a 4-panel insert, and is limited to just 300 units world-wide.  It is part of the elite Metal Icon Series on Brutal Planet Records.  For fans of early Deliverance, Forbidden, Metal Church!

TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
Hammerhead 6:15
Iron Tears 3:52
Desecrator 3:49
Doomsday For The Deceiver 9:11
Metalshock 8:17

SIDE B
Fade To Black 2:05
She Took An Axe 5:14
U.S.L.W. 4:22
Der Führer 5:45
Flotzilla 6:09
I Live You Die (Metal Shock '85) 4:00 (bonus)

REVIEWS
Flotsam And Jetsam – Doomsday For The Deceiver (Remastered Cassette, Brutal Planet, 2022)

This might possibly be one of the best metal albums to be recorded on a minimal budget. Scratch that! It IS one of the best metal albums ever done. The inspiration level for a young band to record something this damn good is of a catastrophic realm. It has all the makings of greatness. The guitars are tastefully crunchy and harmonic. And the clincher on this debut is vocalist Eric A.K.’s  rough yet smooth vocals always on pitch and leaving the well-placed screams where deemed badass.     

Fans of this band know this debut album got the coveted 6 Ks out of a 5 K rating in Kerrang! Magazine. Had Jason Newstad, the bassist and main songwriter for this album, not been drafted by Metallica, one wonders if this band would have made it on the big scale. It is a great disappointment that Flotsam & Jetsam is not a household name like Anthrax or Megadeth after such an optimistic start.

Doomsday For The Deceiver was recorded in three studios in California in two weeks for a whopping $12K. It is the proverbial middle finger to the corporate music industry. Listen to the guitar wizardry on the last track Flotzilla, an instrumental honouring the beast on the album cover, and you will hear the greatness of this album.

Doomsday also manifests some extremely metal–themed lyrical content. Try on She Took An Axe about the historical Lizzie Bordon hacking up her parents or the flawless Der Furher, about the horrors of Auschwitz. 

The title track, beginning with brooding duel guitars, is a prime piece of apocalyptic doom:   

Play heed this take of the prince of darkness,
Whom we're taught to fear from day number one.
The beguiling serpent, king of the underworld,
Betrayer and mocker of heaven's chosen one.
Evil and wicked dreamer, creator of sins,
Ultimate deceiver; longing to take you in.
He promises earthly glory, if you play his game;
"I won't let the firebombs hurt you, just
Number your head and take my name."

There is bonus track on the end of this cassette release entitled I Live You Die, which completes this album significantly. It was written in 1985 by their guitarist Michael Gilbert and made it onto their Roadracer Records cassette in 1989. It now takes its rightful place on this cassette reissue. The song actually became the stylistic force that got the band to write metal songs, record their Metal Shock demo, and got them signed to Metal Blade. In alliance with other affluent metal bands, they tell the dark history of  the gladiator mayhem of Ancient Rome in their own words:

Sword drawn and battle ready, Trajan in command.
Fight 'till death 100 days, corpses of 2000 men.
The masses they decide the fate of a fallen men.
Thumbs down in drunken haste, life's taker and giver I am.
Innocent children dressed like the sacred lamb,
Taken for Nero's-slaughter, as the people look away,
To the pit dogs they are prey, the people look away... they look away...

Persecuted Christians in the blood soaked ring.
Many over many lose their lives, peace to their soul it brings.
The thrills from the kills, those that I have slain,
Are keeping my heart pounding, I live another day.

This green cassette reissue, with art enhancements by Scott Waters and remastered by Rob Collwell, is much more than a cool stocking stuffer (though not many music enthusiasts would complain!). It is one of those historic metal albums that are absolutely essential Head over to Boone’s and nurse your neck until this sick little puppy arrives.

--Doug Peterson, Down The Line zine