Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

This July marks the 30th anniversary of Flotsam and Jetsam busting out of Phoenix with the explosive debut “Doomsday for the Deceiver,” a thrash-metal classic on Metal Blade Records that holds the distinction of being the first album ever to receive a 6K rating from “Kerrang!,” an influential British music magazine that’s something of a heavy-metal bible.

By the time they followed through with “No Place for Disgrace” in 1988, their bassist Jason Newsted had been drafted by Metallica to replace the late Cliff Burton, a setback that, in many ways, just added to their reputation on the thrash scene, where they were not only respected but feared, says Heavy Metal Television founder Eric Braverman.

Respected and feared

As Braverman, whose connection to Flotsam and Jetsam runs deep, recalls, “They were always this legendary band with this weird name that other bands in the upper echelon of thrash when we were on tour would be almost like, ‘Dammit, I’ve gotta play with Flotsam and Jetsam? Now I’ve gotta pay attention.’”

And that’s because, as Braverman, who’s been their manager, co-written albums with them and more, explains, “They were one of the greatest thrash-metal live bands ever. They did that twin-guitar attack, awesome drumming. In the world of thrash, they were the band that had all the other bands always looking over their shoulder. And the Flotsam guys didn’t quite catch up. But they always played better than anybody. Even Megadeth would be like, ‘Dammit!’ It was almost like they were intimidated.”

They’ve gone through countless lineup changes in the years since “No Place for Disgrace,” which even now remains their highest entry on the Billboard album charts, with singer Eric “A.K.” Knutson as the only constant. Lead guitarist Michael Gilbert, who returned to the fold in 2010, was on their first six albums. And current bassist Michael Spencer did a brief stint in the ‘80s. If being the guy who took over for Newsted’s replacement counts as a distinction, that’s the distinction Spencer carries.

And yet, for all the changes they’ve been through, the longest they’ve gone without releasing a new album is the five-year-gap between 2005’s “Dreams of Death” and 2010’s “The Cold,” an album followed in 2012 by “Ugly Noise,” which marked the short-lived return of founding drummer Kelly David-Smith and featured several Newsted writing contributions.

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In Phoenix through it all

They’ve also stayed in Phoenix through it all.

“What local band has been putting out CDs on an international level for as long as these guys?” Braverman asks. “I don’t know if there is a rock band here in town besides Alice Cooper that’s put out stuff distributed by some maniac on an international level for this many years.”

On May 20, they returned with a self-titled album, their first release since drafting drummer Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall and guitarist Steve Conley.

Why self-titled?

As they frame it in the press release, “In theory, the band Flotsam and Jetsam started in January 2015 when Eric A.K., Mike Gilbert, Michael Spencer, Steve Conley and Jason Bittner got in a room together to start rehearsing for upcoming 2015 European tour dates, and to commence writing for the band’s next record.”

Conley isn’t sure he’d go along with that.

"I actually did read that and laugh," Conley says. "But here’s the thing. Flotsam and Jetsam has had a lot of different lineups in 30 years. There’s three new guys in the band so it’s not gonna sound like it did with Kelly and (guitarist) Ed (Carlson) or (guitarist) Mark Simpson and some of the other guys that have been in the band. I mean it’s got Eric’s voice on it. You can’t have Flotsam and Jetsam without A.K. But the musicians have changed. It’s sort of like a new beginning.”

'We were trying to revisit the old days'

And yet, it’s clear from the sound of the album that they’re not opposed to channeling the spirit of their beginning, including a debut that Loudwire magazine recently named to a list of the Top 10 Thrash Albums Not Released by the Big 4 (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax), saying the album “revealed a balanced blend of concise thrashing and epic songwriting, filled with budding promise.”

There’s a noticeable early thrash vibe going on, and Conley says two of the songs were actually written for the second album.

“That’s kind of what we were going for,” Conley says. “We were trying to revisit the old days. And it seems like everybody’s feeling that we hit the mark. We’ve gotten nothing but spectacular reviews, which we’ve been super happy about. So that’s a good thing.”

The guitarist, who joined in 2013, was recommend by another veteran of the ‘80s thrash scene, Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson, who played with Conley in a band called F5 while living in Phoenix.

“I was just giving guitar lessons and I engineer at a studio here in town, Sonicphish Productions,” Conley says. “So I was just doing the working band-guy thing. And Mike Gilbert called me up and said, ‘Hey man, would you be interested in coming down and maybe just jamming?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I didn’t know they were still actively going to Europe and doing the stuff that they were doing. I was kind of in the dark. I just thought, ‘Sure, I’ll jam.’ And it went well.”

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Clamor for old-school metal

They’ve been to Europe eight times since he joined, which definitely had an impact on the sound of this new album.

"Every time we go there, I would sit and listen to the fans," Conley says. "And they would say, ‘Man, I love these first two records.’ The promoters would pay us extra money and say, ‘Would you guys come and play those first two albums for us? We’ll pay more.’ So we spent three years playing those songs and I think that brought back the early-day vibe because we’re playing Europe all the time and those fans are digging that stuff. If all you’re playing every night is 90 minutes of old-school metal, it sort of puts you in a frame of mind to write a record like that again.”

The self-titled album is their first for AFM, a German label, which makes sense considering how big a deal they are right now in Europe.

As Braverman says, “They go to Europe now more than they ever did back in the day. They’re playing on shows where you can’t see the back of the field from the stage, these giant, ridiculous 35,000-people-all-day festivals. These guys have been doing this more than 30 years and they’re going and playing in front of tens of thousands of people in Europe. They’ve never been able to keep it together and yet the name, because it is a legendary name, that’s the thing. They’re like these legends.”