Feeding Frenzy: Flotsam and Jetsam – I Am The Weapon

Feeding Frenzy: Flotsam and Jetsam – I Am The Weapon

Flotsam and Jetsam – I Am The Weapon

Release Date: 13th September 2024||Genre: Thrash metal||Label: AFM Records

Phoenix’s thrashing finest drop the bomb with their 15th album, I Am The Weapon

Let’s not mess about. You’re very likely to get a favourable review of Flotsam & Jetsam at Slow Dragon Music. I’ll do my best to be clinical, but have a dab of the old sodium chloride to hand for this one.

Speaking in similarly plain terms, I Am The Weapon comes in with a very brief semi-acoustic intro, before getting straight to business; intelligent thrash, with a sly, sour mash grin. This record has been lightly touted as the unofficial ‘part 3’ in a trilogy, preceded by The End Of Chaos and Blood In The Water. In all honesty, I find it stands apart from those two, mostly hitting in a less percussive way.

That’s not to say it isn’t as heavy. It’s just a little more feisty and scrappy, and plays a bit more around the edges. It’s almost as though BITW and TEOC were intentionally laid foundations of a new era. IATW then represents more of the twisting musical spires of which the Arizonan thrashers are capable.

I could run into disagreement here, but it feels more Flots to me. A bit of the frantic pace of Doomsday For The Deceiver, reined in by the smoke-wreathed songwriting of Drift. Long term fans won’t be surprised, but there’s plenty of fresh features, which although new, should warm your nostalgia.

If you were expecting more of “this is what they sound like now,” you ain’t gonna get it. This is an amalgam of their full canon, and you’ll only get the best out of it via repeated deep dives. With hooks piled upon hooks, I Am The Weapon grabs a little more of the mind on each passing, and if it is the finisher of a trilogy, it is rapidly borrowing its way into my personal favourite spot of the three.