I’m a great fan of labels like Vic Records, High Roller Records and F.O.A.D. to name a few, that besides releasing great albums, also are using a lot of their time to dig down in the gritty underground of forgotten ages, to bring forth dusty obscure demos, collections of EPs, split EPs or albums that didn’t get the noise or distribution they deserved back when they were released and all that jazz. Labels and releases like that make my life as an avid collector of such a tad easier, as the original releases, besides often being hard to come by, also are quite expensive and sometimes of another quality, than agreed upon during the sale / buy. Most people have heard about FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, though most likely because bassist Jason Newstead left the band to join METALLICA. It is a damn shame, that the band hasn’t been recognized more as it has, as FLOTSAM AND JETSAM made some really good music back in the days. Not that their outputs the last 25 years haven’t been offering the occasional goodies, though the first two albums “Doomsday For The Deceiver” and “No Place For Disgrace” are pristine classics! On this release we get the “Iron Tears” and “Metal Shock” demos. All six tracks are energetic and show a band heading one way, and that is forward. I guess where FLOTSAM AND JETSAM didn’t really hit it off with a big audience, is their placing in the midst of the thrashing Speed Metal scene and the purer Power Metal scene. Musically it is heavy and shredding, with punching bass lines and pounding drums. Though we also get a lot of great melodic guitar solos and harmonies, and that together with Eric A.K.’s high vocals (which I am a big fan of), it has might been tossed to the side, by a lot of the thrashing maniacs leaning towards other bands with a more pure Thrash Metal sound and more rugged vocals. Though as the two first albums, these two first demos are legendary – and are quite great sounding. Intense with the instruments straight in your face, with decent space for the instruments and quite well mixed with the powerful and slaying vocals in front of the wall of power. The music becomes a little more progressive and technical on the second demo, taking it a tad over the top with ‘I Live You Die’, which I quite like. We also get the infamous cover version of ‘The Beast Within’ from fellow Californians STORMTROOPER which lived to release a single EP “Armies Of The Night”, where this track stems from (well, the original songwriter of ‘The Beast Within’ is a FLOTSAM AND JETSAM member, so I guess it’s safe to say that the STORMTROOPER version is the actual cover song – Frank). Perhaps that re-release of that EP is also in the pipeline from Roel and Vic Records? As a little treat we get three live tracks: ‘Iron Tears’, ‘Hammerhead’ (recorded live in Jasons then apartment) and ‘She Took An Axe’. All three tracks delivered powerful like a sledgehammer to your face. Damn I would have liked to have been present at all three shows, damn the energy and power the band released from stage and a corner of a living room back then. This banger is a great addition to any FLOTSAM AND JETSAM collection where the demos already aren’t present and also a quite good way into the universe of the band, as we get all the trademarks, together with power, intensity and great music. Enter the frayed ends of sanity: www.facebook.com/flotsamandjetsam.official, www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063485232579