Flotsam & Jetsam CUATRO

Flotsam & Jetsam: Eric A. Knutson (vocals); Edward Carlson, Michael Gilbert (guitar, background vocals); Jason Ward (bass, background vocals); Kelly David Smith (drums, background vocals).
Recorded at Dodge City Sound, Glendale, California.
Despite showing much promise early in their career, Arizona thrashers Flotsam & Jetsam were quickly crippled by a number of personnel shakeups and lack of record company support, and with the genre in swift decline in the early '90s the band had become just another thrash metal casualty treading creative water. Still, with songs like "The Message," "Secret Square," and "Cradle Me Now" replacing some of their "speed for speed's sake" mentality with actual hooks and novel guitar textures, their fourth effort, Cuatro, did show a small but noticeable improvement over the utterly unoriginal thrash recipe of its predecessor. Unfortunately, much of the remaining material finds the band either reverting to its bad habits ("Swatting at Flies") or embarking on failed experiments ("Forget About Heaven"), and the fact that Flotsam & Jetsam would rebound three years later with one of their best efforts in Drift was nothing short of amazing. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

• Format: CD
• Genre: Heavy Metal