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FLOTSAM AND JETSAM
Rats In The Temple

Napalm (2026)
Rating: 7.5/10

With another stinker of an album cover, veteran thrashers Flotsam And Jetsam conjures up a 16th full-length platter. Thankfully, the music of Rats In The Temple doesn’t match the dodgy, digital cover art, the combo no doubt comfortable in its own skin again in the last decade. My attitude towards the Phoenix, Arizona-based posse has shifted over the years, but having said that I’ve never exactly been in love with the sound. I’m delighted though that the band has overcome numerous hurdles and bumps over the years and that I can still talk about their music in relatively positive light.

At just under an hour in length, Rats In The Temple does feel a touch overlong and initially difficult to consume, but there’s a lot to savour too. The album starts as it means to go on; ‘Harvesting The Hate’ goes hard and heavy, and as always led by the fiery pipes of Eric “AK” Knutson. At times it reminds me of classic 80s U.S. power metal, combining a Vicious Rumors aesthetic alongside modern Metal Church. There’s gravel in those vocals and they continue into the smouldering ‘Damnation’. It’s borderline thrash, and both crisp and contemporary, but there’s always that more traditional metal core whereby there are passages where the sound drifts towards a band like Primal Fear.

In a sense, this is high praise for Flotsam And Jetsam, because the shades of drama and the anthemic are never far away. The finest example of such grandiosity and majesty comes via ‘The Ghost Behind My Door’, an epic track which my friend salivated over, claiming “It’s a lot like the band Brainstorm”, and he is right. The same could also be said for ‘Anthem For The Broken’ towards the tail end.

Some of you who haven’t heard the album yet might be wondering if there’s any straight up hammers to the skull, and the answer would be a resounding yes. ‘Blame The Knife’ and ‘First On The Spike’, even with their contemporary feel and melodies, are ballsy tunes to get the heads banging. Mid-tempo moments are often integrated with feisty gallops, but they do have that classic Flot waft.

Of the 13 cuts I’ve quite a few favourites, one being the hefty title cut with its cinematic intro. There’s a Gothic nature too lining the basement of a number of tracks that brim with extravagance. Flotsam And Jetsam is the sort of band that could easily write two minute songs and still make them sound enigmatic and majestic. Songs like ‘Last Rites’ really do shake the foundations due to the axe team of Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley; these guys really do loom over this opus like two gargantuan pillars. The riffs on each and every track chug with such a monolithic presence and when coupled with Knutson’s grit, the album becomes a huge fire pit. Slow burner ‘The Edge Of Nowhere’ exhibits the ever reliable percussive skills of Ken Mary, his steely exploits bring an impenetrable concrete wall to proceedings.

And so, Flotsam And Jetsam unleashes a beast of an album. When I look back on the discography of the band, there have certainly been some patchy moments, but there’s a definite stability in the ranks which bodes well for the immediate future of these veterans.

Neil Arnold

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