{"id":106222,"date":"2026-08-28T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=106222"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:20:25","slug":"album-review-flotsam-and-jetsam-rats-in-the-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-flotsam-and-jetsam-rats-in-the-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – Rats In The Temple (2026) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM
\nRats In The Temple<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2026)<\/span>
\nRating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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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<\/em> doesn\u2019t 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\u2019ve never exactly been in love with the sound. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

At just under an hour in length, Rats In The Temple<\/em> does feel a touch overlong and initially difficult to consume, but there\u2019s a lot to savour too. The album starts as it means to go on; \u2018Harvesting The Hate\u2019 goes hard and heavy, and as always led by the fiery pipes of Eric \u201cAK\u201d Knutson. At times it reminds me of classic 80s U.S. power metal, combining a Vicious Rumors aesthetic alongside modern Metal Church. There\u2019s gravel in those vocals and they continue into the smouldering \u2018Damnation\u2019. It\u2019s borderline thrash, and both crisp and contemporary, but there\u2019s always that more traditional metal core whereby there are passages where the sound drifts towards a band like Primal Fear.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018The Ghost Behind My Door\u2019, an epic track which my friend salivated over, claiming \u201cIt\u2019s a lot like the band Brainstorm\u201d, and he is right. The same could also be said for \u2018Anthem For The Broken\u2019 towards the tail end.<\/p>\n

Some of you who haven\u2019t heard the album yet might be wondering if there\u2019s any straight up hammers to the skull, and the answer would be a resounding yes. \u2018Blame The Knife\u2019 and \u2018First On The Spike\u2019, 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.<\/p>\n

Of the 13 cuts I\u2019ve quite a few favourites, one being the hefty title cut with its cinematic intro. There\u2019s 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 \u2018Last Rites\u2019 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\u2019s grit, the album becomes a huge fire pit. Slow burner \u2018The Edge Of Nowhere\u2019 exhibits the ever reliable percussive skills of Ken Mary, his steely exploits bring an impenetrable concrete wall to proceedings.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a definite stability in the ranks which bodes well for the immediate future of these veterans.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t match the dodgy, digital cover art, the combo no doubt comfortable in its own skin again in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-flotsam-and-jetsam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106223,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106222\/revisions\/106223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}