Doomsday is an interesting album since it sounds like a fair mix of West Coast thrashers, such as, Metallica or Megadeth with some NWOBHM influences from the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Both Michael Gilbert and Edward Carlson were fantastic guitarists, truly shredding like maniacs as well even showing off with some seriously complex parts and some hands down killer fucking solos too. You'll be utterly amazed when you hear Mr Newsted's bass on the opening cut, 'Iron Tears' and then ask yourself why these vibrant technical bass lines were not on, '...And Justice for All' two years later or any of the Metallica records Jason played on for that matter. Meanwhile, vocalist, Eric A.K. used a high pitched frenzied voice, which seems a bit unique for its time and I suppose it may sound odd at first, but it grows on you really quick and fits in with the music perfectly in no time.
The aforementioned, 'Iron Tears' kicks the album off quite well, but the second song, 'Desecrator' just utterly rips. Eric sounds like a damn maniac on this one and the solos, oh man the solos are insanely awesome and frankly its pretty hard to resist headbangin' during this one. It seems odd that there would be a song titled, 'Fade to Black' considering Jason's future, but this is by no means a ballad here, but just a powerful hard hitting anthem that comes and destroys in just a few minutes. The title track is a monster nine minute epic, which opens with some acoustics as well as a really beautiful guitar solo, which eventually leads to speedier territory after a few minutes and after some singing the listener is treated to a seriously awesome instrumental part that has absolutely killer riffage all the way plus face melting solos and lets not forget the gang shouts, "DOOMSDAY" in this one either!
Flipping the LP over we come to, 'Metalshock,' which is one of the slower and again longer songs at over eight minutes, but it falls short compared to the previous song, while, 'She Took An Axe' & 'U.L.S.W.' are decent with a few intense moments but they seem not as exciting as the songs from the first half of the record. Moving to the last song, 'Der Führer' were once again treated to a stunning song to close this album out that's fast as fuck, rifftastic, solo crazy and gang shouts galore too, "Zeig Heil! All Hail! Zeig Heil!" Apparently some versions of the album also have a song called, 'Flotzilla,' which I'll assume is the creature on the cover laying waste to Satan and the underworld.
Personally I only own the original LP of the album, but a 3-disc re-release appeared back in '06, which has two different versions of the album plus a few demo tracks and a DVD from a live show in '85 that I'd kind of like to get my hands on now.
I'd imagine due to Jason's presence on this record many have investigated it, hell I can admit it, but as I said earlier I never guessed it to be a pretty damn good album. I could stop and think that it must have sucked for Jason to go from this frantic power thrash to unaudible bass lines and completely boring garbage with Metallica (Yes, I hate And Justice for All), but I'm sure massive world tours and big sacs with $ symbols on them probably cheered him up.
Besides this album the only other Flotsam record I've heard was, 'Unnatural Selection,' which was just awful, but I've been told the sophomore release, 'No Place for Disgrace' is great and in some fans eyes as being even better than the debut.
Curiously all these years later and 4/5's of the Doomsday line-up is still in Flotsam while Jason himself is unemployed and not doing a single band these days. Come on, man, let's get the classic line-up together and do this shit one more time!!
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