Arizona metal veterans
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM have completed mixing their new album,
"Ugly Noise", and the CD has been "handed over to mastering," according to the band.
Audio samples of two songs from the effort —
"Ugly Noise" and
"Play Your Part" — can be streamed below.
"Ugly Noise" will be released digitally on December 21.
Funding for the new
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM album was aided by the
PledgeMusic.com project, which encourages fans to contribute funds to the recording of albums and the artists themselves to donate to charity as a part of their fundraising.
"Ugly Noise" audio sample:
"Play Your Part" audio sample:
When asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new album,
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM guitarist
Michael Gilbert told
Metal Army America in July, "I worked with [former
METALLICA and
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist]
Jason Newsted on a few songs, and he's given me some tips about some things and opened my view up towards how I look at my music and how I want the listeners to perceive the points I'm trying to make."
He added, "[
Jason] is really passionate about music, so when I called him and talked to him, I just wanted him to help out with some lyrical stuff and hear some of the music I was writing. He's a great songwriter, too. I'm not sure if everything that he got to do in
METALLICA, if he was restrained a little bit, I'm not sure about all that sort of stuff, but as far as with me, anytime he wants to write with me, he's got full rein and he's got absolute say-so in everything that happens. It's a 50-50 relationship, as it would be with
Eric [
'A.K.' Knutson], our singer, writing music with us, or
Kelly [
David Smith], our drummer."
Regarding the musical direction of the new
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM material,
Gilbert said, "It's probably the most mature it's ever been, but if you wanna classify it as close to any other record that we've done, it's probably gonna be close to [1995's]
'Drift'. If we were gonna make a record right after
'Drift', which was out fifth record,
'Ugly Noise' would be the next one — with this lineup, you know."
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM last year parted ways with drummer
Craig Nielsen and was rejoined by
Kelly David Smith.
The band's current lineup is the same as the one that recorded the
"Cuatro" (1992),
"Drift" (1995) and
"High" (1997) albums:
Eric "A.K." Knutson - Vocals
Ed Carlson - Guitar
Michael Gilbert - Guitar
Jason Ward - Bass
Kelly David Smith - Drums
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's latest album,
"The Cold", was released in Europe in February 2011 via
Nuclear Blast. The CD's cover artwork was created by
Travis Smith, who has previously worked with
OPETH,
NEVERMORE,
AMORPHIS and
KING DIAMOND, among others.
"The Cold" was released in North America on September 14, 2010.
