The what's going on in Thrash thread

[Slammed]

Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing it.

I used to be one of the BIGGEST Flots fans in the world, but I can tell you a lot of reasons they never made it, starting with their band name.

Trying to compete with Death Angel and Testament is probably why they opted for that by-the-numbers triggered bass drum tone.

I don't know that the band name has a great deal to do with it. People said The Beatles was a stupid name, people said WASP was a bad name and made up acronyms to try and prove it. Massive Appendage were told in the 80's they couldn't call themselves such because it was offensive, yet bands like Carcass followed with album covers showing body parts. People also tried to pick the shit out of Maiden for naming themselves after a "medieval" torture device which wasn't actually medieval and there is even doubts it was used as intended. Names don't make a band.

I agree with AK (because he said so) that much of them not being successful was that they didn't work hard enough and the bus passed them by. But I also think that their label should accept a large portion of the blame. Flotz really suffer from poor publicity outside America, which for a Euro based label is piss poor. Maybe poor representation can be linked to the band not working harder but the label still has a lot to answer for. The fact that people still talk about Flotz being Jason's first band, even ask whether Jason leaving is the reason they aren't bigger, proves that they never got marketing right.

 

[Slammed]

Crap the first line of my post should have been deleted. I tried to post a pic of my cd rack but the file was too big and it didn’t give me a thumbnail option.
I’m really just getting into the album.

Ken thanks you for the contribution to his pay cheque

 

[Slammed]

Lol. All those people are fucking stupid.

It's the 2000's dude, ya gotta bitch about things before praising them
These people ought to just be thankful they don't release stuff. Could you imagine some of these idiots bashing the crap out of everything then turning around and asking for a review of something they release. Thankfully about the only solid release any of these idiots have is a bowel movement and even then the solid part is in question!

 

[Slammed]

I’ll have to read this tonight. Thanks!

It's one of the better interviews I've seen with anyone. Bravewords did transcribe a little bit of it but didn't do it justice. Bravewords and Blabber should take note, it may not be a perfect interview but it's better than any they have done for years.

 

[Slammed]

Haha we are so fucked in this state of the country with covid. The world should be looking at us now as an example

We went into lockdown because a case from South Australia quarantine who tested negative in quarantine got let out and tested positive 4 days later in Victoria. Then after a week of testing it was revealed someone read the forms wrong and they'd listed the wrong supermarket as a site to be cleaned and get tested if you visited. Thousands upon thousands of unnecessary tests and shops closed for cleaning that didn't need it and the bug had been active in the community for 8 days. Lockdown happens and they start claiming it's the Indian variant. More tests, more cases and we are told it's a new variant all together and there is no link to any other case in the world and they can't find the first person. They (and the WHO etc) name the new variant delta and start telling us it's more contagious than any other despite on average only getting 6 positive tests a day in a community of 3 million people. For days we are told about the new variant, how contagious it is and that they don't know where it came from. Today they tell us not only is the variant not new it's fully traceable back to a Victoria quarantine case 2 weeks before the South Australia case they claim caused lock down. So not only does it again question our quarantine it begs the question why the hell could our trace teams not trace the genomic sequencing back to a case that was in our own system only 2 weeks earlier!!

 

[redfly]

I don't know that the band name has a great deal to do with it. People said The Beatles was a stupid name, people said WASP was a bad name and made up acronyms to try and prove it. Massive Appendage were told in the 80's they couldn't call themselves such because it was offensive, yet bands like Carcass followed with album covers showing body parts. People also tried to pick the shit out of Maiden for naming themselves after a "medieval" torture device which wasn't actually medieval and there is even doubts it was used as intended. Names don't make a band.

I agree with AK (because he said so) that much of them not being successful was that they didn't work hard enough and the bus passed them by. But I also think that their label should accept a large portion of the blame. Flotz really suffer from poor publicity outside America, which for a Euro based label is piss poor. Maybe poor representation can be linked to the band not working harder but the label still has a lot to answer for. The fact that people still talk about Flotz being Jason's first band, even ask whether Jason leaving is the reason they aren't bigger, proves that they never got marketing right.

That’s exactly what happened. That whole time Neptune and I were on the Flotz board they barely toured and did almost zero press or anything when an album came out. They barely played outside of Arizona.
The drummer (Craig) was basically forced to kinda manage them. And poor Mark Simpson got nearly all the writing dumped on him. I think he did a great job though. AK was kinda...well I don’t know, just not very serious. Although his vocals on the albums were still great.
Even their official website was started and run by a fan for years. When the website changed hands the new webmaster worked her ass off for free for them and had merch going and all sorts of stuff. And it kinda got blown off.
Kind of amazing that at least in my opinion they were still putting out good music and consistently every couple years.
But it’s a complete turn around now. The whole band is very committed and I think it shows. To me they are kicking ass.
But like You say the label is kinda slacking in the press department. Although they did do three videos. Even if two are lyric videos it’s more then Testament did. And they’ve had a box set version for the last three albums.
So things are really looking up.
The name never bothered me.

 

[redfly]

Ken thanks you for the contribution to his pay cheque

Lol seriously. Have you seen his resume? I don’t think he’s doing it for the Flotz-pay.

 

[redfly]

It's the 2000's dude, ya gotta bitch about things before praising them
These people ought to just be thankful they don't release stuff. Could you imagine some of these idiots bashing the crap out of everything then turning around and asking for a review of something they release. Thankfully about the only solid release any of these idiots have is a bowel movement and even then the solid part is in question!

Lol. Yeah. Imagine if these people’s bosses criticized them like they do bands.
So many metal heads now just seem like assholes.

 

[redfly]

It's one of the better interviews I've seen with anyone. Bravewords did transcribe a little bit of it but didn't do it justice. Bravewords and Blabber should take note, it may not be a perfect interview but it's better than any they have done for years.

I fell asleep. Gonna read it tonight.

 

[Slammed]

That’s exactly what happened. That whole time Neptune and I were on the Flotz board they barely toured and did almost zero press or anything when an album came out. They barely played outside of Arizona.
The drummer (Craig) was basically forced to kinda manage them. And poor Mark Simpson got nearly all the writing dumped on him. I think he did a great job though. AK was kinda...well I don’t know, just not very serious. Although his vocals on the albums were still great.
Even their official website was started and run by a fan for years. When the website changed hands the new webmaster worked her ass off for free for them and had merch going and all sorts of stuff. And it kinda got blown off.
Kind of amazing that at least in my opinion they were still putting out good music and consistently every couple years.
But it’s a complete turn around now. The whole band is very committed and I think it shows. To me they are kicking ass.
But like You say the label is kinda slacking in the press department. Although they did do three videos. Even if two are lyric videos it’s more then Testament did. And they’ve had a box set version for the last three albums.
So things are really looking up.
The name never bothered me.

I always liked the name. As sad as it is even back in the 80's the Flotz media machine was not very powerful. That article above talks about Doomsday being a 6 out of 5 K rating at Kerrang, yet in Australia we got fuck all news about them. Of course we knew they existed and we could get the album but after Doomsday it was nearly like they had broken up. News here was fed by public radio stations and under ground magazines, not MTV or mainstream news, so it was always going to be slow but bands like Flotz just disappeared from so many radars. Bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer still didn't spend heaps of time in the news but their media machines still pushed hard.

 

[Slammed]

Lol seriously. Have you seen his resume? I don’t think he’s doing it for the Flotz-pay.

But...but...but Metal Archives posters say it's true.

 

[Slammed]

Lol. Yeah. Imagine if these people’s bosses criticized them like they do bands.
So many metal heads now just seem like assholes.

Haha instead they would be the sort to sit on social media and bitch about their bosses, then cry when the boss sacks them

Yeah that's sadly true. There used to be a camaraderie with metalheads, it might have been unspoken sometimes but if you saw someone in a metal shirt you didn't want to walk the other way. These days thanks to people like the Kardashians wearing Slayer t-shirts you just don't know who to trust.

 

[Slammed]

I fell asleep. Gonna read it tonight.

I'll ring AK and see if he can come and read it to you as a bed time story!

 

[redfly]

I always liked the name. As sad as it is even back in the 80's the Flotz media machine was not very powerful. That article above talks about Doomsday being a 6 out of 5 K rating at Kerrang, yet in Australia we got fuck all news about them. Of course we knew they existed and we could get the album but after Doomsday it was nearly like they had broken up. News here was fed by public radio stations and under ground magazines, not MTV or mainstream news, so it was always going to be slow but bands like Flotz just disappeared from so many radars. Bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer still didn't spend heaps of time in the news but their media machines still pushed hard.

Yeah so true. You know I've never understood how No Place For Disgrace which was/is an amazing album...far better than a lot their peers of the time had only one video and it was a cover.
That's a big label fail right there.

 

[redfly]

But...but...but Metal Archives posters say it's true.

Oh shit! I stand corrected!

 

[redfly]

I'll ring AK and see if he can come and read it to you as a bed time story!

Maybe we can do it remotely. Something about a grown man reading another grown man a bedtime story seems very. Very. Wrong.

 

[Slammed]

Yeah so true. You know I've never understood how No Place For Disgrace which was/is an amazing album...far better than a lot their peers of the time had only one video and it was a cover.
That's a big label fail right there.

I agree it's such a weird choice. Even if the rest of the songs were duds to only have a cover of an Elton John song to slam the media with was a terrible idea. An Elton John cover would already have polarised some fans, but to be the only option at a time when singles were still widely bought and not just a video on the computer was very naive.

 

[Slammed]

Oh shit! I stand corrected!

Well sit down before you make the place look messy

 

[Slammed]

Maybe we can do it remotely. Something about a grown man reading another grown man a bedtime story seems very. Very. Wrong.

Damn you're picky

 

[Slammed]

https://plastichead.com/item.aspx?catno=zzzPHD12696HSWZXXXL

I want one!!!
Only $210 posted to my door, what a bargain!!!!

Although right now it wouldn't be much good, it's cold but not that bad, however in less than 12 hours we've have arctic winds at about 65-70mph and nearly 3 inches of rain. I think we've only ever had that much rain in such a short time once in the 40 years I've lived here.