I was always fascinated by the cover as a young metal fan, probably because I always saw it fleetingly in magazines and never got to grasp the record from a record shop. Of course, so many millions of years later the sleeve looks rather dodgy, depicting some kind of reptilian, salivating cave monster ( Flotzilla!) crushing the Devil beneath scaled feet. Sound wise, it's the only Flotsam & Jetsam album I can play without getting a migraine, and it also features the bass playing, and lyrical talents of one Jason Newstead who would go on to feature heavily in Metallica. The record itself is pacey albeit melodic thrash metal that somehow caught the eye of the critics during the thrash waves of the '80s, although I don't hear anything that enables the album to stand-out so impressively. Even so, I'm not going to castrate the opus, it's a good thrash metal record with some good guitar work courtesy of Gilbert and Carlson but the vocals tend to grate a little, Eric A.K. though must've have surely struggled with the appalling lyrics of 'Hammerhead' despite the tight musicianship, and as each track hurtles by, the peculiar love thrash melodies of 'Iron tears' to the more robust 'Metalshock', it's clear that the band had the potential to remain in the shadow of bands such as Metallica, but for me, 'Doomsday...' is the only decent output by a band who flattered to deceive.
6.5/10
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