In Name Only Dragon

The first reference I saw to Alan Simon was the credit on Sonja Kristina’s recent anthology – it’s the track that’s also included here called ‘The Passion’. Then an Alan Simon compilation arrives to add to the stack of promos. So where does he come from?

Few shadows cast as wide as that of a former member of the fold exiting and going on to what can only be described as a contender for the biggest phenomenon in metal. Apart from Exodus, who suffered this fate when their pentatonic scale shredder Kirk Hammett joined the Metallica clan, the only band who can claim to have been afflicted by this fate to a greater degree was the trailblazing power thrashing institution out of Phoenix, Arizona dubbed Flotsam And Jetsam. Despite a long and prolific career following his exodus, the specter of former bassist Jason Newsted has hung over this outfit, to the point where it is rare to have a conversation about the band named from the scattered booty of a seafaring vessel without his name being dropped in the first sentence. Nevertheless, recent years have seen these nautical scavengers overcoming this disposition with a streak of thrash-happy brilliance, of which 2021’s “Blood In The Water” stands as their strongest outing since 1988’s “No Place For Disgrace.”