High

High is the sixth album by Flotsam and Jetsam and their first release on Metal Blade Records, released on June 3rd, 1997. Until 2012’s Ugly Noise, it was their last album with guitarist Michael Gilbert and drummer Kelly David Smith.

The song titles were designed with the font types/logos of famous bands like Iron MaidenMetallicaKissVan HalenAC/DCJudas PriestMisfits, etc. to pay homage to those whom came before and inspired the band while it was coming up the ranks. As the classic metal logos representing song titles on the back cover should reveal, Flotsam & Jetsam had made no bows to the grunge revolution. High marked a return to the old days of thrash, bereft of any mainstream or prog-rock influences. Each song presented here is built on a simple riff structure; as a testament to the band’s songwriting, no tune is without its own distinction, which makes the consistent uptempo feel of the album work to maximum effect.  

The album also featured the Lard cover song “Fork Boy”

“High” Album Artwork

TRACK LIST:

  1. Final Step (6:40)
  2. Hallucinational (3:16)
  3. It’s On Me (3:24)
  4. High Noon (5:19)
  5. Your Hands (3:28)
  6. Monster (3:41)
  7. Lucky Day (4:53)
  8. Toast (2:56)
  9. High (3:31)
  10. Everything (6:02)
  11. Forkboy (3:54)
  12. Surgery (4:00) (Japanese bonus track)

ERIC A.K. – VOCALS | KELLY-DAVID SMITH – DRUMS | JASON WARD – BASS | EDWARD CARLSON – GUITARS | MICHAEL GILBERT – GUITARS

Lyrics

FINAL STEP

Abused, confused
Fought the blues, no shoes
Still I walk

No place, no face
Broken grin, hollow within
Still I walk

Abandoned my friend
Lost hold pot of gold
Left out cold

Compromise to mend
My demise, my end
Despised again

Standing on the edge of time
Looking down I realize
I am here one final footstep forward

Again seemed right
Follow the light it dimmed
No surprise

Somehow tricked perfect fit
Alibi, two-faced lie
No surprise

By the heels
Suddenly I’m pinned
Forced to kneel choked to heal

Failure failed
This rhyme picked my mind
Out of time

Standing on the edge of time
Looking down I realize
I am here one final footstep forward
End of my speech now is clear
What it is I’m doing here
I am here one final footstep forward

Abused, confused
Fought the blues, no shoes
Still I walk

No place, no face
Broken grin, hollow within
Still I walk

Abandoned my friend
Lost hold pot of gold
Left out cold

Detached, fucking wacked
Needle in, story ends
All depends

Standing on the edge of time
Looking down I realize
I am here one final footstep forward
End of my speech now is clear
What it is I’m doing here
Now I’m here one final footstep forward

Standing on the edge of time
Looking down I realize
I am here one final footstep forward

Standing on the edge of time
Standing on the edge of time
Standing on the edge of time

HALLUCINATIONAL

Frustration, application
Cremation, confirmation
Creation, confrontation
Dedication, disintegration

You have seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational
You have seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational

Equation, stagnation
Radiation, duration
Imagination, starvation
Declaration, detenation

You have seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational
You have seen the horns and tail
Is it your hallucinational

You have seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational
You say you’ve seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational

Intention, separation
Speculation, T.V. station
Hypertension, elevation
Indication, hallucination

You have seen the horns and tail
Can you be hallucinational
You say you’ve seen the horns and tail
I think you’re hallucinational

IT’S ON ME

A shotgun up against my eye
They’re kicking my door in
Why this time
I thought they had theirs and I had mine

Lights going on and off
Sirens blazing
I wonder who they’re chasing

It’s on me
I can’t see
What you see
It’s on me

All those shots died from a broken heart
Got to end before getting to start
Unknowing sleeping birds cats love to tear apart

Lights going on and off
Sirens blazing
They’re driving me fucking crazy

A shotgun up against my eye
I think it’s my turn now to die

Lights going on and off
Sirens blazing
I’m wondering who they’re chasing

It’s on me
I can’t see
What you see
It’s on me
It’s on me
I can’t see
What you see
It’s on me

HIGH NOON

I’ve already been to heaven
So I might as well step down
Up seems like a real good offer
But I’m gonna have to turn it down
Losing heart
Wondering if it’s worth saving
Well at least what remains
After it hits the pavement

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

Trains change
They jump the tracks
They almost always
Switch back

Once again it’s just me
The smoking empty shotgun shell
So close to a dream you can’t touch
My very own version of hell
Playing tables and gambling
Bad hands of cards
Running out of crosswalks
Betting on the oddest odds

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

Trains change
They jump the tracks
They almost always
Switch back
I’ve changed
I’ve jumped the tracks
I almost always switch back

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

I’ve already been to heaven
So they asked me to step down
Up was a real good offer
But I screwed up big and turned it down
Lost heart
Knowing it’s not worth saving
No usable remains
After it hits the pavement

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

Trains change
They jump the tracks
They almost always
Switch back
I’ve changed
I’ve jumped the tracks
I almost always switch back

Trains change
They jump the tracks
They almost always
Switch back
You’ve changed
You’ve jumped the tracks
You’ve almost always switched back

And now I know for sure
You knew I was sincere

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

I just had to make sure
You knew I was sincere

YOUR HANDS

Broken hearts, broken jaws
Lowly weekends break tonight
Beaten fools, beaten dogs
Stolen deals, inside jobs
Coldly run fingers through again
Swollen faces, beaten dogs
All turn away and say amen

When it’s in your hands and you can’t feel
When it’s in your heart but you can’t feel you fell

Know a little about nothing
I know two things that’s for sure
I know a bit of everything
Watch em cheating, watch em leave
Going down, going, gone
Watch them buried within reach
Are you knowing what they’re on

When it’s in your hands and you can’t feel
When it’s in your heart but you can’t feel you fell
When it’s in your hands and you can’t feel
When it’s in your heart and you can’t feel you fell

Cheaply spending, cheaply bought
Etherize those bloodshot eyes
Never ending, never caught
Turning heads, turning beds
Sleeping with the blown away
Trading heads, trading beds
Your heart in a bag and thrown away

When it’s in your hands and you can’t feel
When it’s in your heart but you can’t feel you fell
When it’s in your hands but you can’t feel
When it’s in your heart but you can’t feel you fell

MONSTER

Running them off the highway
Running them off the rail
Running their babies into cold black water
Just me and my stash and my scale

Filling the tank over flowing
Filling a dirty syringe
Filling another cemetary
Hope drinking blood don’t make you cringe no

Seeing is still not beleiving
Seeing that you’re still here
Seeing you fall from the eighth floor window
Your reputation to smear

Shooting in every direction
Shooting stars inside our heads
Shooting before you see the whites of their eyes
I bet you never thought you’d see me dead no

I’m turning into a monster
I’ll turn the heat up high
I’ll turn away from this mess I’m burning
The smell of skin on fire
I’m turning into a monster
I’ll turn the heat up high
I’ll turn away from this mess I’m burning
The smell of skin on fire
I’m turning into a monster yeah

Shooting in every direction
Shooting stars inside our heads
Shooting before you see the whites of their eyes
I bet you never thought you’d see me dead no

I’m turning into a monster
I’ll turn the heat up high
I’ll turn away from this mess I’m burning
The smell of skin on fire
I’m turning into a monster
I’ll turn the heat up high
I’ll turn away from this mess I’m burning
The smell of skin on fire
I’m turning into a monster yeah
A monster

LUCKY DAY

If the fire can’t be put out
Let it burn, let it burn
If you haven’t learned your lesson yet
You’ll never learn, never learn
When it’s hard to hold them down
Let em fly, let em fly
If they don’t want to live
Let em die, let em die

It’s not so complicated so
Just let them have their way
You see I, I always get my way
Another lucky day

If it’s easier to let it go
Let it go
When the water keeps on rising
Let it flow, let it flow
Under too much presure
Then explode, just explode
If they don’t want to know
They won’t know, they won’t know

It’s not so complicated so
Just let them have their way
You see I, I always get my way
Another lucky day, lucky day

If it’s cheaper to kill
Then let em die, let em die
If their tears can’t be stopped
Let em cry, let em cry, cry

It’s not so complicated so
Just let them have their way
You see I, I always get my way
Another lucky day, lucky day

TOAST

Pusher, pushing a dream
Go ahead and pick a scarecrow clean
One long season mean
Or just letting off steam
Only scratched it twice
Made it bleed real nice

Bloody, body filled with bullet holes
Your eyes are black like coals
Wrapped around a pole
You have what I stole
Old fashioned cocaine
Standing on my brain

Gone tomorrow, here today
I never saw what hit me
It will all rumble away
I never heard a thing

Gone tomorrow, here today

Cutting into line again
Cutting it close in between
Laughing cause you’re funny choking
Laughing cause you’re turning blue
Laugh all the way to the bank
One less asshole acts like you

Gone tomorrow, here today
I never saw what hit me
It will all crumble away
I never heard a thing
Gone tomorrow, here today
One less asshole man, hahaha

HIGH

I know it seems
Like I like falling
Too glazed to try crawling
Very good at alcoholing
Very good at alcoholing

If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No, no, no

I guess I don’t really care
As long as the juice shows up there
Take a peek in the mirror
To see who’s there
I guess I don’t really care

If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No I won’t be buying it
If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No, no, no

They told me it’ll thrill ya
Just like the bottle it’ll spill ya
The fucking combination’ll kill ya
They told me it’ll thrill ya

If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No I won’t be buying it
If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No I won’t be buying it
If I can’t get high
Then I can’t get by
So I won’t be buying it
No

EVERYTHING

I felt the moon today
Everything is drawn away
Water splashes on my skin it makes me dry
It makes no sense at all
Why didn’t I get a call
When the whole world knew but me
There was nothing left to see

Everything reminds me
Of something from my past
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now

Friends are friends until the end
How soon will it end today
Friends are friends close by
How soon they’re gone away

An old man tries to run me off
As he stops to wheeze and cough
I seize the fruit
And steal his day away

Everything reminds me
Of something from my past
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now

I saw the moon today
Everything just melts away
The sun beats upon my skin it makes me sweat
It makes no sense at all
Why didn’t I hear the call
When the whole world saw but me
There was no where left to be

Everything reminds me
Of something from my past
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I know is in the past
And everything I see is now
Everything I see is, everything I see is, everything I see is now

FORKBOY

(Originally recorded by Lard)

A fork is a cold shiny tool
To pierce, tear and ingest
Whoever has the fork in hand
Controls the meal of its choice
We’re told the first few punctures
They’re for our own good
Better carved up in pieces
Than blown up in the oven

Agh! Agh! Agh!

Forkboy
Flies by night on stolen fuel
To Santa Rosa, CA
Opens a fake employment office
“Want a job? Go get me drugs”
People desperate for work
Return to quite a surprise
Busted for intent to sell
Cops pay him a bounty
Forkboy skips town

Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh!

We came
We peed
We conquered
You bleed

The choice:
Fork Boy
Or Finger Food

Ugly joy
What does it replace?
Why wait
When you can eat yourself alive today

Junk bondage takeover glutton
Ready to bore in
Unfold his rotary blades inside
Pull the guts out and resell them
Buys out his next target
With the last one’s pension funds
Thousands more thrown out of work
So Leona won’t have to settle for a mint

Forkboy
Picked by the FBI
To be the black pied piper
After Dr. King died
Watches soap operas on TV
While 6 billion’s disappears from HUD
Who are you working for
What did you hope to gain
Why do you hate your past
So much you destroy the ones you love

Forkboy!

SURGERY

From the Japanese release of “High”

“It’s not supposed to be fair
It’s not supposed to care
It’s not supposed to be free
It’s taken part of me

It doesn’t hear compromise
It tells you all its lies
It says on minute to stay
It pushes you away

Light the torch and breathe
Cook some more for me
Re-up and then
We’ll do it again

It rips your soul to shreds
It’s changing all that’s in your head
It’s swelling up your wounded heart
It’s just about to start

It will work out fine
It’s mastered dishing out all the lines
It carries needles, guns, and knives
It enters little lives

You think it’s too late now
All you can think is more somehow
Just light the torch and take it in
It’s all you need again

You say it works out fine
You’ve finished dishing out all the lines
Now you carry guns, needles, and knives
You ruin little lives”

© Flotsam and Jetsam 2012