Check the comments of any of Flagman‘s Instagram posts and you are guaranteed to find a plethora of pithy remarks, all circling the concept of ‘Primus of A Down’. This is clearly referencing some of the power trio’s more obvious influences, and while the comments may or may not be derogatory, I don’t think Flagman minds the comparisons too much. Their 2024 album Tastes Incredible encapsulates a lot of what made Flagman pop off on social media – crazy, Les Claypool-esque slap bass, bizarro semi-spoken Serj Tankian vocals, and whistle tone screams rivaling Methwitch. This veritable powerhouse of deep-fried, bass-heavy nu-metal floored me as soon as I first heard the opening riff of “Hot Off The Log”.
After listening to their brand new EP, titled Before The Blast, I can safely say that it seems like the self-described ‘Flagbois’ are headed in a new direction sonically. I got a chance to chat with frontman Sam Stewart about this most recent effort and the shift in sound.
‘Before The Blast was born out of an experiment. At the end of March, I moved from Florida to Washington and I realized that was forcing my hand into learning how to track and record on my own. I threw myself into developing my little home studio setup and set out to record at least one idea a day, whether that was a riff on guitar or bass or whatever. After a few weeks, I started to naturally gravitate towards a few ideas – I think the first full song ended up being “The Punishment Committee”, and once that creativity started to flow I just kinda kept tugging on the thread and all of a sudden these songs sort of fell out. It was very different from the way we’ve done things in the past. Some of the ideas that ended up on Tastes Incredible date back three or four years prior and in a lot of cases, are radically different from what they started out as. This process was a lot more immediate and streamlined. It was a nice creative change of pace to be able to turn something around in six months rather than years.’
“The Punishment Committee” is a great snapshot of Before The Blast as a whole; the signature bass still shines through, but the vocal delivery skews much more Ministry industrial half-whispered than any other Flagman track. “The Nobody In Charge” drifts into doom territory, clocking in at over six minutes and featuring layered, heavily reverbed vocals atop plodding shoegaze guitars before returning to a more comfortable progressive metal zone around the halfway mark. While the entire outing is quite short – five tracks in just under 15 minutes – the style shift is evident regardless, and these handful of songs leave the listener with plenty to chew on.
Something quite notable about Before The Blast is that it is essentially a miniature concept album, taking place in some sort of hyper-sinister corporate universe that, tragically, is not dissimilar to our own. The marketing for this EP and the accompanying tour reminded me of some of the early aughts ARGs that fascinated me. Stewart weighed in on this aspect of the record as well:
‘[A concept album] was something I’ve always been keen to explore, but we never really had an outlet for it. We sort of did that with the “Breakfast”, “Lunch”, and “Dinner” tracks on Tastes Incredible, but that was sort of the La Croix of conceptual albums, really just sort of a hint more than a full attempt at it. I don’t know if I fully realized whatever it was that I was trying to bring to life, but it was a new area of exploration that I found exciting. I think there will be more threads as we move onto our future projects.’
What remains consistent through the band’s discography, however, is the monumental emphasis on the bass as the leading instrument, often almost feeling like a showcase for Stewart’s breakneck, thumpy playing. I asked him to tell me a little bit about his history and what kind of artists are inspiring him today.
‘I got a bass for my twelfth birthday, although I really wanted to play the drums, but my parents weren’t so hot on that idea. A lot of my learning came through watching other people play, whether that was live or in a video I found on YouTube. I always just kinda watched people’s hands and where they were putting them and trying to figure out how I could make the same sounds. MonoNeon, Thundercat, and Logan Kane are consistently blowing my mind.’
The Thundercat worship is certainly present on tracks like “The Flashlight of God”, which features prominent strummed arpeggios and triplets on what I can only imagine is a five or six-stringed bass. This technique shows up a lot in Stewart’s playing, and I was pleased to hear it again in a new context.
So, having had the chance to step out of their comfort zone with Before The Blast, I was curious to see if Flagman thought they’d have a so-called ‘return to form’, or continue to push their sound in this new direction. Stewart offered:
‘Like I said earlier, the EP was born out of an experiment, and part of that experiment was figuring out how we would approach our fourth album. I’d like to get more experimental but to be honest, I don’t really know what’s in or out of our ‘lane’. Everything we’ve ever done has always kind of started from the desire to make something that we enjoy ourselves. I know for sure that we’re going to keep doing that.’
Truly an artist’s answer there.
Flagman just wrapped up their first-ever West Coast tour, but you can follow them on social media (linked below) for more updates on where to hear their madness live.
I’d also like to formally apologize to Stewart for 100% stealing ‘the La Croix of conceptual albums’ in the future.
Flagman is:
Jarrett Levar: Drums
Cameron Price: Guitar, vocals
Sam Stewart: Bass, lead vocals
