This is one of my all-time favorite Thrash Metal albums. It was the first
Forbidden album I heard and it just blew me away many years ago. Today it is still a great example of technicality, tightness, speed
and melody taken to a higher level. The songs are very well composed. Creative riffs, guitar solos, wild breaks and intense vocals all swirl around in a tighly controlled musical mayhem, making for a very compact record with no fluff, only quality music from start to finish.
Gently easing the listener into a state of trance with peaceful acoustic guitars
Parting of the ways also has a slightly foreboding feeling to it and it serves as a nice intro before
Infinite blasts off. Gallopping drums and aggressive guitar riffs play ping pong with your head and as the soaring vocals of Russ Anderson enter the song you find yourself on the way to the stratosphere. The guitar solo is a killer. In fact all the guitar solos on this album are very impressive and serve their purpose. They are inventive, melodic and worth listening to.
Russ is able to reach some insanely high notes. He doesn't do this often through the album, but when he does you will think, Wow!. Besides that his voice has a real primal feel to it. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it fits the music extremely well. The rythm section is as tight as it gets. The two guitarists Craig Locicero and Tim Calvert complement each other perfectly, sharing solos and riffs in a very entertaining way. Paul Bostaph's drum work is fabulous. Seriously, focusing on the drums on this albums is both challenging and rewarding.
Nothing bad can be said about any of the songs on here but my personal favorite is the title track. It takes its time and builds up a great energy that is let loose when the genius chorus arrives. Again the drum work deserves a mention.
R.I.P. is almost 8 minutes and will take much longer to absorb. Opening with an unlikely bass-line the song soon takes the thrashier route and goes through many interesting passages on its way to... peace?
Other stand-out tracks include fast paced slayers like
Step By Step and
Out of Body, which will leave you breathless as well as the slightly less frenetic
Tossed away, which has a cool atmosphere and another awesome guitar solo part.
One Foot In Hell has a really cool, held back and intense feeling to it as well as a lengthy shared guitar solo part.
The lyrics are as aggresive as the music and mostly deal with the decline of the human race through subjects such as religion, government control and poverty, often served with a pinch of irony to get the message across.
Overall the album is a total attack on your sense, only slowing down for the brief acoustic interlude a couple of times and returning to the fray soon after.
Forbidden is one of those sadly overlooked bands that never got the recognition they deserved. They disbanded in 1998 after releasing four studio albums. The musicians on
Twisted Into Form are all highly talented and some of them have since gone on to become members of major bands like
Slayer (Paul Bostaph) and
Nevermore (Tim Calvert) while others have formed new bands.
I think I have praised this album enough. Do yourself a favor and check it out. I saw it the other day at the online store
The Laser's Edge.
Written by
Steen Thursday, April 7, 2005
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Forbidden was one of the best Bay Area Thrash bands.
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