When you say this is a concept album, many will believe that you are talking about a prog band, and rightfully so, because from time to time the unspoken rule was that if you were a prog band you did concept albums, if you weren't one you would steer clear of the concept path.
God Forbid is not a prog band. All though they have parts that can be thought of as progressive, I would definitely not label them as progressive, but see here's my problem, because just like guessing the age of girls/women, I've always sucked at labelling bands. New Jersey-based
God Forbid is a mix of thrash, melodic, power, heavy metal but no matter they what ever label you put on them,
God Forbid have made themselves and us an elaborate concept album.
The concept of IV: Constitution of Treason is one of large scale. This is not your next door love story or what goes on in your neighbourhood, this is one big lifted index finger and a wakeup call. This is supposed to make you think about the state of mankind and how we bring down the great gift of mother earth and life.
The story is divided into three parts, the first part
Twilight of Civilization where the world we know today engage in a full scale nuclear war, and the result of the conflict is part two of the story
In the Darkest Hour, There Was One a new primitive world ruled by fascists. One day a man raises from the common world and speaks against the ideals of the new rule, he speaks of freedom of choice and the right to individuality. The man is banished to die in the wastelands, but he returns only to be ruthlessly burned alive for all of the public to see what will happen when you rise against the rule. Part three
Devolution takes place several centuries later where the hero's words now have become legendary words of wisdom and he is regarded as godlike.
The story draws upon the history of mankind, and its moral is not to let you define by mankind questionable tendency to repeat our mistakes.
I will let you decide if the concept holds water or not, personally I like the idea, but depending of you view of the world, you may not agree. Another thing that holds water is the music on IV: Constitution of Treason. This is 50 min and 23 seconds of pure delight, hard, aggressive, beautiful, grand, atmospheric metal.
God Forbid has really captured the three different feelings of the three chapters without making three different parts with three different music styles. This is tight all the way through, and this is one of the strengths of the album. You never sit back thinking what the he...? as you can do with some concept/story telling albums, where the concept sort of takes charge of the music. These five guys knows what and how they want to play and make their music, and they also know how to tell a story.
Just as in the concept
God Forbid do not want to forget the past in their music, and you can tell that
God Forbid have learned from earlier days, for example
The Lonely Dead has a Dave Mustaine'ish feel to it, without ever giving the feeling of being a rip-off. From to time to time you can feel some almost
Pink Floyd grandiosity in
Under This Flag and
To The Fallen Hero is almost an ode to 80's guitarists without ever sounding dated or out of place.
The music never get repetitive or too diverse, and with a mix of clean and aggressive vocals backed by really good backing vocals,
God Forbid give themselves a large work area, being able to tie the different mix of styles together into one, which is another strong part of the album. Just as the music, the different vocals really back up the atmosphere and feelings of concept.
With IV: Constitution of Treason,
God Forbid have set out on their own, putting everything out there, in a "this is what we do and this is how we feel, take it or leave it" manor, and I must say that I feel they have pulled it off in a very solid way.
Written by
Morten Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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