FORBIDDEN — Forbidden Evil (review)

FORBIDDEN — Forbidden Evil album cover Album · 1988 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Forbidden Evil" is the debut full-length studio album by US, San Francisco, California based thrash metal act Forbidden. The album was released through Combat Records in September 1988. The band was formed under the Forbidden Evil monicker in 1985 as was an active part of the Bay Area thrash metal scene of the 80s (featuring in those days Rob Flynn from Machine Head on guitars), releasing several demos and playing quite a few live shows, before changing their name to Forbidden in 1987 shortly before recording "Forbidden Evil". While Forbidden is often mentioned as an influential and important part of the 80s Bay Area thrash metal scene, they were one of the acts from those days, along with contemporaries like Exodus and Heathen, which never broke through to a mainstream metal audience, and probably as a consequence folded in 1997.

The music on the album is technically well played US thrash metal. Forbidden sets themselves a bit apart from the majority of thrash metal acts from those days as lead vocalist Russ Anderson combines his raw staccato thrash metal vocals, with more melodic oriented clean vocal parts (sometimes high pitched). The whole thing is still pretty raw but the occasionally melodic vocals provide the music with valuable memorability. And the 8 tracks on the 40:58 minutes long album, are all high quality material, written and performed by a top tier band. Tracks like "Chalice of Blood" and "Through Eyes of Glass" are among the highlights, but this is an album with no filler material. Quite a few of the tracks appeared on the band´s demos, but here they are enhanced by a better production, and more detailed arrangements, to provide them with new life.

In addition to the very strong and convincing vocal performance by Russ Anderson, the rest of the band are also very well playing. Fast paced aggressive riffing, great guitar solos, a busy and audible bass, and precision drumming by Paul Bostaph (who later has played with both Exodus, Testament, and of course Slayer). A tight yet organic performance by all involved, which is further enhanced by the raw, powerful, and detailed sound production.

"Forbidden Evil" is upon conclusion a very strong debut release by Forbidden and even though the band didn´t get the big breakthrough with this release (or any of their subsequent releases), "Forbidden Evil" is widely considered a "classic" Bay Area thrash metal release from the 80s, and personally I think that reputation is fully deserved. The performances on the album are more than convincing, the sound production is well sounding for the time, and the material is relatively varied and memorable. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I prefer the NeXT one, but this is a great album too.
Kingcrimsonprog wrote:
more than 2 years ago
One of my all time favourite albums.

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