FORBIDDEN — Forbidden Evil (review)

Album · 1988 · Thrash Metal

4.5/5 · 2019-04-23
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While the Tampa Bay Area may have been the epicenter for American death metal emerging, the San Francisco Bay Area was ahead of its East coast counterparts when it came to the early thrash metal scene. Metallica may have started in LA but moved to the Bay Area before releasing their debut “Kill Em All” in 1983 and while with Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, constituted the so called “big four,” so too did the Bay Area have a big four of its own. Of course Metallica topped this list but alongside one of metal’s most successful bands of all time were Testament, Exodus and FORBIDDEN as well as the slightly less successful acts like Death Angel, Autopsy, VioLence amongst several others. FORBIDDEN formed in 1985 as FORBIDDEN EVIL the early lineup released a few demos and some famous bootlegged live albums before dropping the EVIL of their name in fear of being mistaken for a black metal band but kept the original moniker as at the title of the band’s first official album title.

FORBIDDEN delivered a no nonsense approach to thrash metal and followed more in the style of Exodus than the classically infused Metallica. While the band’s sound changed from album to album, FORBIDDEN EVIL delivers an explosive delivery of thrash fury that found the twin guitar devastation of Craig Locicero and Matt Camacho delivering a punishing thunderous roar of guitar riffing fury, squealing solos and headache inducing distortion turned up to 11 with the rhythm section of bassist Matt Camacho and drummer Paul Bostaph taking cues from the early speed metal playbook and creating an incessant pummeling stampede that allowed singer Russ Anderson’s operatic to soar over. The band scored the production skills of John Cuniberti who had worked with Joe Satriani and FORBIDDEN EVIL instantly became a Bay Area cult metal favorite which launched FORBIDDEN into the top tier status of Bay Area thrash metal, a status which has remained unchanged over the decades since this 1988 release.

“Chalice Of Blood” hits the ground running with an incessantly frenetic guitar riff stampede and finds Anderson alternating between high pitched melodic NWOBM vocal styles as well as the more aggressive shouted vocals that anchor this in the then fully thriving thrash metal scene. While many thrash bands included acoustic intros and moments of calmer reflection, FORBIDDEN EVIL rarely stops for a breath and instead delivers an incessant romp of palm muted shredding, sweep and tremolo picking and frenetic double bass drumming. Exceptions do occur as the bass intro of “Off The Edge” and the surreal opening of “Feel No Pain” but these little deviations don’t last for long and then it’s back to headbanging like there’s no tomorrow. In this way, FORBIDDEN was looking towards the aggressiveness delivered by bands like Slayer or Kreator whose uncompromising approach kept the underground thrash metal scene on a whole other level than the tame glam metal that was on the top of the harder edged music scene.

One of the reasons that the Bay Area thrash metal scene was so successful is that the bands formed a network and set up extensive tours so there were many shows where you could see several bands and after all was said and done, FORBIDDEN became one of the more popular acts due to their perfect balance of thrash metal aggression, excellent songwriting skills and superb diversity in the performances. FORBIDDEN EVIL remains a classic of the genre and it’s easy to hear why. The songwriting duties were shared which gives a more diverse perspective and musicians are all on the top of their game and the album doesn’t have a single weak track and delivers the trash metal goods through its satisfying 43 minute run. While the band hasn’t been exactly prolific and changed the style on each album, FORBIDDEN EVIL remains the purest thrash metal experience as the band became more experimental on the following “Twisted Into Form” which most consider their magnum opus, however there’s no denying that FORBIDDEN EVIL remains one of the 80s most exciting and electrified deliveries of unadulterated thrash metal in its unadulterated form.