siLLy puPPy 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.

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.

Warthur On this debut album, Forbidden follow the Testament playbook in two significant ways. The first is that, like Testament with The Legacy, they named their debut album after the name the band used to have when they put out their early demos. The second is that they offer up a raw, evil-sounding style of thrash metal which makes up for not having the sort of recording budget enjoyed by the leaders of the genre with sheer aggression. Indeed, "Forbidden Evil" is an apt name, because there's this sinister tone to the album which I don't think any thrash band of its generation ever quite matched, with the sickening chainsaw buzz of the guitars really getting under the listener's skin.

Kingcrimsonprog American Bay Area Thrash Metal band Forbidden are one of the great underrated Thrash bands that everyone who gets into the genre a little further than normal will love but who unfortunately never seem to have broke out of that limited audience and gotten the recognition that their fantastic music deserved, even with the odd couple of fans giving them a curiosity based on association with Machine Head’s Rob Flynn.

Their 1988 debut album Forbidden Evil is rightly regarded as a classic album by most Thrash fans and is honestly one of the best albums that the genre ever spawned, even among the very tight competition. In fact it is still arguably the band’s finest achievement to date. If you are a big fan of the genre then chances are that you’ll likely enjoy this album a hell of a lot.

The album is significant for its excellent dual guitar lead breaks and many wonderful guitar solos, this really is a musician’s kind of album, with startling displays of talent and virtuosos musicianship on display, of course there are just a lot of good old fashion great riffs, so as not to alienate the core listener and disappear up their own pretensions. Forbidden Evil is indeed still at its heart a hard, fast and heavy thrash album.

The drums are handled by Paul Bostaph, who would later go on to play in many of the best ever Thrash bands including Testament, Exodus and Slayer. He puts down a really strong performance on this record and there are a lot of fierce and creative drum fills and rock solid beats throughout.

Russ Anderson has an interesting voice and can add harsh vocals into the mix to suit the heavier riff based sections as well as soaring melodic vocals in a more traditional style, which suits the more melodic guitar, lead centric sections.

Highlights include the wonderful album opener ‘Chalice Of Blood,’ as well as ‘Through Eyes Of Glass,’ and the incredibly catchy ‘March Into Fire,’ all of which will stick in your head after listening to.

Overall; Forbidden Evil is a great album and deserves all the positive attention that it receives, if you are serious about your Thrash Metal then you should definitely consider getting yourself a copy; everything the genre represents in terms of style, delivery and musicianship are represented incredibly well on this strong and memorable album.

Time Signature Off the edge...

Genre: thrash metal

Forbidden's semi-eponymous (it's called "Forbidden Evil" which was the original name of the band) debut album is a thrash metal classic which has perhaps not received the attention that it deserves. The music is fast and aggressive with some extremely fast guitar riffage and drumming, yet it strikes me as being very melodic. Of course, the fact that the vocalist make use of a higher register and a wider tonality than many of the thrash metal vocalists of the time did enables the addition of a melodic dimension, but there is also something inherently melodic to many of the riffs themselves. It is quite interesting how Forbidden blends in the aggresion of thrash metal with a more melodic approach resulting in tracks like "Chalice of Blood", for instance, which has that Slayer-esque brutality to it (the chorus mught as well have been a Slayer chorus) but with melodic vocals and riffage.

I do not really see any weaknesses in the music itself, but the production could perhaps have been better. While I like how sharp and brutal the guitar distotion is, I do not think that the guitars fill enough in the overall picture.

I would recommend this album to any thrash metal fan, because it is simply a classic.

Stephen What makes Forbidden is so important to the scene is probably because of the two infamous names, Robb Flynn and Paul Bostaph. While Flynn was absent in this debut and later went on to form Machine Head, he actually contributed three strong tunes, included "Chalice of Blood" and "Forbidden Evil". Bostaph himself, was well-known with his works in Slayer and Exodus, before finally joined the force of Testament.

Many fans classified Forbidden's musical style as technical thrash while funny thing is most of the times I heard Forbidden plays a much more melodic-based metal style with high-pitch voice which is quite rare, if we want to compare him to early-movement thrash throats such as Hetfield, Mustaine, or Billy. Nevertheless, not to be confused with the genre game, Forbidden is definitely a thrash tribe, underrated act to be precise.

Starting with "Chalice of Blood", Forbidden paved their way through this aggressive anthem and introduced a wild vocal range of Russ Anderson. "Off The Edge" stirred the tempo up and down with Anderson's rushing scream and Bostaph's wicked beat. "Through Eyes of Glass", my favourite piece, broke out with a thick unbeatable rhythm and killer shreds overlapping each other performed by the duo Alvelais/Locicero. "Forbidden Evil" and "As Good As Dead" shared the same insanity with the aforementioned track, only this time, Anderson showcased an acrobatic singing, hitting the ultra-high notes and continued the normal gritty verse in a matter of seconds, with ease.

Bostaph's commanding drumbeats opened the second half of the album with the hellraising "March Into Fire". The gunshot intro in "Feel No Pain" reminded me of Metallica's "One", but dropped the thought of acoustical intro, in fact, they launched an assaulting groove and maintained the pressure to the end. Of the eight tracks presented here, almost impossible to pick a filler as each of the song got their own unique scent, but probably "Follow Me" is the least favorite of mine. To sum up, this is undoubtly a true sensation, probably still unrecognized by many and still need some maturity process to gain the masterpiece status, but "Forbidden Evil" is still a victorious debut you must buy.