Forbidden
Formed: 1987
From:
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
Last Known Status: Regrouped
Latest Forbidden News
Below is our complete Forbidden news coverage, including columns and articles pertaining to the band. Some articles listed may be indirectly related, such as side projects of the band members, etc.
Displaying records 61 - 80 of 117 1 2 3 4 5 6 Last
Forbidden Streaming New Song
Ractivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Forbidden have uploaded the track “Forsaken At The Gates” to their official MySpace page. "Forsaken At The Gates' is Forbidden's new thrash anthem for the 2010's and beyond," commented guitarist Craig Locicero. "If we could go back in a time machine to when we called it a day in 1997, there still would have been no way that we could have written ‘Forsaken…'back then. We needed the distance and hind-site to write this record and had to get a grip on what the hell Forbidden was all about when we started. Our vision is clear. We are a thrash metal band! 'Forsaken At The Gates' says it all.
"If I were to compare ‘Forsaken At The Gates’ to any of our old songs, it would be ‘March Into Fire,’ which was one of the first songs that I'd ever written in my life. Ironically, ‘Forsaken…’ was the last song we'd written for Omega Wave. Funny how things work. As far as the song itself, Mark was a fucking beast when we tracked it! I knew we had a monster on the first take, great energy and sense of urgency in his performance. It made one hell of a spine to connect all of the other moving parts to. Everyone blasted through their tracks with the same sense of urgency too. Playing those riffs, my blood pumps harder then in any other song I've played on. It was an intense session to track and Matt cruises through the entire thing like a bulldozer! The solo section brings me back to the good 'ol days when trade-offs were all over the classic metal records we all love. I really love playing and writing with Steve, he makes me so much better and I think we make a great team.
"After that, it's Russ that's next fucking level! Tim and I got him fired up and locked him behind the glass until he sounded as crazed as they lyrics are intended to convey. The song itself is about turning away the masses from the numerous underground shelters around the planet that will try to seek protection from any natural or unnatural disaster that would effect all of us on the surface. More...
Gama Bomb Comments On Tour With Crocell
Irish thrashers GAMA BOMB are currently touring Europe on their "Graveyard Disturbance" headlining tour, with support from Danish metal band CROCELL.
As the tour nears its end, GAMA BOMB frontman PHILLY BYRNE updates:
"We've seen much bigger crowds and at least four contenders for the rowdiest shows ever so far. This has been the best European tour we've ever done and it's sharpening us up nicely for our stretch in the US. We're in Spain right now and urge any fans reading this to bring us some manchego and rioja." More...
Forbidden Comments On New Album Artwork
Bay area thrashers Forbidden have revealed the cover artwork for the band's upcoming album "Omega Wave," which can be viewed here. Forbidden guitarist / songwriter Craig Locicero has checked in with the following update about his collaborative process with artist Kent Mathieu:
"As soon as Forbidden committed to writing a new record, I wondered where Kent Mathieu was. I'd always felt like Forbidden Evil and Twisted Into Form were pretty iconic album covers… when things like that actually seemed to matter. Then, the good people at Nuclear Blast actually located Kent! I got pretty excited and reached out to him immediately. He was equally excited to hear from us, too. The only real direction I gave Kent was to somehow tie the past into the future. Find a way to make the two skulls [from Forbidden Evil’s artwork] vital again. He had worked up about 12 sketches all kinds of variously cool stuff. Out of all of the pictures he sent me, I liked the way one of them was laid out because of it's simplicity. After thinking about it for a long while, I had a concept for Kent to work with. The Omega Wave concept. The title wasn't decided until I had a good idea for the cover.
"I don't want to over-explain the actual picture because there is enough symbolism for everyone to interpret everything differently. That is always a plus, in my book. What I can tell you is that the skull in the center is based upon the crystal skull of Belize. This skull was found at some of the pyramid ruins in two perfect pieces, jawbone and upper cranium. It was always quite a mystery, but some years later Hewlett Packard scientists did extensive tests on the skull and found many anomalies. More...
Forbidden To Play 70,000 Tons Of Metal
Bay area thrashers Forbidden have checked in with the following announcement about performing on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise:
"Imagine starting the year in style. In January 2011, 40 Heavy Metal bands and 2,000 fans will go to the Caribbean to take over the luxury cruise ship 'Majesty of the Seas' for a 5 day and 4 night trip of a lifetime. Get all the information on the who, what, when, and where at this location...see you there!"
You can also check out Forbidden's music via the band's MySpace page.
Forbidden Updates Tour Schedule
Bay area thrashers Forbidden have updated their North American tour schedule with the following upcoming dates:
11/4 2010 Jaxx - W. Springfield VA
11/5 2010 Montage Music Hall - Rochester NY
11/6 2010 Crazy Donkey - Farmingdale NY
11/7 2010 Club Hell - Providence RI
11/8 2010 Sonar - Baltimore MD
11/9 2010 Gil's - Virginia Beach VA
11/10 2010 Amos - Charlotte NC
11/11 2010 Volume 11 - Raleigh NC
11/12 2010 Hooligans - Jacksonville NC
11/13 2010 Club Firestone - Orlando FL
11/14 2010 Culture Room - Ft Lauderdale FL
11/15 2010 The Masquerade - Atlanta GA
11/16 2010 Peabody’s - Cleveland OH
11/17 2010 Newport Music Hall - Columbus OH
11/18 2010 Diesel Nightclub - Pittsburgh PA
11/19 2010 Rocko's - Manchester NH
11/20 2010 Starland Ballroom - Sayreville NJ
11/22 2010 Foufounes Electriques - Montreal QC - CANADA
11/23 2010 MOD Club - Toronto ON - CANADA
11/24 2010 Blondies - Detroit MI
11/26 2010 Phoenix Hill Tavern - Louisville KY
11/27 2010 Reggie's - Chicago IL
11/28 2010 The Rave - Milwaukee WI
11/29 2010 Station 4 - St Paul MN More...
Forbidden Issues New Studio Update
Reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Forbidden continue their work at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California recording their fifth studio album, "Omega Wave." Guitarist Steve Smyth checked in with another studio update:
“Day 4: Things were starting to flow now. I decided to move on to a song called ‘Dragging My Casket.’ This song has a lot of twists and turns in it, and I made it a point to get as twisted as I could. A very dark and entrancing-sounding intro opens this song, after which we move into a completely opposite and (hopefully to you all!) crazier sounding second section, which I couldn’t resist trying to bring my progressive influences into, turning out a few ideas that had the guys in the room tripping and laughing! Ha ha! The rest of the song feels equally as killer to me, so I won’t give you too much more here, but suffice to say I’m looking forward to hearing it when it’s done!
"We moved on to the song ‘Hopenosis’ next. The faithful fans have already heard a version of this in demo form, and believe me, when were talking about playing a new song live last year, I was pushing for us to do ‘Adapt Or Die’ and ‘Hopenosis’ as well! Those who have heard the demo version have heard only a skeleton of that song’s potential, I’ll tell you! The album version of the track is heavy as fuck, especially with the tone and production on Mark [Hernandez]’s drums that Tim Narducci and Craig [Locicero] got! That really drove me on this song, trying to deliver exactly what I was feeling coming from Mark and Craig’s performances here. A lot of moodiness and heaviness and thrashiness in this song, and I can’t wait to tell you about the solo! Onward!”
Overkill Announces U.S. Tour Dates
American thrash metal legends Overkill has announced that they will be heading out on a second headlining run of the United States this November in support of their latest studio album, "Ironbound." Joining them on the trek will be fellow thrash metal veterans Forbidden. A message from Overkill frontman Bobby Blitz reads:
"It's going to be a KILLER run, thrash-thrash-thrash! Having Forbidden along for the ride in November will put this totally over the top, just the way we all like it! Bite down hard, here we come!"
The tour dates are as follows: More...
Forbidden Announces More Tour Dates
Bay area thrashers Forbidden have announced a string of headlining shows both prior to and after their tour with Overkill this November. Support will come from Evil, Gamma Bomb, and Bonded By Blood. The upcoming Forbidden tour dates are as follows:
FORBIDDEN, EVILE, GAMMA BOMB, BONDED BY BLOOD
11/4 - Springfield, VA - Jaxx
OVERKILL, FORBIDDEN, EVILE, GAMMA BOMB, BONDED BY BLOOD
11/05 - Rochester, NY - Montage Music Hall
11/06 - Farmingdale, NY - Crazy Donkey
11/07 - Providence, RI - Club Hell
11/08 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
11/09 - Virginia Beach, VA - Gil's
11/10 - Charlotte, NC - Amos'
11/11 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11
11/12 - Jacksonville, NC - Hooligans
11/13 - Orlando, FL - Club Firestone
11/14 - Ft Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room
11/15 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
11/16 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s
11/17 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
11/18 - Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel Nightclub
11/19 - Manchester, NH - Rocko's
11/20 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom More...
Forbidden Checks In From The Studio
Reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Forbidden continue their work at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California recording their fifth studio album, "Omega Wave." Guitarist Steve Smyth checks in with the following update:
"We began Day 3 going straight back into ‘Adapt Or Die,’ finishing up [the] layering and got done a few hours in. I decided to move into a track called ‘Swine’ next. ‘Swine’ is a little different from the rest of the tracks to me, a little more on the ‘doomy’ side of things, but it has more than a few surprises in there. I’m not going to give away too much here… you’ll have to wait for it!
"‘Swine’ has some cool odd-time stuff at the intro, Forbidden style, and well-arranged by Craig [Locicero] and Mark [Hernandez]! I sort of created the intro riff for this song by accident. Craig and I were jamming on some of the other songs one day, and I just happened to be noodling on something, not really thinking about anything, and he looked at me, and said ‘What’s that?! Play that again!’ I played it again, and we turned this from something completely unconscious on my part into the intro of the song pretty quickly! Mark and Craig brought some odd-time and arrangement ideas into it from there, and the rest of the song came right into it. More...
Forbidden Reveals New Album Details
Reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Forbidden continue their work at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California recording their upcoming new album "Omega Wave." Album artwork has been commissioned from Kent Mathieu and the album is being produced by Forbidden guitarist / songwriter Craig Locicero and Tim Narducci. All tracks will be mixed by Sean Beavan.
Locicero also commented: “After a year of writing and a couple of months recording this son of a bitchin' album, we've finally decided to call it Omega Wave. It certainly would have been easy to self-title it, but anyone who knows anything about Forbidden and our history understands that we spend a considerable amount of time thinking about these things. That's just what we do. Omega Wave seemed most fitting and it's one of the thrashiest songs on the record! An ‘omega wave’ is the feeling of impending doom that hangs over everyone in these difficult times, more so than any other era in history. Many feel that our time is almost up, partly because it has been written and predicted in almost every ancient society; also because most people can tell which way the wind is blowing, if you know what I mean. So the question is, is this all really happening by design or is it a self-fulfilled, man-made hysteria that we are creating by accepting it in our collective consciousness? Either way, it's a black wave of negative energy that exists to billions of people. That is the Omega Wave.”
On why the band sought out the artist Forbidden’s career began with he stated: “Within the last few months, we've reconnected with the original artist who painted the artwork for our first two albums, Forbidden Evil and Twisted Into Form: Kent Mathieu. I love the work he's done with everyone, but there is no denying that the first two covers he did for Forbidden are a couple of the most iconic pieces for our genre. Getting Kent on board was a coupe and he gets us like no other artist could. He’s got a pile of lyrics to inspire him and he fully understands the Omega Wave concept. I can't wait to see what he comes up with. Should be perfect!” More...
Forbidden Guitarist Posts New Album Update
Steve Smyth, guitarist with Bay Area thrash metal veterans Forbidden, has posted a new blog online with more information about the recording of the bands new studio album. It reads as follows:
"Day Two: We wrapped up my double [track] on ‘Overthrow’ within a few hours, and soon it was time for me to pick the next song to track. I had the next one in mind already... for a few reasons. As some of you may know already, ‘Adapt Or Die’ is one of two songs we demoed last year and released for everyone to hear while we were shopping for a new deal for the band. This was also the song we chose to debut live in August 2009 in a short string of concerts through the Pacific Northwest, from San Francisco to Vancouver BC. Those lucky fans got to hear where we were taking the song in a live format vs. the song demo. I really feel that as a result of getting out and playing this song live, the album version is strong as all hell, has grown a lot more, has a lot of power to it, and is absolutely unrelenting! More...
Forbidden Checks In From The Studio
Steve Smyth, guitarist for the reactivated San Francisco Bay area thrashers Forbidden, has issued the following update about his time at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California recording the band’s as-yet-untitled fifth studio album:
“Day One: We set up shop at Audio Voyage Studios, in Livermore California, deep in the East Bay Area. Very cool place, small, a couple of well-tuned rooms set up just right to do the rest of our tracking... I met Craig, Tim, and Brad there, and we began to talk about what kind of sound I was after for my rhythm tone... I had an arsenal of gear with me as well, so we began to break it out, and talk about cabinets that would be used, as well as heads. As it turned out, Craig had been using a combination of 3 amps and 3 cabinets, and when I heard his tone, I was absolutely blown away by the clarity in all frequencies, the gain factor, and the fact that you could literally hear air pushing from the speakers into the mics as well. Great tone! I wanted to get a tone that would stand on its own... After some discussion, I set up 3 heads of my choosing with 3 cabinets, 2 with Vintage 30s and 1 with 75 watters in there, and I had a monster ready to come out and play... [and] we agreed the tone I had in mind suited the tracks perfectly, and set about tracking!
“’Overthrow’... is tricky to play in that the main riff keeps pedalling back and forth on specific notes, but varying each time we play through the riff, and there’s a lot of stretching involved. This track actually got my wrist feeling a small bout of tendonitis after playing it throughout the song. In fact, there’s more than a few things I played or wrote for this album that involve some serious stretches! But it’s for the song, and in the end, that’s what matters most. [W]e decided it was best to double-track this song as well to give it more clarity, and more of a 'wall' type of sound. There is a middle section in this song where the feeling I was after was that of a ship on an ocean, being thrown violently back-and-forth on the sea during a storm. I think we got this sound in the end, so I hope you all will enjoy it. Take some Dramamine before you do! Ha ha! More...
Forbidden Issues Fifth Studio Update
Craig Locicero, guitarist for the reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers FORBIDDEN, has been chronicling the band’s time at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California while recording their as-yet-untitled fifth studio album. The below is his fifth studio update offering additional commentary on some of the songs that will appear on the upcoming album:
"Thursday March 18th: This was the day for 'Hopenosis.' I really love this song - it was the second one written and we demoed it, too. The new version sounded dick-dog tight! That song really has a hypnotizing feel to it and is very intricate in its picking. We spent the day just making sure it was right. After that, we left a little early for another ear break."
"Friday March 19th: I knew this was going to be a challenging day for me because we needed to track ‘Forsaken At The Gates,' by far our fastest song from top to bottom! It never lays back or breaks down. All 210 bpm all the way through! It actually was a little easier than I thought, but NOT easy at all! I love pushing myself like that and I think this song is a thrash barrage like never we've never done before. Fuck, it's a killer!" More...
Forbidden Issues New Recording Blog
Guitarist Craig Locicero of Forbidden has issued the following fourth blog from their recording sessions:
"Monday March 15th: The day started by finishing 'Immortal Wounds' from the night before. Once the was finished we jumped into a song called 'Behind The Mask'. It is the first collaboration of riffs that [Forbidden guitarist Steve] Smyth and I put together. It was a dark horse going into the record, but I think it's a really good song. At times it reminds me at times of 'Step By Step' [a track off of Forbidden’s 1990 Twisted Into Form album] and Russ [Anderson, vocalist] wrote a great melody for it and it has an amazing clean/flamenco section in the middle section after a Steve [Smyth] solo that really shines, very melodic. The chorus is monster! More...
Forbidden Issues Third Studio Update
Craig Locicero, guitarist of Bay Area thrashers Forbidden, has issued the following studio update:
"Here is part 3 of our ongoing studio report. This time we're back up in the Bay at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios."
"Friday March 12th... This was my week to begin tracking and I guess I'd been jonesin' pretty hard after all those years. After we got back from L.A., I had to make numerous trips around the Bay grabbing pieces of gear and getting my guitars set up to be tracking worthy. So I really only had one day off after 8 days on. Necessary evil, if you will."
"So after I got all of the gear into Sonic Room/Audio Voyage on Friday, Tim Narducci, Brad Barth and myself started mixing and matching amps and cabs. We tried shit-tons of stuff. I can't tell you exactly what we used, but I will give you a short list of the possibilities we had to work with... 2 different Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers, Randall Ultra Module, Line6/Bogner 100wt HD, '94 Peavy 5150, '10 EVH 5150 and my original '94 prototype Langner pre-amp! As far as cabs go we had Marshall 's and Randall's stacked out the door. This place has never had that much shit inside of it. Like I said, I won't tell you exactly what I used, but used a combination of 3 amps and 4 cabs and it sounds awesome! Very distinct, clear and crunchy mids. I've never been more stoked about my tones." More...
Forbidden Issues Studio Update
San Francisco thrash metal band Forbidden has issued the following studio update:
"It's time again for the once a week studio update. This one will be our last drum installment. Next week will be all about guitar! Until then...we gotta get to work..."
"March 4th- Another great day with no real issues to speak of. Three more songs in the bag! We were crushing through it by then! Once we finished that night, Girardo from Nuclear Blast came out to meet us. We just talked about metal for about 4 hours. Seriously felt like I've known him for Eons. It was very cool and I felt like we made a great decision! We also watched the documentary part of the Exodus DVD. That was great! Fucking A if Gary and Tom are not on Fire! The whole band is, but those two are my role models for this genre! Get 'em fuckers!!! It's funny, Girardo was there all that time, and we didn't play him a thing. Dicks!" More...
Forbidden Checks In From The Studio
California's Forbidden has checked in from the studio with the following recording update:
"Hey Everyone, It's time again for the once a week studio update. This one will be our last drum installment. Next week will be all about guitar! Until then...we gotta get to work...
"March 4th- Another great day with no real issues to speak of. Three more songs in the bag! We were crushing through it by then! Once we finished that night, Girardo from Nuclear Blast came out to meet us. We just talked about metal for about 4 hours. Seriously felt like I've known him for Eons. It was very cool and I felt like we made a great decision! We also watched the documentary part of the Exodus DVD. That was great! Fucking A if Gary and Tom are not on Fire! The whole band is, but those two are my role models for this genre! Get 'em fuckers!!! It's funny, Girardo was there all that time, and we didn't play him a thing. Dicks!
"March 5th- This was the day we slayed the last two songs. The first one is the fastest Forbidden song I've ever played. Thought my arm was gonna go on strike! And I had the easy part, Mark was over the top, really great stuff in this one. I have not named any songs for you so far, but I will tell you this one is called Forsaken at the Gates. It was the last tune we wrote before we came down South. A burner for sure! Brings back my March into Fire memories of how we used to do things, but much better. One last song in which Tim had Mark experiment with his snare turning it off and on all over the song. Sounded awesome! We were done with the normal songs, I will elaborate on that in a moment. More...
Forbidden Issues Studio Update
Forbidden has issued the following studio update:
"What a week it's been. Fucking insane!"
"February 28th- Mark, his tech Jeff(Trigger), Tim Narducci and myself left for L.A. and the Bomb Shelter. We packed 3 drum sets(all Sonor) and one guitar for me. It was one of my trusty Les Paul's, if your wondering. She's is a Rock! Anyhow, we loaded in and got set up for the next day when we would get tones. We had dinner in Japan town at what was referred to as the Denny's of Sushi by Mike and Jarred, the engineers at the Shelter. Good and cheap! We then picked up a gaggle of groceries for the week at Rockin Roll Ralphs. Off to sleep after that."
"March 1st- I left early to go pick up the new Line6/Bogner 100 watt HD. It sounds killer, by the way. while that was happening everyone else starting pulling out the pieces of drums and hardware and matching whatever sounded best together. I told Mark before we left that he'd better be ready to adjust in case we needed to make Franken-set. After the last of his heads and cymbals were finally delivered we started getting tones. As it turned out, only a slight Fraken-set modification was needed. He switched out to one maple kick drum instead of two birch ones. It simply sounded amazing! He's had the same kick since 1990 when he joined Vio-lence. We were a bit concerned about the one kick vs two kick issue, but it sounded perfect. Sometimes the easy way works!" More...
Forbidden Signs With Nuclear Blast
Bay Area thrash metal veterans Forbidden has announced that they have signed a new record deal with German based label Nuclear Blast. A message from the band reads as follows:
"We are very proud to announce that Forbidden has signed to Nuclear Blast Records! Ultimately, we all knew that there is NO better label in the world to handle Metal and bring it to the masses with authority. For the last year, we have been intensely working on our craft while re-examining our past with a perspective we'd never had before. Our vision is clear and we know exactly who and what we are today. Forbidden is in an amazing creative space and we can't wait for everyone to hear it! We began recording on March 1st. We must thank Jaap Wagemaker and everyone else at Nuclear Blast for making their enthusiasm known to us since we've committed to writing this record. Also, there are so many other amazing friends that helped us along the way and we appreciate everything you've done for us to get Forbidden back into a position of strength. If you feel in your bones that you are one of them, then you definitely are! Thank you all so much." More...
Demonica Posts New Song, "Demon Class," Online
California thrash metal band Demonica has released a new song, "Demon Class," on their MySpace page.
Demonica's lineup is as follows:
Craig Locicero (Forbidden, Spiral Arms): Lead Guitars
Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate): Lead Guitars
Klaus hyr (Demonica): Vocals
Marc Grabowski (Corruption): Bass
Mark Hernandez (Forbidden, Defiance): Drums