2004-05-24
I have to say that the band surprised me, I was expecting Hatebreed-like hard-core rawness and simplistic metal core rhythms, but got the American equivalent of Arch Enemy...
That’s hardly a complaint, gone forever is one the best metal-core/thrash albums I heard in w while, its both highly technical and polished, and, at the same time, aggressive a hell.
Benefiting from an excellent production by Symphony X/ Atreyu producer Eric Rachel, with the mix done by the ever magnificent Colin Richardson, the album starts off with Force-Fed, a fast, catchy TRACK, and doesn’t let go for a second.
Strangely enough, their music reminded me more of Arch Enemy and some other European melodic death metal bands than bands like Killswitch Engage to which they are sometimes compared,
The solid base upon which God Forbid stand is undoubtedly the amazing guitar playing talents of brothers Dallas and “Doc” Coyle, who are just as good guitarists as the Amot brothers of Arch Enemy fame.
As I said, force fed is a great track, Byron’s vocals doing the same growled/clean vocal switch used by some metal-core vocalists, only he does it really well, the song has some great hooks, and the lead reminded me of the one in the Eagles’ Hotel California at its end, with the tone shift (you’ll know what I mean when you hear to it).
Antihero is another strong track, but tracks four and five are the definite stand out tracks here, Byron’s vocals mixing in with the elaborate thrash like riffing, creating aggressive, yet extremely melodic songs.
Some of the riffs, the one following the clean guitar in the beginning of washed out world, reminded me a lot of testament’s the gathering, thrash like, with a lot of euro-death riffs in between, the title track is a fine example of the band at its best.
I do not perceive the band as a metal core band, but rather as a new incarnation of good ol’ eighties thrash, and as such, this is one of this new genre’s strongest albums yet.
Alon Miasnikov
