God Forbid

Determination (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

The much-talked-about Swedish neo-thrash version of Candiria, New Jersey’s God Forbid have been caving in skulls with this album of moving, creative metal perfection. The idea here is not just Candiria, but other more hardcore forms of mathcore, as well as old school thrash, Meshuggah dissonance and, well, in a word (or two) Shadows Fall, maybe even hints of The Crown or Soilwork. But the album’s great strength is in its execution. Determination is so tight, an ethic enforced by the brilliant slicing away of some undeterminable treble or high-mid frequencies. The result is a rich power to the guitars, and an equally unshrill set of tones emanating from drummer Corey Pierce, who is a crazy arms and legs maniac (check out his clinic on “Go Your Own Way”) that also knows how to groove. Vocally, Byron Davis is a little too much the performance art noise terrorist for me, his hollering even made more ear-bending by being mixed somewhat distant amongst the musical majesty. Still, this is the place to come for the future of metal, and on a more pinpricked tack, some of the most thrilling, drilling twin leads since Mercyful Fate burned Maiden’s wagon.
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