Metal
Forbidden released “Single Point Failure” on 20 October, the last preview of the self-titled album BLKIIBLK — the metal imprint of the Frontiers group — puts out this Friday, 23 October. It is the opening track and the fourth to be heard, after “Divided By Zero”, “Burning The Lungs Of Earth” and “Psyclops”.
There are eleven songs, and it is the band’s first album since “Omega Wave”, from 2010. In between, Forbidden split up in 2012 and reformed in 2023. Zack Ohren recorded it at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland and co-produced it with Craig Locicero and Chris Kontos.
Two members of the line-up that cut “Forbidden Evil” in 1988 are still here: founding guitarist Craig Locicero and bassist Matt Camacho. The singer is now Norman Skinner, who came in with the 2023 reunion in place of Russ Anderson; the other guitar is Jeremy Von Epp, there since Steve Smyth left in July 2024, and Chris Kontos is on drums.
“Making ‘Forbidden’ felt more like an odyssey than a typical recording process,” Locicero says. “We set out to create a record that reminds people why they fell in love with thrash and heavy metal in the first place, embracing raw energy, melody, and the imperfections.”
The band go on tour the same day the album is out, with Heathen and Void, through to 22 November. All twenty-three dates are in the United States: no European shows have been announced.
Text by Roger Estivill