Forbidden (3) – Distortion

Forbidden breaks free of thrash for something… stranger and with even less mass appeal

Originally released in 1994, DISTORTION was the third of five full-length albums by Hayward, California’s Forbidden (which is just south of Oakland in the Bay area). The band plays technical thrash metal masterminded by guitarist Craig Locicero and have been on hold since 2012. My favorite album by them is easily their last one, 2010’s OMEGA WAVE. That disc took the late 80’s technical thrash of their first two albums — FORBIDDEN EVIL (1988) and TWISTED INTO FORM (1990) — and superbly mixed it with the peculiar arty approach of their two mid-90’s releases — DISTORTION (1994) and GREEN (1997).

This brings us to DISTORTION. With the emergence of grunge in the early 90s after the success of Nirvana’s NEVERMIND, Craig & the boys felt freed-up to drop the thrash metal polka and really explore their craft. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a thrash element, but it’s less obvious. The result is an album that is the furthest thing from one-dimensional.

Everything about the band is technically improved, but something about the songwriting prevents the songs from grabbing the listener. As such, you can listen to the whole album and enjoy it, but walk away not ing any particular song, with the exception of maybe “Rape” due to its tribal-chanted (shouted) chorus, likewise with “Feed the Hand” and “Wake Up!”

But this is resolved by repeat listens: The more you hear the more jumps out at you. The album was just too deep, too dense, in the early/mid 90s for the average rock-metal aficionado who apparently preferred “a mosquito, my libido.”

There are nine proper songs with a cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” followed by some psychedelic doodling for a couple minutes on an unlisted track.

GRADE: B+/A-