New Jersey based metal band, God Forbid, are back with their awesome sixth album entitled Equilibrium. Their mix of driving hard rock, thrash metal and even groove metal makes this one of God Forbid’s most diverse album and also their best album to date. With high energy choruses, powerful, explosive guitar riffs and tight, clean cut production, God Forbid have released a record which all metal fans can enjoy, combining so many different elements and styles to create thirteen insane, high octane metal anthems that will have you banging your head and throwing the horns the minute they kick in. Prepare to be blown away by one of the hottest releases of 2012 so far!
The mix of both harsh and clean vocals really adds difference and diversity to Equilibrium. Typically sticking to heavy, rough vocals in the verses and harmonised, melodic singing during the choruses, God Forbid make this album aggressive but also adding tons of melody so to cater to
the metal heads who can’t quite handle the extreme. Songs like the driving assault of ‘My Rebirth’, the powerful bounce of ‘Scraping the Walls’ and the charging onslaught that is ‘Overcome’ all are driven by Byron Davis and Doc Coyle’s dual vocal offensive, making these songs all the more heavy and all the more catchy.
Most of the songs on Equilibrium have an atmospheric, almost surreal middle eight/bridge section. These sections do catch you off guard, presenting the listener with soothing keyboard lines, beautiful acoustic guitar licks and calm spoken word moments that really change the atmosphere for thirty seconds or so until the ravenous metal aggression of tracks such as ‘Conquer’, ‘Concerned’ and ‘This Is Who I Am’ come charging out of your speakers again. It’s great to hear metal bands experimenting with melodic sections as well as heavy sections – as in some cases it adds real interest to the album and God Forbid have definitely pulled this melodic experimentation off on Equilibrium.
There isn’t a dull moment on this album and from the tinny, echoing opening of ‘Don’t Tell Me What to Dream’ to the final foot stomping groove of ‘Where We Come From’, God Forbid will have managed to keep the listener hooked and gobsmacked through the entirety of Equilibrium, presenting them with some of the catchiest songs of 2012 so far. The album as a whole is huge, packed full of pounding metal anthems that are really outside the box, creative and innovative!
Equilibrium is an album that will most definitely make a lot of peoples top 20’s of 2012, and through insane musicianship, thirteen killer, memorable songs and some insanely killer guitar riffs has been crowned God Forbid’s greatest album to date. [9/10]
