Forbidden, a Bay Area thrash band that I never thought I would get to see, least of all in a club in the UK. And while I'm not as die hard a Forbidden fan as I am a Razor fan, I still like them quite a bit and I decided it was worth the trip to Manchester. Even though it was wedged slap bang in-between Armored Saint in Nottingham on Tuesday and Ayria in Sheffield on Friday!
As ever the trip to Manchester is a pain in the ass and unsure as to what time Forbidden might take the stage I ended up arriving in time to see 'Tortured Demon', which was.... tiresome, to say the least. I mean I've heard worse, but their demeanour seemed at odds with their very modern take on Thrash/Death.
I didn't know for sure, but I kind of assumed that the set would be largely drawn from the first two albums and so it transpired. It probably would have been a good idea for me to listen to those two albums before the gig, but even though I haven't listened to them for a long time I figured I knew them well enough.
Maybe so, but with a somewhat over loud and muddy sound I did struggle early on with some of the less well remember tracks. New vocalist Norman Skinner (I can't think of one other person in Metal called Norman, honestly - I thought they introduced him as Morgan!) did a great job, but he did drop a couple of the insanely high vocal parts (can't say I blame him, would have killed our ears through these speakers anyway).
He does have a slightly odd sound to his voice that takes a bit of getting used to as well, but I guess it's partly that we're just so used to Russ singing these songs his way.
Daniel Mongrain (on loan from Voivod) was superb as always, nailing all the solos to perfection and as the set wore on and they started to string together all the more memorable tunes the gig came into its own. Climax of the set was the immense 'Chalice of Blood', into which was added a minute or so off Motorhead's 'Overkill'... causing a nice little mosh pit to break out in the centre of the floor.
VIDEO: TWISTED INTO FORM (Live in Manchester 2024)
VIDEO: PARTING OF THE WAYS / INFINITE / OUT OF BODY, OUT OF MIND
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