Band: God Forbid
Album: Equilibrium
Record Label: Victory Records
Release Date: 26th March 2012
For Fans Of: Shadows Fall, Unearth, Chimaira, Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage
God Forbid are a band who have been around for some time now and flirted confidently with the upper echelons of success in the metal world on more than one occasion but for various reasons they haven’t quite been able to hit the very top. They’ve been away to recharge the batteries and have returned refreshed and with a brand new album entitled Equilibrium.
The opening track Don’t Tell Me What To Dream sees the band experimenting (as many others have in recent times) with a Djent influenced guitar tone, coupled with vocals that are more aggressive than on some of the previous work. The Djent tones are heard occasionally in other places across the album, but they are not a major part of the sound throughout. The second track My Rebirth finds the band in more familiar territory with some good, more traditional sounding riffs and a mix of vocal styles. Things are mixed up across the album with the speed and ferocity of “A Few Good Men”, the rhythmic assault of “Conquer” (complete with it’s cry of “I Want It All!!!”) and the softer and more melodic album’s title track.
One of the standout tracks of the album is the very personal “This Is Who I Am” with its themes of rebuilding and starting over, which fuses Byron’s harsh vocals with Doc’s clean singing very effectively, combining them with riffs that are subtle at times before the song explodes in the last third. Similarly, the album concludes with another very personal song, the first single from Equilibrium “Where We Come From” (which is accompanied by a fitting video which can be seen below):
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Doc Coyles’ six string skills have been finely honed during the band’s time off and Equilibrium has benefitted as a result with quality guitar sections and riffs all over the place as well as some fine solos, such as on the song Overcome. The band’s rhythm section haven’t lost any of their potency and vocalist Byron Davies sounds renewed with a new fire across much of the album. Despite trying out different things, the album flows well and doesn’t feel disjointed in the way that some albums do when bands try out variations of new ideas. Equilibrium is a welcome return from God Forbid that should equally please the bands existing fans as well as help them to gain some new ones. Lets hope they can build on their efforts on Equilibrium and push on from here.
Rocksins also recently conducted an interview with God Forbid’s Guitarist Doc Coyle about the bands trips to the UK, the new album and various other things which you can check out here.
For more reviews of the latest heavy metal albums such as this, please keep checking back with Rocksins on a regular basis.
