God Forbid

IV: Constitution of Treason

BY Greg PrattPublished Sep 1, 2005

After two incredible albums on Century Media (2001’s Determination and 2004’s Gone Forever), the modern day thrash monsters known as God Forbid have returned a mere year and a half after the release of Gone Forever with Constitution of Treason. An impressive fact considering the epic feeling of this album; it seems more like the work of a band who have been slaving away for years creating their masterpiece. While their last album was a shorter disc focusing on songs, this one is a near-concept album that flows seamlessly from track to track, with a focus on atmosphere and the overall picture that the band haven’t explored before. The results are huge, with songs like the opening "The End of the World” and the goose bump-raising "The Lonely Dead” immediately impressing on first listen, while other songs continue to expand the God Forbid dynamic to include more (and better) clean vocals, a tighter thrash edge and an overall feeling of heaviness in every aspect. On many levels, this feels like their Master of Puppets, except God Forbid are clearly going to continue to get better after this landmark album. With this release, they’re right up there with Lamb of God at the forefront of the current American metal resurgence.

The album seems to have a dividing point halfway through it. Was that intentional? Guitarist Doc Coyle: It’s interesting, that’s one thing I’m noticing now. The first half of the album is more straightforward, and the second half definitely explores more of the melodic side, like "Fallen Hero.” We put those songs late in the album because we didn’t want to seem like a melodic radio band. We could have put it at track two, but that’s not what the album’s about. It’s about a lot of different other things; there’s a lot of complexity going on.

After making an album this strong, does it get frustrating that you’re still not as popular as other bands doing a weaker take on a similar sound? There’s always a sense of frustration when you’ve been doing it a long time and your success is modest compared to others. A lot of the frustration comes from the industry side, like when you’re not going to get a tour because this other band is bigger or whatever. God Forbid have done well, but the industry as a whole has done really, really well. It’s like, "You’re not as big as Shadows Fall, and you’re not as big as Killswitch.” Well, we’re working on it [laughs].
(Century Media)

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