This is easily one of the most anticipated albums for the Metalcore/Melodic Death or whatever the hell you wanna call God Forbid's genre of the year. That is one of the things that I like about God Forbid a lot, that you can't really pigeon hole them. Myself, I would consider them to be a Metalcore/Thrash crossover but some would consider them straight Metalcore or Melodic Death Metal or somewhere in between. The point of the matter is that the music is rawking and doesn't stop.
God Forbid had various name changes through their beginnings such as Manifest Destiny and Insalubrious (which I have no idea what this mean). They then settled on God Forbid in 1997. Their breakthrough was with the record Determination (2001) through Century Media Records. They did some fairly big name tours with Opeth and Nevermore on one and then one with Gwar and Soilent Green. Personally I would have to say that is one hell of a start. Then they recorded Gone Forever in 2004 (also one helluva record) and toured, only this time as headliners. They just released IV: Constitution Of Treason on September 19, 2005 so it wasn't that long ago and has already sold a great amount of records according to a certain American chart system. They are now about to go out on tour with Meshuggah and Mnemic throughout the U.S.
The album is based around some kind of post-apocalyptic society, which is a pretty cool concept in my opinion. Originally, I thought it was just going to be a non-stop Bush trash fest with a name like Constitution of Treason. There are some lyrics that make some kind of reference to what is going on today in this crazy power hungry country of U.S.A. and unfortunately for me, I gotta live in it at least for now.
The songs on this album are 100% solid and top quality. Bryon has excellent control of his vocals going straight from nice growl to awesome clear clean vocals. I also like a couple of the vocal parts where he has some backup from the rest of the band, then not to mention the guitar parts by the Coyle brothers totally ripping it up. From what I can tell they do dueling solos but I am not a 100% sure. Basically this effort doesn't progress a whole lot from Gone Forever but at the same time it does. I think the best way to describe it is that this record sounds like a God Forbid album as far as the way the guitars, drums etc. sound, but it just sounds better than they ever have before.
Most people that I have talked to and have read around on the Internet consider Determination to be their best effort this far but I challenge them to try and listen to Constitution and not say this album is not absolutely better. I would recommend this to fans of any of previously said genres as God Forbid are titans within their genre.
- Album Highlights: Into The Wasteland and Crucify Your Beliefs.