Forbidden – Omega Wave (2010)

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In their first album in 13 years, Forbidden has managed to surpass all expectations and deliver a Thrash-tastic album that can easily be considered one of their best in their career, next to “Twisted into Form”. With the new addition of Steve Smyth on guitars and Mark Hernandez on drums, the band shows no signs of aging and with “Omega Wave” they deliver 12 excellent tracks of fresh-sounding Thrash Metal.

Immediately with the momentum builder opening track “Alpha Century”, you can see that Forbidden is not back to re-hash old days of glory, but rather push forward with their Thrash Metal sound. The band’s current sound is the perfectly blend of old-school style Thrash with dynamic riffing, a highly technical edge over other bands, brilliant vocal work, and that hint of experimentation that brings this release nicely in to 2010.

Our favorite aspect of “Omega Wave” has to be the soaring vocals of Russ Anderson. While he can still pull-off some of his old-school antics, Russ focuses more on intricate vocal melodies and uses a wide variety of styles, showing that his range is intact and he can almost pull off any other genre of Metal. With songs like “Swine”, the band builds around this central element and creates one of the most diverse and effective songs in this album, not to say the brilliant guitar work and drumming that this song features.

The riffing in songs like “Forsaken at the Gates” and “Adapt or Die”, show that Forbidden can still give any band of the genre a run of its money, but it’s the melodic guitar sections that give the album a nice edge. Not always being on the 120 miles per hour approach, makes Forbidden have a more diverse and dynamic sound that can slow down, groove, or all out Thrash at any particular moment in this album. The music is by far, better composed than anything the band released in the 90’s.

Rounding up the mix, we have pretty tight drumming and a very solid bass guitar line that nicely fits into the music’s variety. The overall production of “Omega Wave” is very clean and nicely balanced. Not trying too much to sound old-school and allowing the modern age to work its magic on this impressive release.

With around 60 minutes of music, Forbidden has a little bit of everything for all Thrash Metal lovers. Forbidden has shown again why they should be considered one of the greatest Thrash Metal bands of all time, and with “Omega Wave” they show both maturity and intensity in the music. “Omega Wave” is definitely one of the best Thrash Metal albums of 2010, and probably the last decade as well.

Band: Forbidden Album: Omega Wave
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: October 25th, 2010

Official Site myspace
Genre: Thrash Metal

Country: USA

Rating: 89/100
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