MetalSucks

At some point during the recording of Earthsblood, God Forbid announced that they had covered Muse’s “Stockholm Syndrome.” Since then, we’ve actually gotten a stupid amount of e-mails from people asking us when it was going to be released. And we really didn’t know. (I know we’re tight with some of the dudes from God Forbid, but it’s important to remember that we’re not actually in God Forbid, even if we sometimes air guitar to “The End of the World” and fantasize that we are.)

Well, the song is finally available as a single on iTunes. An it’s good! Muse are already one of the most metal non-metal bands out there, and GF completely succeed in turning the track into something metal as fuck. The guitars rip and Byron Davis screams in jjjuuuussssttt the right amounts. If you’re a God Forbid fan, it’s totally worth the buck it’ll cost you. And as a bonus, remember that it might be the last official God Forbid recording to feature Dallas Coyle (who handles most of the vocals, in addition to his usual guitar duties) ever.

For obvious reasons I can’t/don’t want to post the cover here, but below you can check out the video for Muse’s original, in case you’re unfamiliar with it.

-AR

After last week’s announcement that ex-Himsa axeman Matt Wicklund would be playing with God Forbid on this summer’s Mayhem Fest and that God Forbid’s Doc Coyle would be filling in on bass for Trivium for at least one show, I expressed interest in hearing from any readers who caught the gig.

Well, one of you, Ryan Wineman, did indeed e-mail me over the weekend. Here’s his report:

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As you are (hopefully) already aware, God Forbid’s latest opus, Earthsblood, hits stores today. Guitarists Doc and Dallas Coyle was cool enough to give us a track-by-track breakdown of each song on what is inarguably the band’s best record to date. Enjoy!

1.”The Discovery” – The intro for Earthsblood came about in a peculiar way. The original piece started with the doomy guitars that kick in around 40 seconds into it. We wrote it as part of our black metal side project called Hell Nigger. It was the outro for a song that we wrote in one day. Without the keys and stuff, it sounded more like Morbid Angel, but with the new album having a much darker tone, we thought it would make a cool intro to the album. The piano piece was actually played and composed (with some direction from Dallas and I) by my Dad, Kevin Coyle. We showed him the chords that the guitars were playing, and he started doing this arpeggiated Danny Elfman thing that just killed. Our Dad is a piano teacher and has been playing for like 40 years. He also played on our last album. The orchestration was performed by Michael Romeo from Symphony X. We met each other through our producer, Eric Rachel. He has his own home studio where Symphony X records their albums and this orchestration program that costs some ungodly amount of money, and takes 4 computers to run. Apparently, they use that program to do film scores. Mike is incredible, and I can’t thank him enough for adding some much virtuosity to the record.
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We’ve heard Earthsblood, the new album from God Forbid that will drop approximately February ‘09, and man oh man, are you guys in for a treat. This album slays. SLAYS. And before you say “You have to say it’s awesome ’cause Dallas writes for the site,” you should know that a) we were God Forbid fans before we even started MetalSucks and b) Dallas thinks we’re just money grubbing Jews and doesn’t actually like us anyway. So there. Ppppppffffttttt.

ANYWAY, our pals over at Metal Injection have posted the first in a series of videos which will document the band’s time in the studio recording their latest. In this clip, you can watch Dallas and front dude/grizzly bear/all around scary motherfucker Byron Davis laying down some vocals. Suh-weet.

Metal Injection will have more behind-the-scenes clips in the coming weeks. We’ll continue to post ‘em here. but you should probably check out MI anyways, just because they’re the best second best metal site on the web.

-AR

God Forbid’s new album, which has a tentative release date of February ‘09, now has a title: Earthsblood. Here’s what guitarist Doc Coyle (brother of MetalSucks blogger Dallas – duh) says in a statement:

“The title Earthsblood came to me after watching the film There Will Be Blood. What is the price of ambition? Is the blood of our bodies and the blood of the earth one and the same? With the current energy crisis, and its relation to many of the military conflicts worldwide, there has been a global, collective consciousness that has emerged in regards to the interdependence between humankind and the planet in which we inhabit. Coincidentally, the lyrics that Byron Davis and Dallas Coyle had written meshed with these revelations perfectly. This isn’t a preachy, trendy, ‘hip to be green’ album, nor is it a concept album. It’s just an abstract observation.”

The title is, as my favorite God Forbid shirt says, metal as fuck; and like Doc says, it’s not “trendy.” There’s always been been a political component to God Forbid’s music – they’re not hopping on any bandwagons.

We’ve already heard four tracks from this album, and I now feel 99.9% certain that this record is gonna be the shit. If you’re not excited already, you fucking should be.

-AR

When God Forbid’s new, still-untitled album is released in 2009, it will have been more than three years since their last record, the epic Constitution of Treason. Since then, the band has done an insane amount of touring and thrown their fans a few bones to tide us all over – a rarities collection here, a DVD there – but if most of our fellow God Forbid fans are like Vince and myself, they’re jonesin’ pretty hard for some new material.

So, speaking purely as fanboys, we were insanely excited when Dallas Coyle offered to give us a listen to four tracks off the new album. And we became even more excited when the songs turned out to be totally worth the wait, foretelling of a record as good as, if not better than, past God Forbid releases.

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Holy crap. After what seems like forever, God Forbid finally released their first DVD, Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, earlier this week (trailer and clip above).

And you know what?

It was totally worth the wait. Click to read more…