MetalSucks

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…

So over the weekend our bastardly brothers over at Metal Injection posted some footage of everyone’s favorite New Jersey metal mammoths, God Forbid, playing a brand spankin’ new song live during a recent stop on their current “In Thrash We Trust” tour with Death Angel, Soilent Green, and Light this City (and sometimes Arsis). And while the audio quality is, admittedly, not the greatest thing ever, well, it’s a new song by God Forbid! Those dueling Doc n’ Dallas Coyle guitar solos alone make giving it a listen worth your time.

Is it weird that I’m more excited about the new God Forbid album than I am about the new Metallica album (or, for that matter, the new Anthrax album)?

-AR

In case Dalls Coyle’s “The Hard R” column here at MetalSucks doesn’t give you the weekly fix of God Forbid-related blogging that you crave, the band has launched a studio diary to keep you up-to-date on the progress of their new album, which should be out later this year. Here’s an excerpt from the initial entry, by Dallas’ brother/co-guitarist Doc Coyle:

“Later that day, I received an email that our DVD test copy was complete, so I decided to leave to studio to take a trip to Brooklyn to [director] Dave Brodsky’s place to pick up a few copies for the band to check out and critique. I left everyone else to work on the drum tones. This is unlike me. Usually I am involved in every aspect of the recording, and my control freak tendencies can get the best of me. I’ve been trying to give everyone more freedom, and not try to sway every note. It can be hard for me sometimes, but trusting your team is important. I came back the next day, and the drums sounded great. I wasn’t totally sold on the snare drum sound, but that always changes with sampling.”

Read the entire entry here.

-AR

Chinese Democracy may never see the light of day, but Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, the long-awaited new DVD from God Forbid, will FINALLY get a release on June 10.

In addition to a David Brodsky-directed concert film of last February’s headlining performance at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey (read our review of that show here), the DVD will also feature a documentary about the band that was directed by Denise Korycki.

Speaking to MetalSucks back in December, Doc Coyle told us that “A lot of bands put out some shitty DVDs. I’m not gonna name any names. But ones where you they shot it with their momma’s 1984 VHS, them hangin’ out back stage, them prankin’ each other and throwin’ up on each other and downing beers. It’s like… that shit’s cool, but we wanted to have a great concert… And also the story of our band.. it’s a very interesting story. It’s not like a typical success story… ours is just so much edgier. We talk about the race thing, and just the struggles of our band. The shit is the REAL shit.”

Holy crap. I’m so excited. I can’t believe the show that was filmed for this thing was so long ago. I’d say something sarcastic and mean, but really, God Forbid have never let me down before; I’ve literally never heard them make a bad album, never seen them do a bad show. I have a feeling this bad boy will be worth the wait.

-AR

God Forbid drummer Corey Pierce has finished laying down drum tracks for the band’s new, still-to-be titled album, which is being produced by Eric Rachel (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Atreyu). In a statement, Pierce says:

“So everyone, I am finally done with the drum tracks for the new record. I have to say just how proud I am of what we have accomplished with this new material. I know that once you guys out there hear it, everyone will be feeling it. This is the best of the best. I love my band, our friends and fans that helped us get to this point and we think you will all be pleased to see where we are headed. I can’t wait to hear people’s reactions, so stay tuned to www.myspace.com/godforbid for news and video reports from the studio.”

I think I can safely speak for Vince and Kip when I say that there are few albums we’re anticipating as much this year as the new offering from God Forbid. Here’s what guitarist Doc Coyle told us about the album back in December:

“We’re just doing different… trying different types of song. We’re not tied into a formula. One song we have, it sounds like a Dimmu Borgir song. One song sounds like Opeth. Then we’ve got more stuff like “To the Fallen Hero,” more hook-oriented stuff too. And some really technical stuff. Some super, heavy slow stuff. In a way not being a massive band like Killswitch or Lamb of God or Slayer, you don’t have as much to risk as far as trying different things. I don’t know, we’re trying to make an impact.”

The new album should be out before the end of the year. I can hardly wait.

-AR

Whoops.

In our recent interview with God Forbid’s Doc Coyle, Lex Halaby was incorrectly identified as the director for the documentary portion of the band’s forthcoming DVD, Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression . In fact, the documentary was directed by the very talented Denise Korycki.

Our apologies go out to Denise… we’re looking forward to that DVD!

-Axl, Vince, Kip, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Well, not really. Chino, CA’s David Cazares – who, as far as we are aware, is not actually of any relation to Dino – has been announced as the winner of the contest to name God Forbid’s new DVD. The winning title is Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, which, admittedly, is not the catchiest title in the world, but based on what Doc Coyle told us about the DVD when we interviewed him last month, it’s a dead-on in terms of thematic content:

“…the story of our band… it’s a very interesting story. It’s not like a typical success story – like, if you watch the Killswitch [Engage] DVD it’s like, ‘We did this, and it was amazing. And then we did this, and it was more amazing. And then we got big, and then we got rich!’ …it’s all great stuff, and with us it’s like yin and yang – it’ll be good, we’ve had good stuff happen to us and we’ve had bad stuff. This is the tale of a struggling, working band, in the fight, but not where they wanna be.”

I hope this DVD is as cool as Coyle says it is; I’m pretty confident that, at the very least, the concert film portion will be, since a) we were there and it fucking rocked and b) it was directed by David Brodsky. And in any case, I think we can all feel grateful that the runner-up for the contest, the entirely too cutesy Constitution of Touring, wasn’t selected.

Amazingly, there’s still no official release date for this thing. We’ll keep you updated.

-AR

Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since God Forbid slaughtered Sayreville at the concert filmed for their upcoming DVD; when we spoke to Doc Coyle last month, he made it sound like the DVD was finally done, with a just a few finishing touches to be completed on the documentary that would accompany the David Brodsky-directed concert film. I guess the release must finally be imminent, because now Coyle and his band mates are asking fans to give the thing a name:

“This contest will only be running for a week, and the grand prize winner will get their name listed in the DVD’s credits, receive an autographed copy of the DVD, an ESP/Cocaine Energy drink guitar and a case of cocaine energy drinks. The two runner ups will also receive a bunch of other awesome stuff. We’re going to pick the top three and have everyone vote on the best title from there. We will announce the winner on January 28. Good luck and let the games begin!”

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