Review : Forbidden - Omega Wave :: New Music Review :: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock

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Forbidden: Omega Wave

Thrash/Heavy Metal

4.5/5.0

Nuclear Blast
www.myspace.com/forbiddenofficial
By Craig Hartranft, 10.11.2010

Bay area thrash legends Forbidden's history is one of peaks and valleys. In the late Eighties competition was thick for recognition in those early days of thrash metal. With a full reunion and return in focus since 2007, Forbidden delivers Omega Wave, a solid disc of pure classic American thrash metal.

When I say classic thrash metal, I mean over and against Forbidden's last album 1997's Green which dabbled in some alternative forms. This is pure thrash that made San Francisco famous. They pacing swings between blistering and determined heaviness. The drums thunder and pummel, the guitars rip and soar. Vocalist Russ Anderson bristles from metal's scathing coarseness to angry roar, mostly however he's unquenchable.

The best part, however, is the pure unadulterated thrash metal bursting from this work. Forbidden abandons any past or modern pretense and makes thrash metal vital again by combining heaviness, speed, melody, and technicality into a marvelously accessible package. Forsaken at the Gates, the blistering Omega Wave, Immortal Wounds, and the nearly perfect Dragging My Casket are unearthly expressions of this thrash metal passion.

Is Forbidden's Omega Wave the best pure thrash metal album of the year? I wonder. It would have my vote.

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