With a hammering fist in your face, God Forbid aptly titled the opening cut “Force Fed”. Equal portions of both modern arrangements and thrash riffs litter the music, with neither overpowering the other. If you are looking for a release that bridges the gap between thrash and newer sounds this is for you. Their contrast between abrasiveness and melody works very well, grooves and punch abound, and keeps the air fresh and heavy throughout.

God Forbid’s music has very rough lead vocals complemented by tasty melodic guitar leads and variety amongst the compositions, examples are “Antihero” and the modern sounding chorus to “Better Days” and “Precious Lie”.

“Living Nightmare” is such a classic Testament opening riff delivery with fantastic harmonizing leads. “Soul Engraved” has a guest guitar solo by Jeff Loomis from Nevermore and keyboards on some tunes done by Mike Pinnella from Symphony X, so you can’t go wrong with that.

God Forbid offer one of the freshest and solid slabs for 2004 and the modern age.