CRAIG LOCICERO On FORBIDDEN's New, Self-Titled Album: 'If You're Expecting Just Thrash Metal, You Might Be Disappointed'

In a new interview with The Adventures Of Pipeman, FORBIDDEN guitarist Craig Locicero talked about how early San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal bands all carved out their distinct sounds by blending complex guitar work, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal melodies, and progressive structures to differentiate themselves from the rest of the acts on the scene. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, yeah, at the top of the musical food chain you could definitely hear the differences between [all the bands]. And then you had everybody that was trying to be like and wanted to be like [those groups]. But FORBIDDEN, our lane is way the fuck over here. We are so different in many aspects, and having a great singer like [original FORBIDDEN frontman] Russ [Anderson] was the first and foremost thing. Russ, he could do anything, and so that opened doors for us to be just as much heavy metal as it did thrash metal. And this [upcoming self-titled FORBIDDEN] album, I feel like, is just as much heavy metal as it is thrash metal as it is prog. We stretched out and fully embraced that we could do anything, and everybody contributed."

Craig added: "I always say nothing is original; everything is unique. It's like fingerprints. This finger looks like that finger, but they're completely different if you really pull up and examine them."

Locicero also talked about the writing and recording process for "Forbidden", which marks the band's first studio album since 2010's "Omega Wave" and FORBIDDEN's first with vocalist Norman Skinner, drummer Chris Kontos and guitarist Jeremy Von Epp. Asked how it felt making "Forbidden" compared to the band's previous albums, Craig said: "It felt great. Your first album, you don't know what you're doing. You're just writing it. I was 15 when I started writing that record [1988's 'Forbidden Evil'] and then 18 when we recorded it. And [I was] clueless. But [1990's] 'Twisted Into Form', when we got [guitarist] Tim Calvert in the band, him and I started working the way a guitar duo should work, and we sat down and we hashed everything out and syncopated and harmonized. And so there was a big growth through 'Twisted Into Form'. And then the other two albums [1994's 'Distortion' and 1997's 'Green'] were in turbulent times where nobody gave a fuck about thrash metal. So we wrote those kind of only for ourselves and hardly anybody else. And then [2010's] 'Omega Wave', I was on a mission, but I didn't get as much help as I wanted. I got a lot of help from <[then-FORBIDDEN drummer] Mark [Hernandez]. And everyone did help, but we lived separately. We weren't hanging out as much. I'd work with Mark a bunch. [Then-FORBIDDEN guitarist] Steve [Smyth] lived in England. Russ didn't wanna get together till the end of the process to finish lyrics and melodies. So we were all just kind of everywhere. And on this album, it started together. Chris and I worked through 75% of the album together until he had things come up in his life where he couldn't be around as much, and that's when we got Jeremy Von Epp, and then him and I worked like Tim Calvert and I. We sat down and we created demos for everything and wrote four songs together. And so it feels like even though it was a span of two years writing this thing, or two and a half years, it feels like it was the most conducive and put together album out of all of them, where everybody was on a mission. So it felt great writing it and felt even better recording it because we were so prepared when we went in the studio. And the approach we had was to keep it raw, keep it real. Many of the songs were written in E, which is the old tuning that we used back in the first two albums, that nobody uses these days in our particular genre. So it was nice to bring that sound back without... I don't think people realize it when they're listening to it, but that's what's making your shoulders go up and your ears perk, is that you're hearing a sound that you used to hear, with just way better production and recording, 'cause [producer] Zack Ohren is incredible, and he did a great job of capturing it. But it's very raw and it's very sincere."

Elaborating on the diversity of the material on "Forbidden", Craig said: "We're talking about an hour and four minutes' worth of music that are seamlessly blended together. And the sequencing of the album is a big, big part of it, and if you're looking at the digital link, you don't see it, but the album is actually in four quadrants, and it's three, three, three and two, and the last one being a space opera, with the 'Flower Of Life' and 'Sol Grave'. So every quadrant of the record has a little philosophical flavor to it. It's not a concept, but it's a theme to everything. So, it all fits together like the old-school records did, but we're metal. So if you're expecting just thrash metal, you might be disappointed because we over-delivered. We didn't just do thrash metal. We did thrash metal, heavy metal, prog. We hit on a lot of different elements. Everything we love about music, we did it. I didn't see any reason to hold back or try to fit into any kind of particular genre, 'cause I think that would've been more disappointing to the listener than what we did, and stretching ourselves out and giving... We bared it all. We're up there. We're naked. It's right there. It's right for you."

FORBIDDEN bassist Matt Camacho and Kontos will sit out the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers' fall 2026 U.S. tour with HEATHEN and VOID due to "personal reasons". They will be temporarily replaced by Avery Thurman and Eli Lucas, respectively.

FORBIDDEN's "Chaos By Design" U.S. tour with HEATHEN and VOID will launch on October 23 in Las Vegas and conclude on November 22 in Los Angeles, California.

"Forbidden" will arrive on October 23 via BLKIIBLK, the heavy metal imprint of Frontiers Label Group. The band's long-awaited follow-up to "Omega Wave" album was tracked at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with engineer/co-producer Zack Ohren.

Formed in 1985 in Fremont, California as FORBIDDEN EVIL, FORBIDDEN quickly became one of the defining bands of the Bay Area thrash metal movement alongside the genre's biggest names. Following lineup changes that solidified the classic lineup featuring Anderson, guitarists Locicero and Glen Alvelais, Camacho and drummer Paul Bostaph, the band released their landmark 1988 debut "Forbidden Evil" before shortening their name to FORBIDDEN. Acclaimed follow-up albums "Twisted Into Form" (1990),"Distortion" (1994) and "Green" (1997) showcased the band's technical precision, melodic songwriting, and Anderson's unmistakable vocals, while extensive tours with acts including SACRED REICH, EXODUS, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT and MALEVOLENT CREATION helped cement their reputation as one of thrash's most respected acts. After disbanding in 1997, FORBIDDEN reunited in 2008, released the acclaimed comeback album "Omega Wave" in 2010, and toured internationally before going on hiatus once again in 2012.

FORBIDDEN returned in 2023 with founding guitarist Locicero joined by longtime members Camacho and Smyth (guitar),alongside Skinner and Kontos. The revitalized lineup made its live debut at Belgium's Alcatraz Metal Festival before returning home for sold-out Bay Area performances supporting DEATH ANGEL's annual Christmas shows. Focused on creating new music, the band entered a new creative era in 2025 with the release of its first new song in 15 years, "Divided By Zero".

Last November, FORBIDDEN announced it had parted ways with VOIVOD guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain and replaced him with Jeremy Von Epp.

Mongrain originally joined FORBIDDEN in July 2024 as the replacement for Smyth.

Smyth exited FORBIDDEN in July 2024, saying in a statement that he "decided it's time to part ways with FORBIDDEN, and return to my band ONE MACHINE as priority, along with other projects on the horizon, and of course session work, and teaching music as always."

The first lineup of the resurrected FORBIDDEN — consisting of Locicero, Camacho, Skinner, Kontos and Smyth — made its live debut at a "secret" show in July 2023 at Baltic Kiss in Richmond, California under the TWISTED INTO EVIL banner.