FORBIDDEN Guitarist On New Album: 'We Didn't Want To Rehash Anything'

Mark Kadzielawa of 69Faces Of Rock recently conducted an interview with guitarist Craig Locicero of reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers FORBIDDEN. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

69 Faces Of Rock: The album isn't nostalgic in any way. Many bands reform, and they try to rewrite their first album, but the only connection between "Omega Wave" and the first record are some similar themes on the album cover.

Craig: That and a lot more solos. "Forbidden Evil" had a lot of solos, and I think this one has the most besides that. It's also the fastest album since the first one, without a doubt. It might be actually faster than "Forbidden Evil". We didn't want to rehash anything. The whole idea was go into it with all-new material. Just completely kick a hole through everything we've ever done, and follow the stream of consciousness. Also, the phrase Mark [Hernandez, drums] and I would use a lot when we worked on the material was "embrace the metal." Be way more metal than we ever been before, and love it. Fall into that metal thing, and if we ever got off the track, we would say that, and then we fall right back on. And that's something maybe we fought on "Distortion" and "Green".

69 Faces Of Rock: And how is the public reacting to the new material, and the fact FORBIDDEN is back?

Craig: Pretty good. I would say nine out of ten people approve. It's been really great. You're always gonna have haters and I enjoy the haters as much as I enjoy the sympathizers. And there haven't been too many, so it's little less enjoyment for me. I get a kick out of the haters. I'm little weird like that. They don't hurt my feelings. It's been extremely good. The reviews had been really great. The average placing of the record is between 87 and 95 out of a 100 possible. There is an occasional 70, but generally the reviews are positive.

69 Faces Of Rock: Even prior to you releasing "Distortion", there were some really cool songs on the demos you've released. While the directions of the songs was slightly different, the strong emotional content was too good to ignore. Will this material ever see the light of day apart from the above mentioned demos?

Craig: I'm gonna resist that temptation for now (laughter.) I don't think any of us wants to re-live our darkest days. Those were our darkest times. And that's why those songs are so melancholy, and we were also taking on a lot of Tim's [Calvert, ex-guitarist] influences. His QUEENSRŸCHE stuff that he loved. Which is not a bad thing, but it was not really FORBIDDEN. I get into this argument once in a while, and it amazes me how a kid or an adult that loved "Forbidden Evil" can like "So Dark on This Side" and "Trapped" which have nothing to do with our first two albums, like nothing!

69 Faces Of Rock: It was just good material.

Craig: It was good material, but it could've been FATES WARNING. It wasn't aggressive, and I think that's what we have now. In retrospect, when I look back, and think what was the best about us? I look at the first two records, and I look at "Distortion" and "Green". And you'll find parts of these records on the new album, because it was us. It's all FORBIDDEN albums, it's all-encompassing, it's everything, but it's not nostalgia. It's new.

69 Faces Of Rock: "Omega Wave" is very forward-thinking, but I feel the best is yet to come.

Craig: I love writing music with these guys. They may piss me off from time to time, and vice versa, but we love each other. This band really cares about one another.

69 Faces Of Rock: A little known, and probably forgotten fact about you is that you've played a European tour with DEATH. It will soon be 10 years since Chuck Schuldiner's passing. What memories do you have from that tour?

Craig: Only fun memories. I know Chuck had his issues with other musicians, but on that tour, and you can ask each guy from that band, it was the best anyone had ever gotten along on any DEATH tour. We got along great, and Chuck even asked me at the end of the tour to join the band. I said, "that's awesome brother," but I was with Russ [Anderson], and I felt I had the best singer in metal, and I was not about to bail. Chuck was great, they treated me well, they paid me well. Everything about that tour was next level for me. I was like, this is how it should be, but at the same time my belief in FORBIDDEN didn't wane. Since then I became extremely close friends with Gene (Hoglan). We've been great friends ever since. He stays at my house, he knows my wife, my son, we're all really close.

69 Faces Of Rock: Also, your former manager, Debbie Abono, recently passed away. And Debbie was a very dedicated person to the scene, she helped so many great bands. What memories do you have of Debbie?

Craig: I have to say I miss her very much, and I'm glad I got to see her before her death. Her family treated me wonderfully. When we had our album-release party, Debbie's family showed up. Two of her daughters came and represented her. We learned a lot from her. She was an incredibly wise person, and she was hard on us, too, which was good. We needed that, we really needed that. I loved her.

69 Faces Of Rock: Any challenges in getting the band going again?

Craig: Just getting everybody motivated sometimes. We're all wanting the same thing, but everyone has different schedules, families, mortgages, and jobs, and you just have to accept it. It will all come together eventually, and that's what happened. This album, we didn't rush the writing process. I've made two records in that time. In 2009, I did the tracks for the DEMONICA record, and the SPIRALARMS record, and was writing with Mark 2-3 days a week the whole year. Some days were difficult, but we're all human. Whatever is difficult is not completely above us. It's just dealing with personalities. I look back at this, and I know there were hard days, but I don't think anything was that tough. We're very fortunate to be doing what we are doing. This is an honor to be doing what we are doing, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. People come and like you after all these years, and are actually passionate about the music? That's nothing to laugh at, that's an honor. It's a really deep honor for us to do this again.

Read the entire interview from 69Faces Of Rock.

Fan-filmed video footage of FORBIDDEN performing the song "Infinite" on November 27, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois can be viewed below.