Author: Rok Klemše
Location: ŠTUK / Maribor / Slovenia
Concert date: 23.06.2008
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: 25,00€
Every true music connoisseur dreams of getting the chance, at least once in their life, to see a legendary band that split up ages ago and had little hope of ever reuniting. With the thrash revival, the Bay Area scene especially, we thrash-starved metalheads got exactly that. The cult Bay Area thrashers Forbidden, formed in 1987, are back among the living and have joined their genre kin as one of the last thrash giants. They marked their return after ten years (not counting a one-off show under the original name Forbidden Evil at Thrash of the Titans in 2001) with a handful of dates across the US and Europe on the Still Twisted in 2008 tour. They made an exclusive stop at Maribor’s Štuk too, and by visiting our soil they made the wishes and dreams of probably every Slovenian thrash metaler come true. The hype before the show was huge, and the anticipation and impatience even bigger. And on June 24, 2008, the thrash event Slovenia will remember for a long time finally went down – Forbidden at Štuk!
Big props go to the organizers of the show, Sindian Underground, for their ear for Slovenian metal acts. Curse of Instinct and Burning Legion already opened before Cavalera Conspiracy, and the tradition of local support bands continued this time with Interceptor and Negligence. First on stage were the graveyard metallers fronted by the Styrian songbird Gregor “Master od Disaster” Čulk Jr. Interceptor successfully warmed up a still rather sparse crowd, which had been happily boozing in front of Štuk, and started cranking up the temperature with a pretty classic setlist from their latest Fuck Off Commercial tour – Blato, Puške namesto kruha, Zadnja žrtev and the current single Homo Stupidus shook Štuk’s walls. The four musicians behind him proved once again that this is probably the best lineup in the band’s history, and Čuli showed once more that he’s one of the craziest frontmen on Slovenian stages. Love them or hate them, Interceptor are and remain legends of Slovenian metal who helped shape the Slovenian metal scene big time.
If any Slovenian band earned the support slot for the mighty Forbidden, it’s without a doubt probably the best Slovenian metal band, Negligence. It’s no small thing that we’ve got one of the best thrash bands period right here on our turf, one that took only the best from the fathers of thrash and added an incredibly strong signature of their own, and Negligence proved once again how thrash should be served. In fact, they did it so well that the show would have been more than worth the ticket even if Forbidden hadn’t followed. No need to waste words: the guitar duo Dyz/Jey flattens everything in their path with salvos of riffs and pants-ripping solos, the Lipnik/Ruzz rhythm section rattles your brain with ease, while Alex is one of the strongest young vocalists we have and a charismatic frontman who effortlessly gets the crowd into unstoppable headbanging and moshing. And when you hear the songs played like this, it’s easy to see why Options of a Trapped Mind and the others are becoming classics, not just of Slovenian metal but of metal in general. Negligence are well on their way to thrash glory, and fully deserved!
Then the crowd buzzed even louder, the lights went out, and the heavyweights Forbidden marched onto the stage in majestic fashion. The opening bars of March Into Fire lit up Štuk, jacked the temperature up by at least ten degrees, and the crowd lost it. There was no end in sight to the moshing and headbanging until the very close. Forbidden stood in front of us in the legendary Forbidden Evil lineup – Russ Anderson (vocals), Glen Alvelais (guitar), Craig Locicero (guitar), Matt Camacho (bass), and Mark Hernandez (ex-Vio-Lence, Heathen, Defiance) behind the drums, filling in for Paul Bostaph, who’s too busy with Testament. Hernandez is thus already the third man on Forbidden’s drum stool in a short time: the great Gene Hoglan (Death, Dark Angel, Testament, Strapping Young Lad) played for them on the American tour, and Chris Kontos (ex-Testament, Machine Head, Exodus) was originally meant to handle the European one. Well, Mark did a brilliant job, and you honestly couldn’t tell Paul Bostaph was missing. Most eyes, though, were fixed on the legendary vocalist Russ “The Walrus” Anderson, who has clearly put on a few pounds (too many Big Macs?), but from the very next songs, the cult Forbidden Evil, he proved that all the claims he can no longer hit the highest registers were completely wrong. Russ sang more than excellently for the entire hour and a quarter and, like the rest of the band, showed that neither being forty-somethings nor a decade away from the stage shows on Forbidden in the slightest. The Locicero/Alvelais duo blew minds away with refined solos and devastating riffs that have become history, and Camacho, despite hanging back in the shadows, was totally into the show. There’s really no need to waste words on individual songs: Forbidden laid out the entire debut Forbidden Evil in front of us, except for As Good as Dead, plus probably the best second album any band has ever made, Twisted Into Form, except for R.I.P. and Tossed Away. A practically dream setlist, which really showed in the crowd, who hung on Russ’s every move; maybe we only missed a track or two from Green and Distortion. But no biggie, Forbidden gave us one of the best shows we’ve ever had here, and they themselves were visibly more than happy with the response, especially the constantly grinning Russ and stage animal Craig. With Russ’s last question, whether we wanted Chalice of Beer… Chalice of Vodka… or Chalice of Jack Daniels, we sadly reached the closing crusher Chalice of Blood far too quickly. Even though most of the crowd was still sucking their thumbs and crapping their diapers back when Forbidden were formed, the glow in the eyes of practically everyone there said enough. Seeing Forbidden on home soil is something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Words: Rok Klemše
Setlist
1. March Into Fire
2. Forbidden Evil
3. Off The Edge
4. Feel No Pain
5. One Foot In Hell
6. Through Eyes Of Glass
7. Twisted Into Form
8. Follow Me
9. Spiral Depression
10. Infinite
11. Out Of Body (Out of Mind)
12. Step By Step
13. Chalice Of Blood
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