Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Vojenska pevnost Josefov, Jaromer, Czech Republic
Interview date: August 13, 2011
America’s Bay Area thrash metal outfit Forbidden has always stood for the best the Bay Area had to offer. Forbidden Evil and Twisted Into Form are now considered cult thrash classics, thanks to a superb sense of songwriting, progressively minded tunes, the fantastic vocals of Russ Anderson, the cannon fire of drummer Paul Bostaph (who later played with Exodus, Testament and Slayer too), and the brilliant guitar lines of Craig Locicero and the guitarists who worked with Forbidden. In the nineties Forbidden drifted away from their thrash roots while staying anchored in thrash, only with Distortion and Green sounding far more modern. Precisely because of that, the albums weren’t received all that kindly (unfairly, author’s note), and Forbidden split up in 1997. They came back from the dead under their original name Forbidden Evil in 2001 at Thrash of the Titans, which revived plenty of eighties thrash bands. Forbidden returned for good in 2007, played an unforgettable show at ŠTUK in Maribor the following year, and the year before last dropped the fantastic »comeback« record Omega Wave. Sadly, a good month ago Forbidden announced that original bassist Matt Camacho is leaving the band, and vocalist Russ Anderson decided he needs a break from the music business. The band’s future is uncertain right now, but read below what guitarist Craig Locicero told us about Forbidden last year.
RockLine: Let’s start with the current record Omega Wave, which marks your return as a studio-active band too and is your first in almost fifteen years…
Craig: True, we recorded the last album in 1996, and we stopped operating the year after. Probably for good reasons, because by then we no longer felt what we should have as a band, and on top of that people had lost interest in the music. They just didn’t care anymore. Those were dark days for metal, and we realized that and accepted it sooner than most bands. Some say we hung on too long, but I think Green is a good record, just a little ahead of its time. By a couple of years, two or three.
RockLine: How would you compare the writing, creation and recording of the new album to the earlier records?
Craig: It was a lot easier. Most people probably think it was harder, since we have a new guitarist who lives in London (Steve Smythe, ex-Nevermore, ex-Vicious Rumors, author’s note), but that’s exactly why it was easier. I could develop ideas in peace on my own, without having to present them to everybody at once at rehearsal, which can get really chaotic, since everyone can have a different opinion. In the past, members often stormed out of the room after heated debates, though it’s true I won most of the arguments (laughs), which caused a lot of grudges and long faces. This time it was really relaxed: Steve and I showed each other our ideas, and then I had the time and quiet to think them over and rework them with Mark (Hernandez, by now the former drummer, author’s note). Mark and I work together great and easily, and that’s another reason recording this record was one of the easiest ever. We had sessions where we all worked together at once, but usually it was just Mark and me, and once we had the arrangements sorted Russ joined us too. I really enjoyed it this time, even though the other members only heard the material in full right at the very end. It was truly satisfying to see the process through to the end.
RockLine: It’s interesting that at the start too, the band’s main songwriting team was the guitarist and the drummer, meaning you and Paul Bostaph.
Craig: Yeah, and you have to realize that in most metal bands drummers never get the credit they deserve, even though they really work hard. In Forbidden, Paul and I built a relationship based on him being an equal member of the band, and also a writer and arranger. We had the same relationship with Steve Jacobs (drummer on Distortion and Green, author’s note), and now with Mark too. I think that’s fair. When we’re sitting in a room writing material, the drummer is just as important as my riff. Drummers get neglected in most metal bands, but in Forbidden they never were. The fact is, most metal bands simply don’t give drummers their due. Take Dave Lombardo, for example. Do you really think he didn’t write Slayer songs? Of course he did, Slayer made great ones!
RockLine: I agree, though it’s also true that even if the drummer isn’t necessarily the writer of the material, he’s the one who binds the whole thing together. At least in Forbidden’s case, that’s how it is.
Craig: Exactly! Other bands should work like that, but they don’t. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad, but you definitely don’t want the band to resent you. If your drummer tells you you’ve got a really good riff, the right answer is “thanks, but you tied the whole thing together.” If you make something better, you deserve to have your name written next to it.
RockLine: If we look back at the songwriting process once more – how would you describe writing with Paul in the band’s first period, then for Distortion and Green, and now for Omega Wave?
Craig: Today it’s definitely easier. Paul is incredibly intelligent, he thinks at full throttle too, and I swear sometimes I felt like smoke was coming out of his ears (laughs). But he was extremely important for the first two records, especially Twisted Into Form, when the material had to be written really fast. Above all he’s an exceptional improviser and never played two things the same way. That’s Paul’s specialty, he’s totally different from other drummers. Mark tried his hardest, he’s an exceptional drummer, he’s got everything thought through. I’ve been really lucky never to have played with lousy drummers, and that goes not just for Forbidden but for Spiralarms and Manmade God too. For a long time I also played with Chris Kontos and Eric Kretz from Stone Temple Pilots, and of course Gene Hoglan.
RockLine: You just mentioned Steve Smythe; you’ve always played with great guitarists too…
Craig: Yeah, I’m always the other guy (laughs).
RockLine: Heh, if that’s what you say. Back to my question: was it ever hard for you to get used to a new guitarist?
Craig: Glen was incredibly hard to work with, he was always very insecure. If the setup had been that I write all the material and he just shreds it, it would’ve been great. Steve, on the other hand, is a pleasure to work with, because he’s not only an excellent guitarist but can write too. On top of that, he’s a Forbidden fan and knows all the albums really well. Same with Tim Calvert, who I also had an excellent relationship with, since we knew exactly what we wanted from each other. With Glen it was so hard that we had to run off with a song and hide it (laughs). That’s how the two of us wrote Through Eyes of Glass, for example, and just slotted Glen’s killer solo into it, which in my opinion is the best thing he ever wrote. Glen is an interesting bird, but he’s changed quite a bit and chilled out. When he was part of the first reunion shows it was really nice and there was no bad blood between us, because when he left, well, we never fired him. In the end it’s always about the two of us having to work as a team, whichever guitarist it is.
RockLine: I see Omega Wave as the step that should have followed Twisted Into Form. Do you agree?
Craig: Yeah, partly, but without Green and Distortion there’d be no Omega Wave. They were all necessary. It’s certainly the album we made with the most clarity. When Mark and I started writing it we had this phrase, »Embrace the Metal«, so we kind of went with the flow and wrote exactly what we wanted and felt at the time.
RockLine: Chuck Schuldiner once said Let the Metal Flow.
Craig: Exactly! I played with Chuck for a while too (on the Individual Thought Patterns tour in 1993, author’s note), and they asked me whether I’d play with them again, but I turned it down, since I couldn’t make the schedule work.
RockLine: That would have been a really interesting musical experience.
Craig: It would, my right hand was sooo fast back then, and that was also the fastest Death material up to that point. Gene (Hoglan, author’s note) had no trouble keeping up and we played faster and faster. Around then they even used blast beats in a Death song for the first time. That was an incredible period of my life, I miss Chuck a lot, and Gene is one of my best friends.
RockLine: We said Omega Wave is a kind of summation of all the past albums, but I always thought it was a shame you never officially released the songs from the Trapped demo, since there are some phenomenal tunes on it…
Craig: Ha! There really are some great songs on it, but I always felt they were also so far removed from everything we did with Forbidden. They were melancholic and depressive, my god, slit-your-wrists stuff, “down the road, not across the street!” »down the road, not across the street!« I was listening to those songs just recently and they were heavily inspired by Tim Calvert, who was a big fan of bands like Queensryche and Fates Warning. Which is cool, but not exactly Forbidden. If you line up Forbidden Evil, Twisted Into Form and both demos, a lot of people were scratching their heads. Quite a few people liked them too, though. I think the biggest problem is that we progressed too fast, we didn’t pay attention to what people liked about us, we just wanted to move forward, to get better and better. Looking back now, I have to say My Sorrow’s My Own is a fucking epic song, Trapped gets on my nerves even though it has some good riffs, So Dark is cool, but they’re all just too depressing. And we’re not depressed today, but back then we had no label, we were fighting for our place in metal. Today it’s much easier, we have a label, we’re considered a cult band and we’re a thrash metal band. The album has all the songs we wrote, there are no leftover demo tracks. Both demo songs, Adapt Or Die and Hopenosis, ended up on the record. Like I said, it’s about clarity, which we didn’t have in the past.
RockLine: It’s trendy for bands to release old recordings, all kinds of compilations. Have you yourselves ever thought about maybe putting out the Trapped and Disillusions demos, or maybe even Egypt Has Fallen (laughs)?
Craig: Oh god no! (laughs) Egypt Has Fallen was recorded on a little tape recorder and was really entirely Robb’s (Flynn, ex-Forbidden, ex-Vio-Lence, now Machine Head, author’s note) baby. While we’re on the subject, all props to Robb for everything he’s pulled off, but back when we were still kids, Robb blew my mind every single time, he was even better. Then he decided to dumb the whole thing down, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, that’s just what he decided. He decided to identify with the people on the street, and while he’s still an excellent lead guitarist, what he does today is more or less just tiltiltiltiltil… That a high-school kid could write a song like Egypt Has Fallen is unbelievable. It’s cool that we know each other well and there’s a ton of history between us, we were the first two in the band. I’m proud of where Machine Head are now.
Rockline: How do you look back on the past now, almost 30 years after the band was formed?
Craig: Not thirty! (laughs) 25, 26. Damn, I’m old already. I look back with great pride and with the wisdom I’ve managed to pick up over the last few years. I have to admit I only really grew up and matured somewhere in the mid-nineties, because I joined the band right after high school. My head was never slowed down enough for me to stop and realize where I was at. Today I’m more fulfilled, I have a son, I’m grateful to be where I am. Lots of people don’t realize where exactly we are right now, this place has a rich history.
RockLine: In the seventeenth century this was a Prussian military fortress.
Craig: Yeah, and it surely has its ghosts. I swear, when I was doing my business in the restroom today, I got a really strong sense of some presence, and I was totally alone. It was pretty intense.
RockLine: Forbidden have always been one of the leading names of the Bay Area thrash scene, and at the same time you set yourselves apart from other bands with a technically polished approach to writing, with the music itself coloured quite progressively. Was that approach a conscious choice?
Craig: Not really, that’s just who we are. I was extremely hyperactive, my fingers always had to be doing something, and it showed in the music too. We had no knowledge of what we were doing, it was just what came out of us. I think the approach on the new album doesn’t differ in that respect. The only difference is that we understand melodies better, we’re much better songwriters. Playing rock music helped me a lot in knowing how to write a song as such these days. The music sounds more complete now; today I understand how to bring in elements that stir emotions in people. In the past it was more stacking riff on riff, but it’s still thrash of course, and I’m really proud of Omega Wave. Everyone really gave it their all, and Russ especially outdid himself, even though he was pretty insecure about himself. I’m really proud of him, he proves himself every single time. When we played the first reunion tour we weren’t ready for it and had some pretty big problems, Russ especially was completely desperate and exhausted after the thirteenth show in a row.
RockLine: I saw you in Maribor on that tour, and we still talk about that show with wide eyes.
Craig: That was the first leg of the tour… Are you guys from Slovenia? I love Slovenia, that was an incredible trip and a fantastic show! I really can’t wait for us to come back to Slovenia. That was one of the hottest shows I’ve ever played.
RockLine: Omega Wave is thematically in step with the times, the lyrics touch on social and political topics.
Craig: Yeah, with Hopenosis we were ahead of Obama. I started writing the lyrics after the European tour and it was already obvious back then. This guy charms people and doesn’t say anything at all. Every time someone has that kind of power to control crowds, my ears prick up right away. I wouldn’t even have started writing this record if I hadn’t had such influences. We totally immersed ourselves in conspiracy theories, and some of them I don’t think are theories at all. But if you talk to Matt (Camacho, bass, author’s note), everything’s just fine to him. Okay, to each their own, let him look at the world through rose-colored glasses (laughs).
RockLine: One last, obvious question: what’s the future for Forbidden?
Craig: I don’t know. All I’ll say is that I have enough inspiration to write a new record. Saying anything else wouldn’t be honest. When it’s time to start writing a new record, I have to be really into it mentally, otherwise I won’t even get around to it. For now Nuclear Blast is supportive, and I want to make a record that’s at least as good as Omega Wave, if not better.
