God Forbid - Earthsblood [Review]

Album: Earthsblood

Band: God Forbid

Genre: Heavy Metal

Released: February 24th, 2009

Produced By: Eric Rachel and Christian Olde Wolbers

Label: Century Media


Alright so I've been listening to the new God Forbid for quite sometime, the hype around this release by Metalsucks and other websites, got to alot of people ( I dont mean this album to be a bad release at all) this is by far the band's best album to date.

Offcourse the internet perfectionists will look for ways to criticize this album (riffs, vocal pitches, what ever.) or simply blab shit like "This is a br00tal release, it owns the new Lamb Of God's ass".... make love to a knife, will ya !

The album begins with the beautifully executed piano intro "The Discovery" , the band's guitarists and brothers Dallas and Doc Coyle mentioned in their VERY insightful review for the album, that the keys played on the intro where done by their dad Kevin Coyle, who has been a musician "for like 40 years", and the orchestrations used on the intro are done by Michael Romeo from Symphony X (Oh Yea !) and was recorded using "this orchestration program that costs some ungodly amount of money, and takes 4 computers to run" that's gotta sound awesome. Its a very melancholic, black metal'ish keyboard driven intro which was originally written for their black metal side project "Hell Nigger" (so all the black metalists yelling "rip off", can settle down and go back to trolling in the woods)

God Forbid try to leave their mark somehow on each song, whether it be a memorable riff (alot of those included on the album) vocal melodies, and straight up banging, the band sticks to their signature formula, only adding extra spices to the mix.

The 3rd track on the album "Empire Of The Gun" and "Walk Alone" spits God Forbid right in your face, telling you here you go you devoted mother f'ers, here's another couple of songs of the same style that all God Forbid fans grew to love. The riffing is powerful, constant and all around bone crushing.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Byron's vocal abilities (stale ?) I dont know what it is, I just dont find it the most brutal of the roaring school. He really kills on this record and his pitches go along perfect with the music. Specially on the aforementioned tracks.


"War Of Attrition" the best way to describe this track, well by the word's of Dallas, its a "Live Banger" the song from the start transcends the feel of a powerful "fuck you all" track, sludgy, brutal, and a catchy riff to tag along. The song is also labeled by Dallas as the heaviest God Forbid song...ever !


What I also like about the album is that songs stretch out to a lengthy extent (like the title track marking 9 minutes) I'd like to also note that the title track, has alot of ups and downs, in favor of the song's formula. Oh yea and RIFFS, alot of them !!!

(Interesting facts about the song, "Mike Pinella from Symphony X plays keys on this song." and "Kris Norris who used to be in Darkest Hour did the 3rd guitar solo in the song with all of the sweep picking. He did it while on tour...oh and "the word that Byron screams at the 6:54 is the word “Groove” because the part that we’re playing… well… it grooves.")

The song "Shallows" has two of my favorite guitarist of the BRUTALLY awesome band "The Absence" shredding away at the end, and their performance is nothing less then SPECTACULAR !

Alright there is one thing that is killing me, WHERE DID I HEAR THE OPENER FOR "Bat The Angels" am pretty sure I came across it, on a heavy metal program as an opening theme or something a while back (no disrespect, its a pretty awesome opening riff, but WHERE ??) unless I lost all my brain cells... hmmm.

The album comes to an end with the song "Gaia (The Vultures)"

In conclusion, the album is another fine release by God Forbid and in all fairness, it took me a couple of listens to really get into the tracks on the album, but once I got into it, riffs started hitting me from everywhere.

I really dont like the fact that this album is being compared to Wrath (although both albums utilize some of the same formulas in the sake of acoustic passages and what not)

The new Lamb Of God is straight up brutal and nothing less than that and I'll be posting my review of the album in the next few days.

If your a fan of God Forbid, and still didnt listen to Earthsblood then your lame, not cool and will probably end up getting a wedgy, you should seriously check it out.

And if your a fan of alternating vocals (singing is very metal ya douchebags) then this is a release for you, bundled with alot of awesome riffing and head banging.

If your not a fan of none of the above, I'm not sure why you'd be reading this review, but thanks for reading....

I give Earthsblood a 8/10


I'd also like to point you to the great review done by band members Doc and Dallas Coyle for the album on the always fresh MetalSucks.net

Also head over to the band's official myspace to hear 3 songs from the new album.

For a new video... ummm I'm not so sure when the piss are they planning on releasing a video but when its up online, you know where you'll find it...