God Forbid, IV Constitution of Treason

Man, God Forbid almost produced an instant classic here, if not one of the best albums released this year.

To start off with, IV: Constitution of Treason is an incredible release. Musically, the band has never sounded better or more complete. The song writing is much more complex and dynamic. The guitar solos are technically sound and out of this world. Just about everything on this album comes together perfectly. It’s pure metal at it’s finest.

My main issue with this album is the use of the clean vocal delivery. With Gone Forever, the band introduced it’s fan base to their more melodic side, and I think they executed the additional style very well. It was jut the right amount of clean vocals, adding that highlight to the chorus to complete the tracks on the album. With the latest release, the band has injected much more of that clean style of vocal delivery. That’s not to say that Byron’s screams and growls aren’t ever present, it just means that for a fan of their past material, it’s a bit hard to swallow all the new cleaner choruses and main versus that are found from track to track.

Some listeners will without a doubt enjoy this album as much if not more than I did, regardless of my feelings toward the new vocal delivery. It’s hard to complain about an album that is as complete as this one. The lyrical content is thought provoking, the guitar play between Doc and Dallas is insane, and the drumming is ferocious.

I’m sure that by the 20-25th listen on this album, I’ll have gotten used to the cleaner singing, but until that point, I cannot justify giving this release the 5 out of 5 it could have easily earned.

Definitely check this album out.

Favorite Tracks:
The End of the World
Into the Wasteland
The Lonely Dead

Additional Notes:
Enhanced CD/DVD