Away Team

Reactivated San Francisco Bay Area thrashers FORBIDDEN have debuted the artwork to their new studio album, Omega Wave, on their official MySpace page.

FORBIDDEN guitarist / songwriter Craig Locicero checks in about his collaborative process with artist Kent Mathieu, the visual elements that can be found in the album’s artwork, and his concern for the future of the human race:

“As soon as FORBIDDEN committed to writing a new record, I wondered where Kent Mathieu was. I’d always felt like Forbidden Evil and Twisted Into Form were pretty iconic album covers… when things like that actually seemed to matter.
“Then, the good people at Nuclear Blast actually located Kent! I got pretty excited and reached out to him immediately. He was equally excited to hear from us, too. The only real direction I gave Kent was to somehow tie the past into the future. Find a way to make the two skulls [from Forbidden Evil’s artwork] vital again. He had worked up about 12 sketches all kinds of variously cool stuff. Out of all of the pictures he sent me, I liked the way one of them was laid out because of it’s simplicity. After thinking about it for a long while, I had a concept for Kent to work with. The Omega Wave concept. The title wasn’t decided until I had a good idea for the cover.
“I don’t want to over-explain the actual picture because there is enough symbolism for everyone to interpret everything differently. That is always a plus, in my book. What I can tell you is that the skull in the center is based upon the crystal skull of Belize. This skull was found at some of the pyramid ruins in two perfect pieces, jawbone and upper cranium. It was always quite a mystery, but some years later Hewlett Packard scientists did extensive tests on the skull and found many anomalies.
“One of them was that there is no way, even with our most modern technology, that we could cut into the crystal the way this skull was formed. It would shatter with any instrument we have available, even today. Another thing was the fact that no matter what temperature the skull was placed in, the skull’s temperature would stay almost exactly the same. Scientists even believe the skull holds information that they could not tap into, like a giant computer chip with an impenetrable code.
“So I got to thinking: Does this skull – and the other ones found throughout the most ancient places on Earth – hold something that we would need to know to possibly save ourselves? This is not an entirely new concept, but it hit me pretty hard. What could we learn about ourselves that may save us at this all-important juncture for the human race?
“It seems as if we’ve reached our Omega stage as a civilization. Meaning, we as people seem to be in a hurry to reach some sort of ending… possibly all self-manifested by accepting some sort of pre-determined fate. Or possibly just pawns in a game that was played out before and will be repeated again and again in other times and dimensions. So Omega Wave is part science fact and part from my imagination.
“Kent Mathieu is a artistic genius who created something that respects this concept, as well as FORBIDDEN’s past, present and future! All of this with one very strong hand-painted picture. That’s right, no computer manipulation whatsoever. Something else we can all be proud of! We hope you approve.”

Omega Wave, FORBIDDEN’s fifth studio album after a 13-year recording hiatus, will be released in Europe on October 22nd and on October 26th in North America. It was recorded at Sonic Room/Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California, produced by FORBIDDEN guitarist / songwriter Craig Locicero with Tim Narducci, and mixed by Sean Beavan (Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails).

FORBIDDEN 2010 features Russ Anderson on vocals, Craig Locicero on guitar, Steve Smyth on guitar, Matt Camacho on bass and Mark Hernandez on drums.

Song titles on Omega Wave include:
•Alpha Century
•Forsaken At The Gates
•Swine
•Immortal Wounds
•Hopenosis
•Adapt Or Die
•Inhuman Race
•Behind The Mask
•Dragging My Casket
•Overthrow
•Omega Wave

FORBIDDEN are confirmed for January 2011’s 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise and will tour the U.S. this November supporting Overkill with Evile, Gamma Bomb, and Bonded By Blood.

FORBIDDEN will go on to headline their own tour with Evile, Gamma Bomb, and Bonded By Blood from November 22nd – December 11th. VIP tickets for pre-show Meet & Greet sessions with the band are now on sale at EnterTheVault.com. VIP ticket buyers will also receive a customized poster signed by the band.

Hear two FORBIDDEN demo tracks, “Adapt Or Die” and “Hopenosis,” and the entire Green album here.

For more FORBIDDEN click here.

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn has recorded audio and video of an acoustic cover of BLACK SABBATH‘s “Die Young” song from the classic “Heaven and Hell” album for free download in tribute to the late Debbie Abono, who sadly passed away on the same day as legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio. In a statement made at the beginning of the video (which was recorded the day after Debbie‘s passing and which can be viewed at this location), Robb says, “I don’t know why I recorded this song, it doesn’t really have relevance to Debbie or Dio, but I was sad and depressed and it was the only thing that made sense in the world.”

There are no plans to officially release Flynn‘s version of “Die Young“, but an MP3 version of the track is available for free download at the MACHINE HEAD web site.

Debbie Abono, a well-respected and much-loved manager and promotional machine behind some of San Francisco Bay Area’s strongest metal bands (POSSESSED, FORBIDDEN, EXODUS, VIO-LENCE, SKINLAB), passed away on May 16 at approximately 9:59 a.m. PST after a battle with cancer. She was 80 years old.

According to David Konow, author of the “Bang Your Head: The Rise And Fall Of Heavy Metal“, Debbie Abono was in her mid-fifties when she began to manage a band named POSSESSED. Abono started taking her daughters to MOTÖRHEAD shows, where the members of POSSESSED first asked her to manage the band. “There’s nothing to it,” they told her. “All you gotta do is get us shows.” Abono agreed and even allowed them to practice at her house.

POSSESSED‘s association with Debbie Abono was not a “first” for both sides: Debra Abono worked with LaLonde and Becerra’s “Blizzard” while they were sophomores in high school even — before they guys learned to drive. Abono would then become the band’s first manager, and POSSESSED were Abono’s first official managed band. Abono had no previous connection to heavy metal music other than as a concert designated driver for her daughters, one of whom was a girlfriend of guitarist Larry LaLonde. Due to generation gap, Abono also had limited awareness of the sometimes blasphemous themes of heavy metal, and was allegedly offended upon reading the lyric sheet of “Seven Churches“. Nevertheless, she agreed to manage and represent POSSESSED as long as bassist/vocalist Jeff Becerra and LaLonde finished high school commitments. Although the group’s relationship amongst themselves and their first manager would reach points of discord and eventual termination, Abono would go on to manage additional bands in the Bay Area metal scene like EXODUS, VIO-LENCE and FORBIDDEN EVIL (pre-FORBIDDEN), as well as death metal bands like Chicago’s BROKEN HOPE and Florida’s CYNIC and OBITUARY.

In a May 17 statement regarding Debbie Abono‘s passing, Flynn said, “Yesterday was a very sad day for metal.
“I am devastated at the passing of Debbie Abono and words aren’t coming very clear for me right now.
“Debbie was like a second mom to me, and having never lost a family member yet, this is very difficult.
“Debbie managed VIO-LENCE [Flynn's pre-MACHINE HEAD band], and toured with us in a van as manager, tour manager, mom, friend, and facilitator. Phil [Demmel; current MACHINE HEAD and former VIO-LENCE guitarist] and I were her roommates at crummy Motel 6′s across America.
“Thinking back on it now, touring with a bunch of snot-nosed thrash metal-ers for two months at a time in a van, playing crummy clubs, isn’t the usual course most 55-year-old ladies take in their lives, but she was no ordinary 55-year-old lady. She was fiery, feisty, charming, funny, and could look a person over in about two seconds and find something to joke about / roast them about should they wanted to test her.
“She was one of the biggest forces behind the thrash and early-death-metal movements than I think most people will ever realize.
“I dated her daughter Gina, and I lived at her house in Pinole on and off in my late teens, and even after Gina and I broke up, she gave me an incredible amount of belief and advice once MACHINE HEAD started.
“My wife Genevra and I used to go out to dinner with her fairly regularly, especially before kids, and she was there the next day after my boys were born. She always came to our parties.
“She was so proud of what we accomplished. Most importantly, she believed in me, even right up until the end.
“The last time we spoke, she told me how much she loved me, and that ‘my money is on Robb Flynn.’
“Fuck. What the fuck. I’m crying.
“Rest in peace, Debbie.”

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