God Forbid - Better Days (EP)
Century Media
Melodic Thrashcore
5 songs (17'08)
Release year: 2003
God Forbid, Century Media
Reviewed by Crims

I have to admit God Forbid has never really done anything for me in the past; these Americans from Brunswick, New Jersey have always had too much ‘core in their sound which at times was interesting, but not interesting enough. Strangely enough, I have seen them live a couple of times and they’re a much more interesting band live just due to the energy factor and they work really hard on stage, but nevertheless here is the new EP, Better Days which foreshadows their next full-length Gone Forever.

The Better Days EP features the title track, which will appear on Gone Forever; Allegiance which will not appear on Gone Forever; a demo version of Wicked, which appeared on 2001’s Determination; Reject The Sickness from the full-length debut of the same name; and Mind Eraser from the debut EP, Out Of Misery. The song that I suppose is the most important here is the title track since it obviously gives the best impression of what Gone Forever will likely sound like. The sound of God Forbid has changed a little bit, and for the better mind you. The riffs are more firmly rooted in modern Thrash (and not metalcore) and when they’re not, the riffs sound like something Nevermore might put together, without the Loomis touch of course. There also seems to be more melody, coming from some slight Gothenburg influences and there are even clean vocals done in the vein of Into Eternity. The leads are killer and the vocals aren’t as “shouty” as before, but they’re still definitely core styled shouts. Overall I was very pleased with the title track and it actually makes me look forward to Gone Forever, which I can only hope has other songs in the same style. Allegiance is another solid track and to me it’s puzzling that it won’t appear on Gone Forever because it’s actually better than the title track, mostly because it has some real Thrash riffs going for it…if only for a little bit. Once again I can only hope that Allegiance also gives an indication as to what Gone Forever will sound like.

As for the rest of the songs, God Forbid fans will have already heard them before and new fans might want to stay away, though I admit Wicked is probably, by far, one of their best songs to date, and you can tell that they’ve definitely changed their style a little bit after hearing this. The other two tracks are mostly forgettable, though Reject The Sickness has some decent sections (mostly when really deep Death growls are used), however, Mind Eraser shows just how bad their debut EP was in my opinion.

The Better Days EP has done its job as I am rather interested in hearing Gone Forever now but I can’t really recommend this purchase to God Forbid fans unless you must own everything they’ve released. The concentration on melodies and Thrashier riffs seems like a good choice for God Forbid though they may lose some of the hardcore fans that enjoyed their music, and there were a lot of them, as they seem to populate their concerts in great numbers. I also think the band could do with a vocal change; I just don’t like the shouting style very much, but once again, Byron Davis does do a very good job on stage so perhaps that’s what counts. Look for the review of Gone Forever soon.

Killing Songs :
Better Days, Allegiance
Crims quoted No Quote
Other albums by God Forbid that we have reviewed:
God Forbid - Earthsblood reviewed by Khelek and quoted 65 / 100
God Forbid - IV: Constitution Of Treason reviewed by Aleksie and quoted 96 / 100
God Forbid - Gone Forever reviewed by Aleksie and quoted 88 / 100
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