Point of No Return

Point of No Return: the Best of Forbidden is one of those anthology albums that had little to no input from the artist and was released merely to fulfill the band’s contractual obligations with its record company. Reading the liner notes, similar ‘Best of’ releases from label mates Death, Exodus, Venom, Dark Angel and Possessed were also released at that time (1992). This was probably the time that Relativity were going to lose the bands to other labels and thought it best to profit from their eventual loss.

This ‘Best of’ collection does serve its purpose though. If you’re unfamiliar with the San Francisco-based quintet Forbidden and have yet to hear either of their first two albums, this is a good place to start. Forbidden plays a more technical style of thrash metal compared to Testament and their other Bay Area-buddies and this is what this compilation captures in its 10-track selection. One of the strong points of the band is the fantastic vocals of Russ Anderson. Not only can he scream ala-Halford (as shown on their live rendition of Priest’s “Victim of Changes”), he also has a great mid to low range that offers versatility in the vocal execution in their songs. He’s not perfect though, as attested by his irritating vocal choice in “Off the Edge”.

The tracks on this album were taken from their first two albums, “Forbidden Evil” and “Twisted Into Form”. Stand out tracks are: “Chalice of Blood”, “Out of Body (Out of Mind)”, “Feel No Pain”, “Step By Step”, “March Into Fire” and the jaw-dropping “Through Eyes of Glass”. This is real top notch Bay Area thrash metal that we have here. Makes you wonder why they never made it past the second tier of thrash bands when they were clearly more talented and gifted that a lot of the bands who had more success than them.

If you already own the aforementioned two albums, you can probably skip this and stick to those for your dose of Forbidden. However, if you ever stumble upon this and don’t have any Forbidden albums in your collection, this is an excellent place to start.