I think was about 20 when I first heard of Forbidden, and I don’t even remember how. Here’s what I do remember:

I was living in San Jose (Ca) when I bought Twisted Into Form. They had just acquired a new guitarist (Tim Calvert), and that album was fucking GREAT. Mean rhythms, mad leads, great vocals, stellar drumming. There were all age gigs at The Mountain View Theater every now and again, but I think I was about 21 when I started seeing Forbidden live. What a treat!!

After my buddy Scot and I went to a few Forbidden gigs, we start bugging Craig Lucicero after every show: How did you get signed? Where did you record? This happened pretty much every single time we saw him. And like an absolute champion, he was never bothered by it. In fact, we started getting invited to their after parties which took place at their rehearsal room in Fremont. Mad shit!! We were partying with Thrash Metal royalty!!

I always thought of Craig as my heavy metal guidance counselor. And when Forbidden toured Australia in 2011, he hasn’t changed!! It was funny!! He even looks the same. He was schooling me on how to introduce my wife to him, etc. I felt 21 all over again.

Craig be far left

When Scot and I finally had our own band going (Sinister Sam), we were sooo happy that we got the opportunity to support Forbidden AND Vio-Lence. Both bands helped us acquire a nice little Bay Area following. And we loved watching them and hanging with them. Both bands were very friendly and quite supportive. Both were quite an influence on Sinister Sam in the early years, for sure. We even intro’d one of our gigs with Forbidden’s Infinite and Vio-Lence’s I Profit. I wished I had that shit recorded.

Sinister Sam supporting Forbidden at Cactus Club

This whole album is fucking incredible.