Forbidden: Teragram Ballroom - Los Angeles, CA - 7/25/25
Bay Area thrash metal legends Forbidden reunited in 2023 after a second hiatus in 2012. This year, they finally announced a show in Los Angeles. This special show would celebrate the 40th birthday of Forbidden. For this special occasion, they would play some songs from their 1988 debut album Forbidden Evil and all of their 1990 second album Twisted into Form in its entirety as a special occasion to the album’s 35th anniversary. The lineup features original members Craig Locicero (guitar) and Matt Camacho (bass). On drums is Chris Kontos who is the original drummer for fellow Bay Area metal band, Machine Head. A second live guitarist would be Daniel Mongrain who is also the current guitarist for Canadian metal band Voivod. On vocals is Norman Skinner. While original vocalist Russ Anderson is still alive, he has since retired from the music industry. Support for this legendary night would come from Void, Hellfire, and Nasty Savage. A Friday night was perfect for a show like this, and it was packed with heavy metal maniacs of all ages. For many in attendance, this would be their first time seeing Forbidden.
As forbidden prepared to go on stage, a few Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath songs were played over the speakers. It was an obvious tribute to the Prince of Darkness who had sadly passed away just a few days before. The final song of his was played which was “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” which was appropriate for the time. The lights went out and the intro instrumental track “Parting of the Ways” was played. The intro track finished as Forbidden came out and started their show with the first song from the Twisted into Form album, “Infinite.” The fans wasted no time in moshing and going on stage to stage dive to some legendary thrash metal. The next song was the second song from the album, "Out of Body (Out of Mind)." The band still sounds great live, and they didn’t miss a beat. Now, it was time for them to go back to the beginning with their debut album. The third song was “March into Fire,” and it drove the audience even crazier with faster mosh pits, crowd surfers, and more stage divers. Locicero spoke to the audience on how it felt great to play with Forbidden again and spoke about the history of the band and its past members. He specifically mentioned their ex-guitarist Tim Calvert who tragically passed away in 2018. Forbidden went on to play many classics including “Forbidden Evil,” “Twisted into Form,” “Step by Step,” and “Through Eyes of Glass.” Many of the same fans kept going on stage and stage diving over and over. Anyone who was up front was surely battered and beaten from having multiple bodies land on top of them. The final song of the night was one of their most famous songs, “Chalice of Blood.” More fans got on stage to sing the chorus to the song and continued to stage dive. It was a wild night for metal and also a good tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. Hopefully, it’s not long before Forbidden return to LA with another insane lineup.
