Stage Buzz: Forbidden at Reggies • Chicago
Forbidden
Reggies
Chicago, IL
October 30, 2026
San Francisco’s Forbidden helped pioneer the legendary Bay Area thrash metal movement that exploded in the ’80s alongside peers such as Death Angel, Heathen, Testament, Vio-lence, Exodus, and more.
Originally formed in 1985 as Forbidden Evil, Forbidden has endured two lengthy hiatuses—from 1997 to 2007 and 2012 to 2023. The band returns with a new self-titled album and a reinvigorated lineup, featuring original guitarist Craig Locicero and bassist Matt Camacho, along with vocalist Norman Skinner, second guitarist Jeremy Von Epp, and drummer Chris Kontos.
Forbidden’s celebrated debut full-length album, 1988’s Forbidden Evil—with standout track “Chalice of Blood”—was a near-perfect thrash metal opus at the time, while their follow-up, 1990’s *Twisted into Form*—sporting the song “Step By Step”—gained decent rotation on MTV’s Headbangers Ball and sealed their status as a seminal thrash metal band.
However, once the ’90s hit, the rug got pulled out from under the entire genre when grunge rock took over. Metal in general was immediately replaced by flannel shirts, whiny singers, and zero guitar solos.
Forbidden’s next two albums—1994’s Distortion and 1997’s Green—received far less recognition than their first two albums. As the musical guard changed, record-label problems arose, and experimentation with alternative and groove metal elements popular at the time pushed Forbidden’s original sound away from its early roots. “The music industry had changed dramatically,” Locicero explains during a recent Zoom chat. “We were about to sign a record deal with RCA, which was a really big one. (Drummer) Paul Bostaph got the offer to join Slayer, and when he left, that made the label (think twice). And when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” broke, every label pivoted from what they were doing. (We thought) we’d just get another record deal.”
Locicero elaborates on the band’s late ’90s era and ultimately calling it quits for the first time. “When we wrote Distortion, we wrote that for ourselves. We thought we’d write the best record we could, and we’d experiment. It was a cool record, but it was definitely not the same as Twisted into Form. And then going into Green, we could see the industry was still just kind of leaving us all in the dust. And then we wrote an angry album. We literally stripped everything away and just wrote really aggressive songs and the label (Gun), didn’t know what to do with us. So, it was a good move for me to walk away at that time before we tarnished it worse.”
During Forbidden’s various hiatuses, Locicero played in diverse bands such as Demonica, Dress the Dead, Manmade God, and The Boneless Ones, all musically different from Forbidden.
With Forbidden’s fifth release, 2010’s *Omega Wave*—their first in almost 14 years—it gave hope that the band would continue its legacy. “I took that into 2008, and when Forbidden relaunched, I went into that thinking it was only gonna be tour dates,” Locicero confesses. “Then a confluence of things happened to kind of force me into taking a look at writing a record. And then I jumped in full tilt, and that was at the end of 2008. I started writing it, and we started recording it in the beginning of 2010.”
After 16 more years dormant, Forbidden is back with its stellar self-titled release. With new dynamic vocalist Norman Skinner, who admirably fills the shoes left by original vocalist Russ Anderson, the band has been given new life. “At the end of the day, we agreed we should do this,” Locicero admits. “I said to myself, ‘This time I think is the right time for Forbidden’s music.’ What we say lyrically, where we come from philosophically, looking at the climate of humanity, the way people treat each other, the way the planet is reacting to all this we’re doing to it, and in the middle of a poll change, for that matter, it seems to me like that’s a good time for Forbidden. So, I really delved into it with the mindset that I’m going to write the album of our lifetime for Forbidden.”
Forbidden’s headlining Chaos By Design US tour—with direct support from Bay Area brethren Heathen and Louisiana trad metal newbies VOID—began on Oct. 23 in Las Vegas, Nev. and ends on Nov. 22 in Los Angeles, Calif., with a stop in between at Reggies on Oct. 30. This will be the first time the band has played the venue in 15 years. “Chicago’s one of my favorite places to play in the entire world; always has been,” Cocicero says. “I have so many friends there. It’s gonna be a real bummer not to see Shaun Glass there. Glass was my buddy since the ’80s. But there’s a lot of people I love in Chicago, and it’s always been one of the healthiest scenes; the most supportive. I’m really looking forward to playing Reggies again.”
With a new album in the bag and a new headlining tour, Locicero is very optimistic about Forbidden’s future. “I think I’m hopeful,” he says. “I just know this thing’s going to take some time to build and it’s not going to be overnight. There’s a lot of uncertainty, but I just know we’re doing it all for the right reasons and we have to be patient.”
— Kelley Simms
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz
