Cult thrashers Forbidden are back!
15 years on from the Bay Area greats’ last album, 2010’s Omega Wave, the band have mercifully returned with a brand-new single: “Divided by Zero.”
The track, which thus far doesn’t seem to be attached to an upcoming album release, brings forth some classically chugging Bay Area riffs, moodily dissonant chord-sweeping, and a dramatic, dystopian mid-song rumble. A press release explains that guitarist Craig Locicero brought the intro riff to the group, and they built it out from there.
“The lyrics address the erosion of civility and society through divisive control of institutions, cultures, religion, and government,” the band shared of the thematic drive. “Without picking sides, ‘Divided by Zero’ points to anyone and everyone that partakes in this mass manipulation, willingly or unwittingly.”
As for the music video, the creepily sepia-toned clip presents a series of uncomfortable images, from towering monsters leading rallies in the streets, to gas-masked figures patrolling neighborhoods, to people hopping out of warplanes, to a cloaked figure ominously enshrouding children. The band add that the clip depicts “how influential words and propaganda of the few have power to sway the many.”
In addition to being Forbidden’s first new song since Omega Wave, “Divided by Zero” is also their first release with vocalist Skinner, who had joined the band in 2023.
Forbidden 2025 tour dates:
7/25 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
8/1 Schleswig-Holstein, DE – Wacken Open Air
8/2 Herfor, DE – Kulturwerk
8/3 Eindhoven, NL – Dynamo
8/4 Köln, DE – Luxor
8/5 Aschaffenburg, DE – Colos-Saal
8/6 München, DE – Free & Easy Festival, Backstage Halle
8/8 Helsinki, FI – Hellsinki Metal Festival
8/10 Kortrijk, BE – Alcatraz Metal Festival
8/12 London, UK – The Dome
8/13 Manchester, UK – The Bread Shed
8/15 Carhaix, FR – Motocultor Festival
10/3 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival