With their latest effort "Determination", God Forbid have quite possibly assembled one of the strongest mixes of death metal, thrash and metalcore ever conceived. Forging a brutal sledgehammer of a record that has no problems shattering the listeners skulls, they combine metals traditional elements and fuel it with the aggression necessary to survive in today's scene, somehow managing to strike a near perfect blend. While many other bands try and combine various metal genres into a more palatable blend and fail miserably, these NJ boys have instead stuck to their guns bringing the most ferocious aspects of each genre from the Slayer reminiscent thrash riffs and over the top double kick percussion to the edgy guttural vocal delivery that can at times show shades of such metalcore luminaries as older Earth Crisis and Hatebreed. As a result, what we are presented with here is about the equivalent of an auditory bulldozer deadset on destruction, bringing all the heaviness you can imagine, without falling victim to the old cliches of dark and spooky lyrics or 2 minute long jerkoff guitar solos.

Deep, throaty and enraged, vocals are spit out with an abrasive metalcore flavor that keeps the lyrics intelligible while still possessing enough intensity to literally tackle the listener to the floor. Grinding guitars slash out fast paced riffs that are immersed in technical prowess and perhaps represent the groups thrash meets death metal approach the most vividly. Yet, where most bands influenced by such genres tend to focus on speed and brute force, God Forbid instead rely on an array of dynamic part changes and various different riff structures to piece together their songs, which keeps the blood flowing and the attention level high. Bass however is a bit less precise and slightly sludgier in tone, which creates a nice contrast as hard hit notes bring up the rear being followed closely behind by the explosive percussion which absolutely plows through anything in its path, pummeling the speakers with vicious double kick, thundering rolls and furious tenacity.

Sure, the group still do include a bit too many guitar solos overall, which somewhat draw away from the momentum they work so diligently to build up, but in their favor the length is usually kept quite short. In the end it would be hard to truly derail the pulverizing grooves they lay down on this disc and although it is jarringly heavy and set in more of a traditional metal direction, the music is still able to somewhat crossover to the more accessible metalcore style. By doing such, this group just may have created an album that can be easily enjoyed by fans of Slipknot, Morbid Angel and Vision Of Disorder alike. There's depth showcased within the intriguing lull of the heavily melodic bass solo track, while there is also a strong range of dynamic song changes and an all out assault of mind numbing metal crunch. Sure, it may be a tad too old school at times for fans of the current streamlined new metal, but those who want to take the next step up from bands like Slipknot and Hatebreed should look no further, for all it will take is a little bit of "Determination".