. . . we have a new song from God Forbid. It’s really not all that new, because if you had been paying attention, you would have noticed that the Victory Records Labor Day sampler we spot-lighted on Labor Day included a demo track from God Forbid’s next album, which happens to be this same song. I don’t exactly blame you for overlooking this, because the sampler was a very mixed bag, and I’m well aware that many readers of this site run for the hills at the mention of Victory Records.

Now, here’s where I get brutally honest, which of course is the only kind of honest we know how to be here at NCS, at least when we choose to be honest, which is always an elective, not a mandatory, in our course catalogue: I didn’t listen to that God Forbid song when the Victory Records sampler first came out, even though I wrote about the sampler. I didn’t even listen to it when other metal blogs said it was the main reason to load-down the sampler. In fact, I didn’t listen to it until yesterday, when the band plugged that song onto their Facebook page.

But I’ve heard it now, and it reminded me of a few things: It reminded me that metalcore played a big role in reviving and broadening interest in metal in the U.S., and it reminded me why. By combining elements of hardcore, thrash, and Scandinavian style melodeath riffage, metalcore introduced legions of new fans to music that was both heavy and melodic, aggressive and yet catchy and memorable. It reminded me how much I used to like metalcore before it became saturated with jillions of generic copycat acts. And it reminded me that I still get something out of the music when it’s done right.

God Forbid, of course, is no copycat. With a particularly thrash-heavy attack, they helped lay the foundations for the genre. The new song — “Where We Come From” — is nothing ground-breaking, of course. But it’s God Forbid in their own groove, and it sounds just fine to me.  It’s been two years since the band’s last album came out, but they’re promising a new one by 2012. You can listen to the new song after the jump . . .

So you all have probably read some things by the author islander, but there’s a new girl in town! I’ll be writing about the music I love and things I’m passionate about. Here is the music I love