On August 16th, God Forbid co-founder and lead guitarist Doc Coyle announced via his Rebel Noise blog that he was leaving the band, citing professional disagreements and personal matters as his reasoning. Within a few hours singer Byron Davis and drummer Corey Pierce took to Facebook and Twitter to confirm that the band had completely disbanded. It appears that for the most part the members' personal relationships remain amicable, but from a business standpoint things had reached a point where they were unable to continue as a unit.
If I were a professional music journalist I would probably find some kind of industry friendly phrasing to put this in, but as an amateur I'm able to break my reaction down to one simple word: shit.
As a new metalhead the first website I gravitated towards for my news and criticism was metal-rules.com. This was around the time of Ozzfest 2004 and the release of what was arguably God Forbid's breakout album Gone Forever, so the buzz was very easy to detect. My interest was piqued, but it wasn't until the release of Constitution of Treason in 2006 that I can say I became a fan. To the Fallen Hero was hard to avoid on the primitive predecessors to today's Pandora and Spotify. The little streaming radio player on Yahoo Messenger seemed to come up with that or Slipknot's Vermillion every couple of songs. Probably my most vivid memory of that year is going to my first major metal concert, Heaven and Hell and Megadeth in Regina, Saskatchewan, and wearing my Constitution of Treason shirt through the border on the way back. For those who haven't seen the art, this meant I was wearing an image of a collapsing, destroyed Statue of Liberty through a major focal point for homeland security. Tensions, needless to say, were high. My fandom waned around the release of 2009's Earthsblood, a record which I've only come to really appreciate now, to the point that I wasn't even aware Dallas Coyle, Doc's brother and the rhythmn guitarist, had left the band until years later. I don't know why I lost interest to such a degree, it wasn't that I disliked Earthsblood that much, but whatever happened kept me out of the loop for quite a while. It wasn't until a couple years later that my interest returned, thankfully just in time for the boys to come through the state on the Metal Hammer sponsored Trespass America festival tour. Their performance was a welcome breath of fresh air that day after a rather lackluster opening set from Battlecross (who, by the way, have gotten much better with each tour and release I've seen from them), despite Byron Davis doing some serious damage to his ankle falling off a monitor. The meet and greet afterwards was well attended and I was definitely pleased with my experience meeting them. Doc has been a fixture in DVD documentaries and the metal press for years and is as personable as I'd hoped him to be, and all of the members were very kind and cool towards the fans. There was one little boy there who they probably made a lifelong fan after their treatment of him. The record they were touring behind, 2012's Equilibrium, is arguably their best release, but I guess whatever momentum they began to build up wasn't meant to be.
On the one hand, I certainly understand the reasoning behind the decisions here. The music industry is harder to make a living from than ever, and God Forbid have never really had the big break that some of their peers like Killswitch Engage got. Doc cites concerns about income and living conditions in his blog post and unfortunately this is an oft-cited concern for many bands both experienced and not today. It also doesn't sound like the guys are going away, they'll be involved with other projects that will keep them occupied and I will certainly be looking forward to those. But, obviously, I am extremely disappointed that this is apparently it for them as a unit. Despite my periods of inactivity I am quick to sing the praises of God Forbid and point people in their direction, and for good reason. The band was as important to the rise of metalcore as higher profile groups like Shadows Fall and As I Lay Dying and Constitution of Treason remains one of my favorite albums from that genre. This is a pretty great loss whether the masses realize it or not. It's too bad that those who don't realize it yet will only be able to figure this fact out in hindsight.
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