Forbidden tour without bassist Matt Camacho and drummer Chris Kontos

Forbidden will play their autumn US tour without two of the five people who made the record it is promoting. Bassist Matt Camacho and drummer Chris Kontos are both stepping away from the Chaos By Design run, which starts on 23 October in Las Vegas and takes the Bay Area thrash band out with Heathen and Void until late November. Avery Thurman and Eli Lucas fill the two chairs.

The band confirmed it in a statement on 18 September, saying the pair cannot make the trip and asking fans to respect their privacy and their decision. They also said both players plan to be back in the fold in 2027, when a fuller slate of touring is planned.

Camacho put a number on what he is missing: "This is the first tour I will miss since 1987," he wrote, thanking Thurman for stepping in. Kontos pointed to family and personal commitments and timing that does not line up, and asked the crowd to give Lucas the same treatment they would give him.

Neither stand-in is a stranger. Lucas was runner-up in Forbidden's international drummer search back in 2011 and has become one of the more respected players around the Bay Area since. Thurman is 21, on loan from Blind Illusion, and has been drawing notice for his technique and his stage presence. The band say they have already had several weeks of rehearsal with both.

The tour lands with the self-titled album, out the same day on BLKIIBLK and the group's first full-length in 16 years. It was tracked at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland with engineer and co-producer Zack Ohren, and produced by guitarist Craig Locicero together with Kontos and Ohren. Brann Dailor of Mastodon plays on the track Sycophantasy. Camacho and Kontos are both on the record throughout, which is part of what makes their absence from the road awkward.

Locicero described the sessions as more of an odyssey than a normal recording process, and said the aim was a record that reminds people why they fell for thrash in the first place, imperfections included. The eleven tracks include Single Point Failure, Divided By Zero, Psyclops and Flower Of Life (Chaos By Design), the song the tour takes its name from. The album is one to watch on the release calendar.

Forbidden formed in Fremont, California in 1985 as Forbidden Evil, and the two albums that made their name, Forbidden Evil and Twisted Into Form, came in 1988 and 1990. They broke up in 1997, reunited in 2008, went quiet again in 2012, and came back in 2023 with Locicero, Camacho, Steve Smyth, vocalist Norman Skinner and Kontos. Divided By Zero, released in 2025, was their first new song in 15 years.

The run opens in Las Vegas on 23 October and finishes at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on 22 November, with 22 dates in between including Denver, Chicago, Brooklyn, Atlanta and Austin; the routing is in the tour guide. After that the band are booked for 70000 Tons of Metal in January 2027, sailing out of Miami. Other metal acts working this autumn include Mastodon, whose ninth album Marrow Deep is out, and Megadeth, who have added a European leg to their farewell tour.