God Forbid - 'The End Of The World' from IV: Constitution Of Treason (2005)

In the mid 00's, there was a great and vast hunger to reclaim the seemingly abandoned legacy of Metallica's 1988 opus ... And Justice For All within a modern metal framework, whether from a post-thrash, metalcore/NWOAHM or thrash-legacy standpoint. I have always regarded God Forbid's 2005 IV: Constitution Of Treason to be the 21st Century's true spiritual heir to AJFA. Other contenders would specifically include every Megadeth album from that and later decades pretty much as well as Machine Head's strong and battle-tested champion The Blackening from 2007. Someday I would like to write about that album and Machine Head in general, but today is not that day. IV: Constitution Of Treason has it all: it is a concept album about the fall of our civilization with glorious acoustic intros/interludes, has the Statue Of Liberty collapsing on the cover, repurposes Hetfield-Ulrich gtr/drum synchronization for metalcore-unto-thrash dominance, has awesome tunes, and most importantly, is consistent as an album rather than a collection of songs. It is among my favorite albums of that decade, and holds up awesomely well. All Hail.