God Forbid is back with a vengeance, kicking off the New Year with a bang as they have just replaced Throwdown on the upcoming Five Finger Death Punch North American tour. This massive trek, which kicks off on Jan. 21st, will now lead the band directly into their final run of the Earthsblood album cycle with Kittie this March. Be sure to visit www.myspace.com/godforbid now to view their complete touring schedule.

Doc Coyle (guitars, vocals) further states: “This is quite a surprise to announce GOD FORBID’s participation in the Five Finger Death Punch, Shadows Fall and 2 Cents tour. This was a tour we were looking at when it was first being put together, so the fact that we eventually landed it, even though it was a last minute thing, is a stroke of good fortune. We do wish our friends in Throwdown well, and hope whatever happened turns out ok in the end. Big thanks to FFDP for bringing us out! We have become good friends with them over the last couple years, and the fact that they are making this huge gesture is awesome. We go all the way back with our brothers in Shadows Fall to our first tour in 2000, so this will be another trip around the rodeo with some old friends. We’ve never toured with 2 Cents, but know Adair from Manttis and the other guys seem super cool. Combined with the spring tour with Lamb of God and the summer Mayhem Festival, this will be the most successful US touring cycle GF has ever had, so it’s a big reason to be positive in 2010! “In other news, we will be heading out with our friends in Kittie for a few weeks in March mainly focusing on the northeast. One of the sickest new bands around, Periphery, will open the first part of the tour, and Gwen Stacy will open the 2nd part. This will more than likely be the last tour before getting back to working on a new album.

“This past fall and winter has been a refocusing period on a personal and business level for GOD FORBID figuring what the next phase of this band will be. Another announcement is that Matt Wicklund (Warrel Dane, ex-Himsa,) is our new guitar player. He relocated to New Jersey and immediately started contributing new material. Along with being a great guy, he fit in with all of us really well, and it seemed like a no brainer. It’s hard to say what the new material will be like, but so far I can say it’s going to be very hook oriented, and obviously without Dallas, it will have a different vibe. Matt and I have very similar musical tastes, but he comes from a more trained background in theory which should create an interesting dynamic. He is also a very good lead guitar player, so there will probably be more solos. As soon as we do a new photo shoot, we will update all of our websites with Matt. We’ll see you on tour!”