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POSSESSED
1985 - Seven Churches.
more POSSESSED.
way more Helter Skelter.

November 4, 1985 - 2025: 40 years of: Seven Churches.

Satanic-Metal burns America.

1985, the year for hate, aggression and raw power AKA speed-fuckin-metal. And this time, we've got a gang that makes METALLICA and EXODUS sound like DURAN-fuckin-DURAN. From the deranged family-tree of the almighty VENOM, going underground with CELTIC FROST and then no mercy of SLAYER ...but this time around: everything dies. Thrash-Metal becomes fully POSSESSED !

Open up The Gates Of Hell with the actual soundtrack from the 1973 unholy-cult horror The Exorcist. From movie to music, from menacing to maniacal, from massacra to morbid tales ...haunting the chapel in every Churches as it bluntly bursts out with "The Exorcist" a true bloodlust metal-cut.

The grim-level goes into overdrive on the speedmetal slaughter "Evil Warriors", where the immortal call "6 - 6 - 6" is yelled out by singer / bassist / hellchild Jeff Becerra. The roots of what would soon become a new metal-genre.

Faster and hotter ...like a wild-fire "Burning In Hell" and "Satan's Curse" leaves not much to the imagination. Raging drums and painstaking faster fret-work draws blood on impact. More darkness and vileness is execrated on "Holy Hell" and the foreshadowing closing track "Death Metal".

Total violence.
Total desecration.
Total Anti-Christ hate.
The San Francisco Bay-Area was the thrashmetal hotbed in the mid 80s. After the initial shock of EXODUS and METALLICA, the Second Wave destroyed everything in the pit, the culprits: TESTAMENT, HEATHEN, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE, FORBIDDEN and POSSESSED.

Ready for World War Three ?

A view to a kill: that dark evil cloud overheads on all non-believers, as these soldiers rides the lightning and raises the bar with a firm metal-command. In the history books, there is none more black as: Welcome To Hell, Hell Awaits and Seven Churches LPs. While the arms-race was in full motion, this volatile exhibition sat metal on a new path of extremes. A fine distinctive line between thrashmetal and speedmetal was now making room for what would become the sick musical genre known as: Death-Metal.

Now the debate: is Seven Churches LP a death-metal release ?

No. Extremely influent, both musically and lyrically, boundary-pushing and trailblazing. But even though the brutally is unmatched, it does miss the slower and mid-paced moody parts, guitar-downtuning and the key-signature deep guttural-vocals of the genre. So against these facts, yet so close and deadly: the Seven Churches LP is not a death-metal release.

POSSESSED burned everything above sea-level, not only with their high BPM-factor, but by the evil touch that makes these bastards unique. The ravage shall continue on 1986's Beyond The Gates LP.

*
Seven Churches = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6g4k7yYhM&list=OLAK5uy_nmHgP7Sy06SEZD39xGXA8ELpIj8mMAtYM
Live at Ruthie's Inn in 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peaBdVxDkpk
Live at Montreal's WW3 Festival in 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIulLbr7h6U

more POSSESSED:

#Bay-Area 87-88