If you don’t know about Possessed, than what the hell is wrong with you.  They released the first death metal album, in 1985, called Seven Churches-a classic in its own right and followed it up with Beyond the Gates a year later and then The Eyes of Horror ep in 1987.  After their debut they quickly became one of my favorite bands.  Then tragically vocalist/bassist Jeff Becerra was paralyzed in a shooting and wheelchair bound.  He had health complications due to such an unfortunate event and eventually the band disbanded.  The band activated again in 2007.  Since that time Becerra has been busy with trying to solidify a solid line-up to try and make Possessed once again a full time act and get their first official release out since 1987.  Now armed to the teeth with Emilio Marquez on drums (Coffin Texts), Robert Cardenas on bass (Coffin Texts), Daniel Gonzalez on guitar (Gruesome) and Claudeous Creamer, guitar (From Hell) and Jeff on vocals Revelations of Oblivion jumps out of the starting gate and never lets up.  This album is hell bent on ripping your soul out of your chest and murdering it again and again and again.  With 12 songs, 2 of them are an intro and outro, at 54 minutes Possessed are back, in a big way.

After an uneventful intro, “Chant of Oblivion”, “No More Room in Hell” comes blasting out your speakers.  When this was released as a lyric video I could not stop listening to the song and still cannot.  How do I even have time to go to the bathroom?  Well I guess that is what Depends are for.  Anyway, the guitars come scorching through and this album has a very 80’s feel to it and the sounds are replicated to even have this album have a feel to the bands earlier releases.  But the album still sounds fresh and modern.  The production helps in that category, but there are some drum and tom rolls and guitar parts that bring the sound of Seven Churches to the forefront.  The stop start riffing on the fast parts and chorus are unreal and heavy. But most of all catchy as a mutha effer.  If the 3.50 part does not bludgeon your neck to death than you’re already dead.  So as you are just about recovering, “Dominion” begins.  Monster opening guitar riffing and some great snarling, vocals from Jeff, with some nice vocal effects.  Cool guitar solos and thrashing drums and then “Damned” starts and has a monster chorus part which is so damn catchy.

The music on Revelations of Oblivion is death metal, but with a lot of thrash influences.  This is the fastest Possessed album as well, much of it has to do with the stupendous guitar riffing, which is catchy, heavy, even melodic at times and even some nods to classic heavy metal, in general.  The songs are fast, with slower parts of course and some songs get into high speed death thrash pounding speeds and even a few blast beats thrown in to rip your arms off and thrash you upside that pathetic thing you call a head-check out “Abandoned” to see what I am talking about.  Possessed has already released the video for “Graven” and once I originally heard the song when I picked up the album, it became one of my favorite songs for 2019.  The opening part has the best vocal lines and tones for 2019:  “Six, six, six on the head and the wrist, the bloodied battered crucifix”.  This opening part is so fu**ing awesome and I just want to start punching things every time I hear these vocal lines and song, in general.  The song is heavy, fast and has some excellent riffing.  The slow down at the 1.55 is pure classic metal and has some amazing drum rolls too.  Your chest cavity will collapse from “Ritual’s” relentless double bass and Jeff’s vocals again sounding vicious as all hell.

Comparing Revelations of Oblivion to Possessed’s past work is tough for me, because I picked up all those first releases when they initially were released.  So I’ve had over 3 decades with that music.  I will say Revelations of Oblivion is a definite Possessed album.  It’s produced extraordinarily well, well-played, ridiculously catchy, demonic lyrics and Jeff Becerra does turn in his finest vocal performance.  His vocals… devil almighty, the dude has not missed a freaking beat-he sounds outstanding.  In terms of comeback albums, this is the definition of a true comeback album.  Again, this is the band’s third album and the last official recording was in 1987.  Revelations of Oblivion is the best comeback album I have ever heard.  This has far exceeded my expectations and will make my best of list for 2019.

The cd comes in a slipcase and the booklet is well laid out with lyrics and liner notes. The album cover is awesome with it’s temple of hell depiction and I love that pretty much all the song titles are one word, easier for us “younger” guys to remember. The band, as I write this, is touring Europe.  I hope they do a full blown U.S. tour when they return.  Jeff Becerra needs to be pleased with this album, as well as the other band members. From beginning to end Revelations of Oblivions never lets up on the gas pedal, is evil, relentless and just a monstrous album.  I cannot get enough of this album; I love it.   Buy or Die!!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments