Black Sabbath, Motorhead, AC/DC, OZZY, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST. Also Exodus, Metallica (Before the Kill Em All Album even, RAVEN, Mercyful Fate, Venom, King Crimson, Sex Pistols, Fang, TSOL, Discharge and any other UG underground Metal or Hardcore that we could find later on. Ron Quintana and his late night circus KUSF Rampage Radio was probably the most influencial thing to me of all. We would stay up from 1:30am to 4am every Saturday and listen to all of the cool shit that Ron had found out in the world.
.............Jeff Becerra
Possessed started with Mike Torrao (guitar) and Mike Sus (drums) as a garage band in San Francisco's Bay Area. They formed in 1983, and were basically a garage band, with several lineup changes. Late in 1983, though, their singer Barry Fisk committed suicide, and when they managed to recruit singer/bassist Jeff Becerra they formed the band Possessed.
Jeff was fronting a local commercial-style metal band called Blizzard before he quit to join Possessed. (Also involved in this band were future Possessed guitarist Larry Lalonde and the band's future manager, Debbie Abono.) Jeff and the two Mikes, along with second guitarist Brian Montana, started perfecting their own brand of metal which was the precursor to modern death metal - very fast, savage riffs, warp-speed drums, mile-a-second solos, and the raspy growl of the vocals later perfected by Chuck Schuldiner of Death. (In fact, Chuck's vocals on "Scream Bloody Gore" sound almost exactly like Jeff Becerra's vocals on "Seven Churches," an album Schuldiner cites as a significant influence.)
Possessed took San Francisco's metal scene by storm, playing out with fellow Bay Area thrashers Exodus (it happened that the two Mikes were pretty good friends with Exodus' H-team, Rick Hunolt and Gary Holt) and other bands (many now long gone). In 1984 they recorded a four song demo which made its way to the ears of Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records. He was impressed enough to ask them for a track for the upcoming Metal Massacre 6. Possessed gave them the song Swing Of The Axe, which proved to be the highlight of that compilation, and was included on the later "Best of Metal Massacre."
However, at the same time the band was deciding which track to give them, they were dealing with a weak link in the band, and his name was Brian Montana. In interviews after the fact, Torrao says that Montana's playing skills and dedication to the image that the band was trying to create (the 'leather and stud, inverted cross death/black stage presence) left much to be desired. He was fired, and Possessed then enlisted the axe-playing skills of Larry Lalonde, finagling him from that earlier band.
Thus, all at once, Possessed got one track released and a new guitarist. However, Metal Blade did not sign Possessed, and neither did Torrid Records, by this time the home of Exodus.
Then came Combat.
Combat Records signed Possessed in 1985, and the band spent the school Easter break recording the heaviest, fastest, most evil piece of metal ever to be carved into vinyl grooves - Seven Churches. This is the album that set the standard for death metal. Released in October of 1985, it was light-years ahead of its time, with the intricate-yet-heavy riffing of The Exorcist, Twisted Minds, and the title track (LaLonde's first co-writing credit) and the skull-pounding brutality of Burning In Hell, Evil Warriors, and the seminal Death Metal. The album was masterfully produced by Randy Burns, and recorded at Prairie Sun Studios. Seven Churches went on to be Combat Records' biggest-selling album. Not bad for a quartet of high school kids.
They spent most of the next year gigging around the US and Europe, and in October 1986 (on Halloween, to be exact) unleashed their second album Beyond The Gates. A poor production job by Carl Canedy robbed the songs of some of their energy, but the musical genius of Torrao's and Becerra's songwriting shone throughout the album, especially ..s like The Heretic, Beyond the Gates, and No Will To Live. Torrao and Becerra also got some help from LaLonde, who wrote three of the album's songs: Phantasm, Seance, and Tribulation (a crowd favorite from before the first album). This album was especially well received in Europe, where they toured at the end of 1986.
They toured more in the states early in 1987, and later that year they recorded and released The Eyes of Horror, a five song EP produced by LaLonde's guitar demagogue, Joe Satriani. It was musically the most advanced thing that Possessed had done, but the trademark satanism was almost completely absent on the EP. They had begun moving more in a thrash direction, and were getting away from the death and black magic imagery of their first two albums.
Shortly after the release of The Eyes Of Horror, the members of Possessed decided to call it a day, and Sus, LaLonde, and Becerra left the band.
Mike Torrao continued writing and recording music music under the Possessed name, taking over vocal duties. This part of the history is incomplete. Possessed went through several people trying to settle on the perfect mix for the band. After several tryouts (including, among others, Duane Connley [guitar] and Colin Carmichael [drums] from fellow Bay-Area thrashers Sanguinary), the line-up finally settled on Bob Yost (bass), Walter Ryan (drums), and Mark Strausberg (guitar) in 1991. This line-up recorded one two-song demo. Yost quit, but Torrao, Ryan, and Strausberg continued with new bassist Paul Perry, and this lineup released a three-song demo in 1992 (though apparently there was also a four-song version, including a newly- recorded version of The Exorcist). In 1993 Possessed returned to the live stage in the Bay Area, opening a few shows for Machine Head
REALITY CHECK TV IS NOW LIVE ON DEMAND, on Comcast CABLE--anywhere in the SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA!!! Simply go to the On Demand menu, then click "GET LOCAL"; next click "Public Affairs" (how we got in that category is a mystery, but whatever), and RCTV is listed there! Right now is a brief intro to the new 10 minute "minisode" format, using our THRASH OF THE TITANS coverage from a few years back as an ice-breaker. We'll have more current and brand-new material added as we ramp this new platform up--so please, spread the word, and give Comcast a call, or send 'em emails, asking for more REALITY CHECK TV! NEW: PT. 2 of THRASH OF THE TITANS was just added! FOR THOSE NOT in The SF Bay Area (or with satellite TV), visit us online here: http://realitychecktv.mevio.com/ We have new, complete episodes available anytime! We have our most recent shows (#'s 447, 448, and 449, plus #435, THE ANVIL EXPERIENCE) posted, so now anyone with a computer or personal digital device can watch anytime! Many thanx to all for your support as friends and fans of RCTV!!! Don't forget to visit us online at http://realitychecktv.com for more info, links to other pages, and merchandise like our DVD's/ t-shirts/hats and other RC logo gear for you and yours this Holiday Season. Help us to keep bringing YOU more cool shit to watch! Happy Holidaze...
Hey, We are Blutregen, a TRUE GERMAN BLACK METAL band from Thuringia, the heart of German Black Metal. We like to proudly present you our first new song since 2004. The song is called DEMONIC SOLAR SYSTEM and you can watch the video right here:
Psycho Hello ! Out the 29th of October on Metallian Magazine Editions and distribued by Season Of Mist "The Grace Decapitated" will spread his new disease !! The new metal generation is born !!!
Produced by TERJE REFSNES
Listen news singles "The Grace Decapitated" and “Spectral and Terrified”…
Thanks for accepting the add! It's a pleasure to meet you!
My name is T. H. Davis, and I'm an Irish born and bred author of horror/supernatural. You can download my first collection of short stories absolutely free by copying the link below into your browser!
Hope you enjoy my work, and stop by any time!
T. H. Davis.
A Dozen Dark Dimensions by T. H. Davis (FREE DOWNLOAD – Copy and paste into your browser):
New album: “MORBIDE ELITE” - coming soon on Iron Age Records !
Since worldwide crisis with wars and famine are a true human pain, the drunk poor pest-brewing trolls got their good times. Since their pact with the crows their succes became giant. The drunk trolls are dead, the New Elite is born. We write in times where people are praying their God for forgiving their sins, to keep away His thorn of disease. Expect a mindblowing fast black metal masterpiece with a confronting sound of medieval infecting grief. The whole world is dying.
Hey. como estas?, pues me da gusto avisarte que ya esta listo el Mutilador IX, 100 páginas con entrevistas con Agaliaretph, Arkhanoth, Arvas, Averno, Chaoswolf , Christ Ablaze, Archetype, Gorjeo Seglar, Coatl, Deaminium, Ivanna Incello, y muchos mas; Notas: Havoheg, Destruktor, Cerekoth, Zerstorer, Vinterthron, Stormnatt, Ac Noctum; En Portada: Elena Bathory, modelo de Dark Funeral; Cuentos, reseñas de Zine Daemonium, Poesia, XReviews. Para bajarlo a tu máquina dale clic acá (copia y pega en el explorador) http://www.mediafire.com/?mxmeny0lytt
When coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? It cannot die, it cannot stay, But leaves its darken'd dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? Or fill at once the realms of space, A thing of eyes, that all survey?
Eternal, boundless, undecay'd, A thought unseen, but seeing all, All, all in earth or skies display'd, Shall it survey, shall it recall: Each fainter trace that memory holds So darkly of departed years, In one broad glance the soul beholds, And all, that was, at once appears.
Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the farthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all to be, While sun is quench'd or system breaks, Fix'd in its own eternity.
Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, It lives all passionless and pure: An age shall fleet like earthly year; Its years as moments shall endure. Away, away, without a wing, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly, A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to die.
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