Band:	Possessed
Album:	Revelations Of Oblivion
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	May 10, 2019
A review by:	nikarg

01. Chant Of Oblivion
02. No More Room In Hell
03. Dominion
04. Damned
05. Demon
06. Abandoned
07. Shadowcult
08. Omen
09. Ritual
10. The Word
11. Graven
12. Temple Of Samael

Brace yourselves death metal maniacs, for this is Possessed's (aka the first name in death metal) return to full-length discography after more than three decades and I can't even begin to imagine how many undergarments this will get wet.

Words cannot describe how I felt when I got this promo in my hands. The fact that I was going to listen to a new Possessed album after so many years gave me such a hard-on got me so excited that I had to keep reminding myself that I should lower my sky-high expectations so as not to get utterly disappointed. The first single, "No More Room In Hell", had prepared me for something special but I was still afraid that one of the bands responsible for the music I've been listening to all these years might betray me with a shameless cash grab.

My main concern was that Possessed is now only Jeff Becerra, even though he is accompanied by four admittedly very talented musicians (I secretly hoped Larry would join but I guess it wasn't meant to happen). Another reservation I had before listening was that the music of this band was so groundbreaking and made such a massive impact on metal back in the day that anything new, regardless how good, wouldn't possibly be as good. On the other hand, this year marks the thirtieth anniversary since the incident that nearly cost Jeff's life and left him in a wheelchair with half a lung on his left side from the gunshot, so in my mind it can't be entirely coincidental that Revelations Of Oblivion is being released in 2019. It was also hard for me to imagine Jeff phoning it in.

And, of course, he didn't.

From the astonishing cover art, you can tell that every detail has been carefully considered. Revelations Of Oblivion is indeed a remarkable album for a number of reasons, one of which is its sound. It feels unmistakeably familiar as if it had been preserved in a time-capsule for thirty years. Everything is here; the swirling riffs, the blistering solos, the hellish reverb-laden vocals, the nasty bass. Serving as the cherry on the cake, the drums that were the weaker link of old Possessed are now a demonic assault courtesy of Emilio Marquez's (Asesino, ex-Sadistic Intent) brutal and energetic performance. The organic mix (just listen to those drum fills) does justice to the band's past and refrains from making Possessed sound like one of the hundreds of overproduced and sterile tech death acts.

But you need much more than just good performances and good sound to have an album worthy of Possessed's logo.

You need Jeff's screaming in "Abandoned" with his trademark abyssal voice, the drumming extravaganza of "Ritual", the thrashy and cataclysmic riffing of "Dominion" and "The Word", and even the dynamic changes in speed and direction of "Demon" and "Omen". The soloing is spectacular at times and brings memories of the good old days when bands had two guitarists that were both playing their solo one after the other in the same song, in some kind of undeclared competition between them. The pace is mostly frenetic but with breathers of variation without compromising in brutality; instead, these slower parts actually add to the sheer heaviness of it all. The truth is that some trimming would have made the album a bit punchier and more direct given the style; nevertheless, the final product is 55 minutes of thoroughly entertaining death metal that pays utmost respect to the fans and the band's legacy.

Revelations Of Oblivion is not going to redesign the map of death metal and it doesn't need to, since Possessed designed that map in the first place. It does not have the shock value of the first releases for obvious reasons and it cannot possibly recreate the atmosphere of those albums because that was simply unparalleled. Nonetheless, this record fully deserves a place next to a first press vinyl of Seven Churches and, more importantly, it is an excellent addition to the *insert streaming platform here* playlists of younger metalheads so that they can appreciate a man in his fifties with half a left lung not for the laurels of the past but for his musical output in the here and now. I don't know what kind of expectations you had, but for me this is exactly what I wished for.

In a recent interview Jeff Becerra said that "it's almost like many times I thought as long as I could get out one more album I could die in peace and I've always said I'm going to die at 50 my entire life but now that I got the album out and I'm 50, I'm like fuck that, I hope I got at least another 20 or 30 years left in me. So I always gotta keep writing and playing and keep putting the best quality music out and hopefully make people enjoy our music." To me these words mean that when there's no more room in hell, Possessed will still be there to create a new one made of riffs.