Band:	Possessed
Album:	Seven Churches
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	1985
A review by:	Richard

01. The Exorcist
02. Pentagram
03. Burning In Hell
04. Evil Warriors
05. Seven Churches
06. Satan's Curse
07. Holy Hell
08. Twisted Minds
09. Fallen Angel
10. Death Metal

Released in 1985, Seven Churches is considered by many to be the first ever Death Metal album. Possessed, a 4-piece from San Francisco, built upon the raw energy of Thrash and mutated it into an altogether darker, nastier beast. This is an album which is rightfully revered and respected as an all-time classic - just under 40 minutes of primal savagery, ending with the genre-defining anthem Death Metal.

The Exorcist starts the album, with the guitars and drums kicking in after a brief extract from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. (Of course, the music to Tubular Bells was used in the soundtrack to the movie The Exorcist). At once, the listener is bombarded with the kind of innovative, heavy riffing which helps to make every song on the album so powerful. Although these ten compositions were dismissed by some critics as mere noise, there's a sense of coherency in this sonic mayhem, and every song here is memorable in its own right.

The tempo ranges throughout from fast and furious (although never overly so) to midtempo, with some moments even incorporating an element of groove, in their own warped way - songs like Pentagram and Holy Hell are instantly catchy due to their energetic swagger. Jeff Becerra's mid-range throat-shredding vocals are excellent, spewing forth the OTT Satanic and blasphemous lyrics with conviction and anti-Christian zeal.

If you haven't heard Seven Churches yet, and you're an enthusiast of any kind of extreme Metal, then this album should be next on your 'to get' list. I don't use this word lightly, but it is a masterpiece.