Well, Possessed and Metallica were both in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early days and Metallica had a serious liking in the underground scene there so, it makes sense
Insanely classic. Imagine seeing these guys live in 84-85. YT is a great source to hear underground shit. Back when I first started listening to metal in the late 80s (87-90) the only way you could hear this is if you were lucky enough to get your hands on a rare copy or dub a tape from someone. Now, you just fire up YT and spend an afternoon checking out legendary music. We have it good!
I remember getting a dubbed copy of metal massacre with swing of the axe on it, in 1986 and that track blew my mind and also scared the heck out of my 16 year old self... I had gotten the bathory album, venom black metal, slayer hell awaits... I thought what have I gotten myself into this stuff is evil! what a great time... I remember every kid at my school was getting into the thrash and crossover DRI was a 'local' band so it was on!
@@widepootis Of course, but Bathory's ST released late in '84 and that doesn't take anything away from how innovative and intense this Possessed demo was for that time
I don’t see what’s necessarily groundbreaking about this. It’s heavily Slayer influenced and doesn’t do much different besides the vocals being a bit more extreme. It kicks ass, sure thing, but as far as innovation I don’t think it did much.
The quality of this demo is incredible, sound, writing and musicianship. And they were high school juniors when they did their debut album A YEAR after this demo!
@@ivansalvatore9631 exactly, '84-'85 demos of Possessed are more Thrash than Death, but you can't deny that some parts of the demos have a very clear Death Metal sound
@@ivansalvatore9631 si esto es thrash , Metallica es glam , jajajajaja. Tiene , y también black . Son los creadores del DM . Influyó de los Death en adelante. COPIAPO CHILE KMOT
@@jaimegodoy757 metallica justamente es la banda más mami de thrash, el thrash para mí es kreator, sodom, slayer, dark angel. que sea influyente o no es otra cosa. black flag influyó mucho en el sludge y no deja de ser una banda de hardcore
Nah this is still thrash, and seven churches is also a thrash album, on the heavier side of thrash. I won't take anything away from it, this is still groundbreaking for its time.
@@mummifiedcr keep quite even chuck says this is death metal and is the first death metal band ever, this is was old school death metal sounded, not everything has to be sound like cockiemonster vocals to be called death metal! Fvckin newbies
Fueron los mentores , los demás lo definieron . DEATH lo perfeccionó y patentó . POSSESSED lo incluyó en el mundo del metal , con su temazo DEATH METAL. Le guste o no a algunos . Quien tiene un cover d ellos. COPIAPO CHILE KMOT
It's nice to finally *HEAR* this clearly after almost 40 years. I had traded for this back in the day (because that's how we did things ;) but the copy was copied so many times it was terrible.
My first experience of listening to possessed was from Seven Churches. Even though I come from the death metal tape trading scene this gem was a bit before my underground years……
Yes the demo is called Death Metal, yes the style is very heavy for '84 (even if, at least for me, first Mantas/Death demos are even heavier) and it was very influential and all. But for me there is still a lot of Thrash in this demo, and even a few well hidden NWOBHM elements.
@@xraygamer9895 that is basically what i was trying to say. I mean, is it just me or it seems that in the last times everyone woke up one day and decided to claim possessed as pure death metal for some fucking reason?
Great Demo The Lords Of Death Metal in The U S. Besides Death a year Later. Seen a interview with Jeff. "1982" possessed came out. Mantis in "1983" late.
"Possessed" formed in 1983 at MikeTorrao's garage with Torrao (guitar), Mike Sus (drums ), Jeff Andrews (bass) and Bary Fisk (vocals) .... "Death" also started 1983-84.
Me parece mucho mas oscuro,sieniestro y maldito lo que hizo hellhammer que tambien fue mas antiguo,imcluso los primeros trabajos de sodom q son mas antiguos sonaban mas siniestros,ahora bathory que en 1983 presentó su aporte para el scandinavian metal attak que fue lanzado el 19 de enero 1984 con las canciones sacrifice y the return of the darkness and evil...possessed y death son realmente increíbles pero no me sorprendieron mas q los antes mensionados
It's interesting when you look at those tape trading, pen pal adverts in fanzines of the time, you see Possessed being described as "if you're into black power metal like Slayer, Sodom and Hellhammer". I guess 'black power metal' can be translated to 'satanic extreme metal' in modern terms. Only Burning in Hell and the last track has elements approaching what would later come to be called death metal. You can hear some early Morbid Angel on those two tracks.
@@Hecatecrossways You meant sheep goes bah bah? It may be edgy from your point of view to call Chuck Schuldiner a poser and that's all that matters, right? After all it only makes you a poser and I won't go further feeding either trolls, posers or wimps.
@@iskavetaa464 He was a homosexual male like Rob Halford??? Scream Bloody Gore wasn't a Poser album, but Human was way too Mellow and wanky. If Chuck were still alive nobody would like Death after Spiritual Healing.
The only releases that could claim themselves as death metal before this are Hellhammer Satanic Rites/Apoc Raids. Sodom demos were more black metal. Destruction Bestial Invasion of Hell more black thrash. Onslaught had more hardcore punk influence and Necrophagia was a lot more primitive at this time. Mantas came close but they were influenced by Possessed anyways. Hard to make a convincing argument otherwise in my opinion, these guys were likely the first.
I know they mention the same old influences in interviews but you need to realize Jeff Becerra saw Slayer’s first show in 1982 or 81? Regardless that’s literally all you need to know to figure if he was really influenced by them or not. I believe the motorhead and venom mentions more than exodus and especially metallica. Btw exodus didn’t even release shit till 85.
I think Mantas demo is definitely a bit more death metal than this. This sounds like good ol Bay area thrash, perhaps with some slightly more sadistic vocals.
Not according to Kam Lee, the drummer/vocalist of Mantas: When we were in Mantas, (Chuck Schuldiner, Rick Rozz and myself) still had a more Venom/Motörhead sound kinda going on. And then I remember Chuck getting the Possessed demo, and I just remember hearing it and just freaking out like, 'Man, this is the way we gotta be.'
@@kebabmannen1 Black and death metal weren't much separated yet . You can hear that in Sarcofago , the 3 first Sepultura records, Bulldozer, Necrodeath and Schizo stuff, even , and that was quite influential also for the Norway BM scene as well that scandinavia in general, As they wore the shirts too, Abomination of desolation by Morbid Angel as well than the couple of Nocturnus Demo just following that in 1986-1988.
They may have _called_ it 'death metal,' but it's actually thrash metal. Venom also coined the term 'black metal' but are not modern black metal. Well know Mantas (Death) first performed death metal, the same year, with their demo ;)
I have to agree that this doesn't sound much like what would later come to be regarded as Death Metal. This sounds like early thrash, still with lots of Venom and Motorhead influences, except much faster and brutal. I see a clearer thread from Sepultura's Morbid Vision to Morbid Angel's debut, in the vocal delivery, drumming without over use of blast beats, riffs interspersed with tremolo picked lines, etc.
@@estebansteverincon7117 I agree. Possessed were never pure death metal IMO. They're like this weird outlier. Unless by 'death metal' we mean everything more extreme than Slayer.
The one who did the downvote I presume. It sucks, but personally I get more pissed about people bitching about 'em more than the downvotes themselves. About as useful as bitching about the salt in seawater.
