Customer Reviews

Possessed

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is by no means a bad album. In fact, it's pretty damn good. It's massively heavy, has great riffs & really well-written lyrics, but it's still not quite as "groundbreaking" as the previous three. Mostly, the poor mixing is what gives this only a four star rating (at least that's what I think). The whole album is just a little bass-heavy, with the vocals, especially on "Possessed", too far in the background. But that's really the only true negative thing about it. But it is raw, sleazy, heavy & just plain evil. It's pure Venom. The best tracks are "Flytrap", which has just an immensly heavy bass riff; "Satanachist", which has a creepy beginning and some of the coolest lyrics Cronos ever wrote; "Possessed", possibly Venom's most outright blasphemous song (and also concludes the "story" that Venom started with the quote on the back of "Welcome to Hell"); an awesome instrumental called "Wing and a Prayer" which really smokes; and the really rowdy concert-opener, "Too Loud (For the Crowd)", which ends with a little "preview" of a Venom live show. Of the bonus tracks the best are "Nightmare", also a song with powerful riffs & lyrics and opens, believe it or not, with Mantas playing ACOUSTIC! Cronos' bass riffs in the middle are also pretty inspired. Few bands can even begin to compare to these guys. Also, part of Venom's live show is featured here with the extremely rare "Witching Hour" and "Teacher's Pet/Poison" taken from the limited "Hell at Hammersmith" ep. Venom has always been a little sloppy live, but who cares?! Their live shows are always totally over the top, insane & heavy as Hell! What they lack in skill, they more than make up for in pure POWER! "Witching Hour" is, in fact, a thrashers dream come true. Turn it up extremely loud and break all your windows when you play this one. This whole album usually gets poor reviews, but it still sounds like nothing on earth.

1985 saw the release of Venom's 4th album entitled "Possessed". This was the last record by the original band, (Cronos, Mantas, Abbadon). In my opinion, it is just as good as thier 1st 3 albums. Venom wrote some real classics on this cd and it is sadly one of thier most underrated albums. On "Possessed", Venom we're in a somewhat different songwriting mode and they have changed just a little bit. I think the songs are very good. With tracks like "Powerdrive, Satanachist, Harmony Dies, Hellchild, Moonshine and Mystique", Venom's songwriting grew to be more complex and intricate. Although I say that, the band did not lose any of thier fire and none of the diabolical themes they are so known for. Some of thier best songs are on this cd. I like it just as much as "Welcome To Hell, Black Metal" and "At War With Satan." "Possessed is a definite must have if you travel the long and lonley road to hell. In closing, this is a classic NWOBHM release.

Make no mistake, this is a great album, but the crusade to get "Possessed" crammed alongside the first trilogy of Venom albums in terms of recognition is futile and really not necessary--it's the lack of memorable musical factors, not the lack of quality, that keeps it the underdog of Venom albums. "Welcome to Hell" will always remain the seminal foundation for extreme metal, and perhaps even challenges "Stained Class" in terms of being the most influencial heavy metal release of all time. "Black Metal" is still unparalleled when it comes to simplistic quality in metal, and of course the epic title track of "At War With Satan" was innovative at the time. But "Possessed" was released in '85, when the floodgates of extreme metal had already been opened by Venom themselves.

It's actually a logical successor to the first 3 albums, and in my opinion, actually blows away "At War With Satan," which in my opinion was mostly saved by the length gimmick of the title track...I consider the other songs on that album except "Rip Ride" (and to a lesser extent "Stand Up (And Be Counted)" to be mediocre filler. The reason why "Possessed" works for me is that Venom does dip back into the tried and true formulas for the previous albums, and very blatantly so. The strong chorus of "Satanachist" wouldn't seem too out of place on BM, right? "Too Loud (For the Crowd)" is the same sort of metal anthem Venom sought with "Stand Up (And Be Counted)" on AWwS, but it betters that tenfold, with plenty of hubris in the lyrics to boot. "Voyeur" is a fun and fast tune in the best "WtH" tradition, and even manages to out-pervert "Teacher's Pet." While none of the other tracks are particular favorites of mine, they remain at a very comfortable quality level; well below even the worst moments of BM, but above the worst moments of "WtH" and some of the accompanying early singles.

The bonus tracks follow the usual pattern of the Venom remasters in that most of them were available on CD either on the Japanese imports or on the singles compilation albums, so they're not quite as desirable as perhaps some of the Assault series or some non-US/UK live tracks would have been as bonuses. Still, the "Nightmare" single really helps the album, as it's probably Venom's best song overall when considering the lyrics, music, and performance. And I think this may be the first time "F.O.A.D." has been on CD, unless I'm forgetting some comp. CD or import I've never seen. The remix of the title track is an obvious bonus track choice, but I'd have preffered to see the live versions of "Witching Hour" and the "Teacher's Pet/Poison" medley from the Hell At Hammersmith EP joined back with the rest of the '85 Hammersmith set on the "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" CD or one one of the first two albums. There's nothing wrong with these tracks, but as raw and primitive as they are, they sort of feel weird coupled with '85 studio stuff.

So to the supporters of this album, you're in good company. And to the detractors? To the detractors, I only have one question: there's no "Manitou" or Tony Dolan to be found here...How bad can it be?!?!?!?

This album POSSESED me! It seems to be the black sheep of Venom's catalog for some reason. I could certainly see why in some ways though, it came out right after Venom's most famous three albums WELCOME TO HELL-BLACK METAL and AT WAR WITH SATAN (the un-holy trinity known to some) and by this time(1985) Venom was becoming written off in favor of groups like Slayer,Metallica and others.However i thought this album could easily hold it's own against their previous efforts.POSSESED has a really dark, haunting feel to it (sound wise) that i really liked, the song SATANARCIST points that out perfectly with its spooky intro.Another thing is that they really turned up the punk/hardcore influence here, so it is a bit faster then their earlier works. This gets 4.5 STARS for me,even though it can get a little sloppy and the prodution is basment quality, this is their most solid and accesable album Cronos and the gang ever put out. Sure, WELCOME TO HELL and BLACK METAL are the records Venom will be remembered by and rightly so but this is still my favorite from them.

THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN OFTEN REFERRED TO AS AS A POOR ALBUM BUT YOU CANNOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR. THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST POLISHED, MOST BRUTAL VENOM EVER. JUST LISTEN TO TRACKS LIKE POWERDRIVE, WARHEAD, POSSESSED, BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND, ETC. THIS ALBUM RANKS RIGHT THERE WITH BLACK METAL. I STRONGLY SUGGEST THIS ALBUM, IT WILL BE A JEWEL TO YOUR COLLECTION. ALSO CHECK OUT CALM BEFORE THE STORM (ANOTHER UNFAIRLY RATED ALBUM).

This album is clearly inferior to the first 3 ones,but has a certain hardcore punk air to it,especially the drumming and the guitar riffing.Nice,racous thrash-death metal,of a very elementary kind,but that's precisely where its charm resides.The instrumental track is so primitively executed that I can't help but LOVE it ! Only thing keeping me from giving this one 5 stars is the EXTREMELY uneven tonal and dinamic balance,sounding way worse than previous records,with the exception of the first one,which is purposely lo-fi for effect.My advice,this isworth the bucks if you have the appropiate amount of signal processing at home,like I do.

with all the bad reviews...ie. mediocre , average, not as good as......ba humbug!! this is as good as it gets, the possessed lp if totally balls to the wall!! each song as good as the next. totally venom, the first four lps. of the venom history are history in the making! possessed should be in your collection! with songs like flytrap,satanachist, anomg others! this is a 10 out of 10 lp as are all the venom early lps!! buy it now or burn in hell!

I agree completely with the previous reviewer. Many have pointed to this album as the beginning of the end for Venom. I disagree. The instrumental track (Wing and a prayer) alone is worth the price of the album. Anyone who prefers raw power over spit and polish (think darkthrone, early entombed) should buy this album.

Many people think Calm Before the Storm is where Venom screwed up. Actually where Venom tripped up is two years before with the 1985 release of Possessed, the bands fourth album.

Everybody knows Venoms legendary first two albums Welcome To Hell and Black Metal. Though Primative sounding with limited production, there were excellent early thrash/black metal records. The band would make a step forward with the release of At War With Satan. That album featured better production and the band even toyed with progressive song writing. It was a little different than their previous two albums but none-the-less, it was the step in the right direction.

Then came Possessed....

After showing a promising future with At War With Satan, the band missed their mark with their next release. Possessed emerged as de-evolution of the band and was a marginal step down from AWWS. The production was again ruduced to poor methods with Cronos's vocals taking the blunt of it. The songs themselves seemed to suffer and they just lacked punch. Part of the blame could be the internal struggles the band was going through at the time. Guitarst Jeff "Mantas" Dunn has even described his disappointment with the album in interviews. He was so upset with the album at the time that actually departed from Venom to pursue a solo career.

Possessed also wasn't well recieved by fans and the bands Venom inspired were passing them on by. Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth were all releasing excellent ablums at the time such as Hell Awaits, Ride the Lightning, and Killing Is My Business, all of which are miles ahead of Possessed.

I think this was a pivital time for Venom. If they were able to release a killer album, they might have became as big as the above mentioned bands. With the lackluster release of Possessed, its no wonder they faded into oblivion in the late 80's...

Even with all the negatives surrounding the album, its still will be among interest to metal fans as it really was the last album of the classic era of Venom and the last album to feature the original line-up until the 1996 reunion album Cast in Stone

This is one of the worst albums Venom have ever released. Definitely for Venom collectors. I cant find a track to meke me like this album. Its just noise.