Possessed

Often hailed as the originators of death metal, Possessed first asserted that claim in 1983 through a three-song demo titled Death Metal. Their ferocious approach and the raw, throaty delivery of vocalist Jeff Becerra set them apart from the dominant Bay Area thrash sound, paving the way for the genre’s later practitioners via the landmark albums Seven Churches (1985) and Beyond the Gates (1986) prior to the group’s dissolution in 1987. After reuniting during the 2010s, the band finally returned to recording and issued its long-delayed third studio album, Revelations of Oblivion, in 2019.

Misfortune seemed to shadow the San Francisco outfit throughout much of its history. Guitarist Mike Torrao and drummer Mike Sus assembled the band in 1983, only to lose original vocalist Barry Fisk to suicide before the group had moved beyond rehearsal-space status. Adding vocalist/bassist Jeff Becerra and guitarist Brian Montana, Possessed secured a track on Metal Massacre, Vol. 6; their aggressive style quickly attracted Combat Records, which signed the band in 1985 after Montana was replaced by guitarist Larry LaLonde. That same year’s Seven Churches is widely regarded as the first authentic death-metal LP and helped detach the emerging style from its thrash roots. The follow-up, Beyond the Gates, appeared on Halloween 1986. After completing the five-song EP The Eyes of Horror in 1987—produced by LaLonde’s instructor Joe Satriani—the members chose to disband. Two years later Becerra was shot in a robbery and left paralyzed from the waist down. He revived Possessed in 2007, performing at that year’s Wacken Open Air festival with musicians from Sadistic Intent. LaLonde later joined bassist Les Claypool in the eccentric funk-metal trio Primus.

In 2017 Becerra assembled a fresh Possessed lineup and signed a three-album contract with Nuclear Blast. Revelations of Oblivion, the first new material from the storied group in decades, was released in 2019.