Venom - Possessed

I remember buying this LP (yes, as in record) when it came out and I can also remember how much I loved it. 20+ years later and I still rank this as one of the most influential metal albums in my life.

There has always been this raging debate about whether this album sucks or not, with most people saying it does. Even guitarist Mantas has expressed displeasure with this album.

I disagree.

No, it's probably not as good as "Black Metal" or "At War With Satan," but "Possessed" has some really stellar moments which I feel are tooo often overlooked in favor of just bashing the album outright. "Satanachist" is superb, the title track is downright spooky in a lo-fi way and "Suffer Not The Children" still ranks as one of my favorite Venom anthems of all time.

Perhaps the fact that all of Venom's little children of the day - Slayer, Metallica, Exodus, Megadeth, etc. - were releasing albums at the same time as "Possessed" that Venom just couldn't keep up with. Venom was minimalist metal - their admitted lack of individual talent being made up for in collective brutality - and the aforementioned spawn were all quite technical...the metal world was shifting and Venom got lost in the shift...sadly I feel that "Possessed" was one of the great overlooked casualties in the rise of the new breed of metal.

Well, judge for yourself. This is the re-release with bonus tracks. Props to ChaosAD on Evil's Metal Vault forum for requesting this post and making me revisit one of my favorite albums of all time.

1. Powerdrive

2. Flytrap

3. Satanachrist

4. Burn This Place To The Ground

5. Harmony Dies

6. Possesed

7. Hellchild

8. Moonshine

9. Wing And A Prayer

10. Suffer Not The Children

11. Voyeur

12. Mustique

13. Too Loud (For The Crowd)

14. Nightmare (12'' Mix)

15. F.O.A.D. (12'' B-Side)

16. Warhead (12'' B-Side)

17. Possessed (Remix)

18. Witching Hour (Live)

19. Teachers Pet/ Poison/ Teachers Pet (Live)

{I killed this link because some scumbag with a blog who can't be bothered to upload his own albums pulled a cut and paste. One note: UPLOAD YOUR OWN FUCKING ALBUMS YOU LAZY DOUCHEBAG.