Kyttaro Club, Athens, Greece 22.12.2016
It was a cold Thursday winter night. A very important night for any metalhead who considered himself a death metal fan: POSSESSED were in Greece for two gigs. On Wednesday, they invaded Thessaloniki, and everybody spoke of a band that nailed it on stage. What the day after had in store for Athens? Let’s head down to Kyttaro club and find out!
First band as an opening act were the crushing ABYSSUS. Playing material off their first full-length album “Into The Abyss” released in 2015, they managed to make our heads bang with their brand of old school death metal, directly influenced by ASPHYX,OBITUARY and early DEATH. One of their pros was the tight performance and the natural feeling in their music, passing on to the audience that seemed already familiar with the band’s material. Well done to them, and I can’t wait to see them shredding the stage with SUICIDAL ANGELS on the 17th of February 2017!
But when the clock struck 22:30, it was time for what we’ve all been waiting for. The forefathers -along with CELTIC FROST- of the death metal genre POSSESSED, hit the stage with “Pentagram”, setting the jam-packed Kyttaro stage on fire. Stagedivers, moshers, destroying everything in their path along with POSSESSED, who seemed in a hellish mood!
We heard songs off “Seven Churches” (“The Exorcist”, “Evil Warriors”, “Seven Churches”, “Satan’s Curse”, “Fallen Angel”, “Death Metal”), “Beyond The Gates” (“Beyond The Gates”, “Tribulation”, “The Heretic”) “The Eyes Of Horror” EP (“Swing Of The Axe”, “My Belief”, “Storm In My Mind”) and a brand new song called “Abandoned”, showing what this line up of POSSESSED is capable of, song-writing-wise. Personally, I truly enjoyed it, continuing where “Beyond The Gates”/”The Eyes Of Horror” left off three decades ago. We can only wait for the brand new album release in 2017, as they promised.
As for the only remaining member of the original line up, Jeff Beccera: I haven’t seen such a bright and honest smile on someone’s face, especially, when that someone almost lost his life along with his ability to walk not a long time ago. The rest of the band was simply killer, doing justice to the band’s existing material so far, with their juvenile energy and commitment to the genre (members of GRUESOME, SADISTIC INTENT and the such, what else could one expect?).
After seventy minutes of chaos, we all had a smile on our faces, knowing that DEATH METAL CAME IN THE WIND!
Photos by: G. Krikos Photography