{"id":23697,"date":"2014-06-22T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T00:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=23697"},"modified":"2019-09-08T17:06:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T17:06:18","slug":"album-review-possessor-electric-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-possessor-electric-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"POSSESSOR – Electric Hell (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

POSSESSOR
Electric Hell<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSelf-released (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Not to be confused with the generic Virginia-based US thrashers of the same name, this particular Possessor is one to keep a beady eye indeed.<\/p>\n

This UK band was formed in December 2013 by a chap named Graham Bywater, and Electric Hell<\/em> is Possessor\u2019s debut full-length release which could be described as a strange, spooky amalgamation of sludge and thrash metal. I must admit that I never thought I would hear the day when a Slayer<\/a>-esque riff would sound so comfortable alongside a dirty great stoner groove, but somehow this bunch of demented souls have found a weird niche.<\/p>\n

The album comes hot on the hooves of the London-based band\u2019s Wings Of Fire<\/em> EP, and boasts nine tracks \u2013 all written by Bywater \u2013 which in total run for duration of just over half-an-hour. As you can see, the atmospheric cover artwork depicts three women (witches?) attired in white carrying flaming torches, and yet all is daubed in a strange, psychedelic purple hue. Of course, it\u2019s nothing new to see a band so influenced by the esoteric and foggy folklore of its surroundings. After all, numerous bands over the last decade or so have adopted such ghoulish monikers and occult ideas \u2013 but not all have succeeded in entertaining. However, Possessor have a winning formula, which complete with eye of newt, tail of rat, wing of bat and wart of toad have been stirred together to make this rather engaging entry in the occult-drenched annals of metal lore. <\/p>\n

And so we come to the bewitching contents; a litany of metallic, drudging spells concocted to drain the life from your sorry soul. The first of these bottomless pits of despair is the droning fuzz known as \u2018Chasms Of Malice\u2019, which thankfully \u2013 unlike a lot of sludge lords out there \u2013 is rather short and sweet, offering up a deep, churning dirty wave of doom which smother the remote yet almost punky vocal strains. The riff is wonderfully catchy and within the murk there exists that tumbling bass and persistent dogged drum.<\/p>\n

Bizarrely, although the doom-laden leviathan is kept relatively simple by design it\u2019s almost as if Possessor has dredged the depths of the 80s thrash metal catalogue and coated each burning lick in silt. This works wondrously as \u2018Invisible Face\u2019 comes trudging through the speakers like the bastard offspring of Electric Wizard, Uncle Acid, Green River, Prong, D.R.I. and with an extra pinch of dirty thrash mayhem.<\/p>\n

So often I am bored to death by so-called \u201csludge metal\u201d, but this record is in fact far removed because of its nifty nature. With a track such as \u2018Castle Of Bastards\u2019 we have any interesting industrialised buzzing vocal effect, meaning the sound has more in common with Canada\u2019s avant-garde industrialists Malhavoc than anything relatively doomy, but there is still that gloomy riff of brooding throughout. Yes, there is still that strong occult rock feel \u2013 more so in the lyrics \u2013 but how can one argue with the macabre poetry of \u2018Heavy Dreams\u2019 which speaks of \u201cCreatures in the trees\u201d<\/em> that \u201cshake their skeleton keys\u201d<\/em> over a fuzzed-up bass-line and half-hinted psychedelic groan. Again, the riff is not cumbersome but somehow drifting into a trudging hardcore punch.<\/p>\n

This is followed by one of the true purple highs of the album with the infectious fuzz of \u2018Skeletal Form\u2019; a slow burning, grimy churning track which lurches at the ears by way of a monstrous riff and nodding drum. As an instrumental it is bloated with suspense and morosely traipses across the horizon like a gang of gangly, soil-soaked skeletons eager for flesh.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m never sure how certain bands find their sound, and with Possessor you\u2019ll be left wondering how something so simple can sound so innovative as they shift between foggy landscapes of mid-tempo motion and faster barrages of well-oiled grunge such as with the dirt frenzy that is \u2018Face The Possessor\u2019; a rotten punked-up swirl if ever there was one. Meanwhile, with the closing title track the mysterious combo resorts to that sludge-coated melancholy by way of a haunting drum chant and scheming guitar tone which just whines with malevolent intent throughout this abysmal instrumental dirge. <\/p>\n

I can only tip my wizard\u2019s hat in admiration for what Possessor has conjured up on this debut album. It\u2019s not often that within such a genre you can struggle to find actual words or styles to categorise \/ describe such an eerie cacophony, but with Electric Hell<\/em> Possessor have summoned some of the filthiest demons from the local peat bog to aid them in their quest to manifest a perfect blend of all that is murky about metal.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POSSESSORElectric Hell Self-released (2014)Rating: 9\/10 Not to be confused with the generic Virginia-based US thrashers of the same name, this particular Possessor is one to keep a beady eye indeed. This UK band was formed in December 2013 by a chap named Graham Bywater, and Electric Hell is Possessor\u2019s debut full-length release which could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-possessor-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79218,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23697\/revisions\/79218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}