{"id":4463,"date":"1986-11-24T00:00:55","date_gmt":"1986-11-24T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2013-04-27T20:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T20:45:34","slug":"live-review-possessed-24-11-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/live-review-possessed-24-11-86\/","title":{"rendered":"POSSESSED \/ VOIVOD \/ ENGLISH DOGS – Electric Ballroom, Camden, London, England (November 24th, 1986) | Live Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

POSSESSED \/ VOIVOD \/ ENGLISH DOGS<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nElectric Ballroom, Camden, London, England<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNovember 24th, 1986<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Piggy (Voivod)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
Pic: R. Hould<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

This was the big one; the first of what will, hopefully, be many more Shades promoted thrash gigs. Several hundred rabid mosh dogs had given the two fingered salute to Bon Jovi and Queensr\u00ffche playing Hammersmith the same night and had gathered to pay homage to three master blaster thrash acts. Let battle commence.<\/p>\n

The English Dogs delivered a set of original \u201cTechno Mosh\u201d (to me they just sound like an above average metal band with a hardcore singer). They were okay, but the set was just too long and ultimately became boring. Having said that, they sounded far, far better than on the rather lacklustre Where Legend Began<\/em> album, aided by an excellent sound, so if they can put this kind of \u201cballs out, kick ass\u201d performance on their next record then they should start getting somewhere.<\/p>\n

Now Voivod are not exactly a band who\u2019ve enjoyed a good deal of attention in these pages \u2013 even Dave Constable found their debut album, War And Pain<\/em>, less than enjoyable when he reviewed it many an issue ago (fuckin\u2019 glam wimp or what?!!) \u2013 but it has to be said that the Canadians produced a devastating performance that I\u2019ll certainly remember witnessing for a long time to come! They hit the stage to a torrent of gob from the crowd, foaming at the mouth for a chance to thrash. And thrash they did; Voivod\u2019s music (?!) encouraging many a young oik onto the stage and then dive head first back into the near suicidal fray. Highlight of the set (ie the only one anybody can remember) was a rousing version of \u2018Fuck Off And Die\u2019. Whether this was the only track they played is open to debate, although rumour suggests they may have done \u2018Blower\u2019 and \u2018Voivod\u2019 amongst it all somewhere!<\/p>\n

And then came Possessed! These boys were probably the main reason many people attended this Dave Constable organized bash \u2013 including me. Possessed hit the stage at 200mph and didn\u2019t stop running. Taking all the best stuff from their two albums, Seven Churches<\/em>, and the recently released Beyond The Gates, the San Franciscan four-piece blitzed a trail of aural devastation that hadn\u2019t been seen since Slayer<\/a> hit town last year. Messrs. Torrao, LaLonde, Sus and Becerra made mincemeat out of the PA and though I detected several fuck-ups (duff notes etc) it tasted damn good to me. We got \u2018Seven Churches\u2019, \u2018Seance\u2019, \u2018Satan\u2019s Curse\u2019 and all the best Possessed stuff, and although I thought Voivod\u2019s performance was slightly better, Possessed matched them inch for inch, nail for nail, in the intense stakes and as the pace hotted up so did the thrashin\u2019. There was some incredible stage diving goin\u2019 on. Wild man, wild, ha!<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Possessed (l-r): Mike Torrao, Jeff Becerra and Larry LaLonde<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019m sure that everyone who attended this event will agree with me when I say that it was fuckin\u2019 brilliant, and I\u2019m certainly glad I witnessed it rather than a bunch of toss over at the Hammersmith Odeon (how much are you paying Desmond Child for hits Jonny?!). With the promise of more gigs like this to come (who mentioned Kreator and Destruction<\/a>, Dave?!) the future of thrashers looks good. Keep it that way kids. Behave and you\u2019ll mosh your little hearts out, okay?!<\/p>\n

Dave Reynolds<\/strong><\/p>\n

Review taken from Metal Forces, Issue 21 (1986)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POSSESSED \/ VOIVOD \/ ENGLISH DOGS Electric Ballroom, Camden, London, England November 24th, 1986 Piggy (Voivod) Pic: R. Hould This was the big one; the first of what will, hopefully, be many more Shades promoted thrash gigs. Several hundred rabid mosh dogs had given the two fingered salute to Bon Jovi and Queensr\u00ffche playing Hammersmith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,65,240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-dogs","category-possessed","category-voivod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463","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=4463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11370,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463\/revisions\/11370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}