{"id":50080,"date":"2016-07-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=50080"},"modified":"2019-09-08T23:27:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T23:27:29","slug":"album-review-possessor-dead-by-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-possessor-dead-by-dawn\/","title":{"rendered":"POSSESSOR – Dead By Dawn (2016) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

POSSESSOR
Dead By Dawn<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2016)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/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

Like bats from the belfry, British occult weirdos Possessor come all a fluttering before All Hallows Eve is upon us. Neither sludge, nor doom, nor stoner, this esoteric posse has other things on its mind with second full-length release Dead By Dawn<\/em>. <\/p>\n

The casket opens and we get a fuzzy sort of Black Sabbath<\/a> gallop; the strings of Graham Bywater\u2019s guitar are clearly coated in cobwebs as the trio lurches into a strange brew of cosmic doom laced with fizzing vocal techniques, hinting at Malhavoc and other industrial odd-bods. <\/p>\n

\u2018Afterburner\u2019 is a straight-down-the-line chug fest; almost Uncle Acid but not really \u2013 soaked in Hammer Horror creepiness \u2013 there\u2019s always that air of familiarity with such acts as Bywater barks \u201cSlasher. Destroyer\u201d<\/em>. However, things take on a more volatile, pacier turn with \u2018Scorpion Swamp\u2019 with some killer melody as Bywater belts out, \u201cNow things are getting worse, bring out the shining knife, you take the easy way out. The smoke clouds choke the sun, too late to change their minds, before it swallows you whole\u201d<\/em>. Riff-wise though, it\u2019s still that same, simplistic hyper-doom cosmic roll consisting of Matthew Radford\u2019s energetic drum slaps and Marc Bereton\u2019s plundering bass. <\/p>\n

Possessor has that certain rustic, folkloric charm that only British bands can seem to muster up \u2013 maybe it\u2019s something in the water that drives such individuals to churn out such bleak, black and esoteric designs \u2013 and none come sludgier than \u2018Beneath The Chapel\u2019 with its dense guitar \/ bass combo and hammering drum. \u201cBeneath the chapel lies hell\u201d<\/em> barks Bywater, and I totally believe him as again the posse picks up pace. The trio keep a natural psyched-out rhythm, even by the time the trundling \u2018Without Warning\u2019 comes galloping in with its garage-y plunder. <\/p>\n

\u2018Slaughter High\u2019 slows the pace again, opting for more sinister rites and injecting a killer solo before the chaotic menace of \u2018Terror Tripping\u2019 comes crashing down the stairs like a drunken Michael Myers. Very much crash, bang and wallop, \u2018Terror Tripping\u2019 still has a certain raw charm, and it\u2019s this type of doomy yet often rolling, fuzzed up groove which should separate these guys from numerous other bands on the current occult rock trip. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re then treated to two instrumentals \u2013 the short but spooky \u2018The Creeps\u2019 and the longer \u2018Midnight\u2019 \u2013 before we close off proceedings with the brilliantly titled \u2018The Curse Of The Hearse\u2019; a smorgasbord of ghosts, ghouls vampire bats and lycanthropy amidst a tirade of hurtling bass, suffocating guitar trudge and drum tumbles. <\/p>\n

If you like stuff like Uncle Acid but with more tempo, terror and rain then give these guys a look up on your Ouija board.<\/p>\n

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

POSSESSORDead By Dawn Self-released (2016)Rating: 8\/10 Like bats from the belfry, British occult weirdos Possessor come all a fluttering before All Hallows Eve is upon us. Neither sludge, nor doom, nor stoner, this esoteric posse has other things on its mind with second full-length release Dead By Dawn. The casket opens and we get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4363],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-possessor-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50080","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=50080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50082,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50080\/revisions\/50082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}