In a brand new interview with Jerry Kurunen of Finland’s Rauta, POSSESSED frontman Jeff Becerra was requested if his band is rightfully credited with initially creating the time period “dying metallic” in 1983. He mentioned (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “A hundred percent. I had the copyright in 1983. POSSESSED was the very first dying metallic band. That does not imply we created dying metallic; it simply means we have been the primary [to call ourselves death metal]. ‘Trigger each band after that does their very own shit. So, yeah, we have been simply the primary, man. And I am stunned someone did not consider it earlier than, to be trustworthy. It is so apparent.
“Again then, you’ve got gotta notice, with only a few exceptions — perhaps SLAYER, KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION, EXODUS — most thrash metallic bands have been — and with all due respect — have been form of bouncy form of hair bands,” he defined. “They’d say, ‘Oh, we’re so heavy,’ however they have been by no means actually heavy. ‘We’re so evil.’ And there was nothing incorrect with that, however that simply is not what blew our skirts up.
“I occurred to satisfy [former POSSESSED guitarist] Mike Torrao at a really pivotal second in our life, and we have been simply, like, ‘Fuck the world. Fuck every little thing. And let’s simply make the heaviest, most Satanic music on the earth.’ And trash metallic was taken, black metallic was taken, velocity metallic was taken, fucking energy metallic was taken. Why not dying metallic? Like, ‘Okay.’ So then I wrote a tune referred to as ‘Loss of life Metallic’, and that was it. However it was extra in regards to the music after which the title, however the title appeared to outweigh the music. I do not know.
“Nowadays POSSESSED get much more recognition, however we’re not a kind of well-known bands; we’re nonetheless underground. You are actually fortunate to be acknowledged inside your lifetime.”
Though DEATH is taken into account to be one of the vital vital and influential dying metallic acts of all time, the Florida-based band didn’t launch its debut album, “Scream Bloody Gore”, till 1987 — two years after the arrival of “Seven Church buildings” by California’s POSSESSED.
Again in June 2022, Becerra, who was shot in a theft in 1989, leaving him partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, weighed in on the unending debate on who can lay declare to being the primary “true” dying metallic band: DEATH or POSSESSED. He instructed the “The Haunting Chapel” podcast: “We [POSSESSED] have been promoting ourselves as a dying metallic band, and that was what we went with. And to at the present time, it is each a blessing and a curse as a result of it is extremely debated and contested. And we actually, after I obtained shot, sure revisionists tried to dam me out of historical past. The POSSESSED Wiki is probably the most vandalized web page of Wikipedia. There was a sure individual — he not too long ago handed away — that was simply relentlessly retitling our YouTube, transferring our dates ahead, messing with the timeline. It was like a battle. Once I left, we have been the dying metallic guys. Once I got here again, it was no extra. So I needed to combat for my very own historical past again, which was bizarre. ‘Trigger there is not any cool approach to do this, as a result of it sounds such as you’re tooting your personal horn.
“I am not saying I created dying metallic; I am saying POSSESSED was the primary dying metallic band,” Jeff defined. “And it is a bone of rivalry with many DEATH followers. And due to the way in which that their administration spun it and the way in which that the magazines spun it… Keep in mind, me and Chuck [Schuldiner, DEATH guitarist/vocalist] have been mates. He actually was like my protégé. He moved out to Antioch [California from Orlando]; he lived on the [house of the then-]POSSESSED fan membership [president Krystal Mahoney]. He was pen paling for some time and tape buying and selling. And he very a lot modeled himself after me. I used to be so honored as a result of, bear in mind, I am only a younger teenager. However he was the primary individual to actually get what we have been doing, what I used to be doing, and he was the primary individual that basically understood what it was about. And he was so sensible that approach as a result of it was undefined and so onerous to elucidate what it’s, with out placing guidelines on it, as a result of the very last thing you wanna do is put guidelines on something and stifle it. However he would simply grasp it; he liked it. He mentioned, ‘Hear, Jeff. I sound identical to you.’ And he was pleased with that. And I used to be pleased with him. And there was a bromance going there. It was a respect.
“I’ve by no means been jealous of one other band,” Becerra clarified. “I’ve by no means claimed something that wasn’t mine. And it is simply so obscure to see folks attempting to say what they know they would not do in entrance of me. They know what they did not do; I used to be fucking there. And I am not hating on anyone, however it’s a really coveted place.
“What makes me mad is when the magazines spin this ‘DEATH or POSSESSED, DEATH versus POSSESSED.’ And it even tainted the connection between DEATH and POSSESSED, and that pisses me off, as a result of we have been mates.
“I notice that metallic is meant to be enjoyable,” Jeff added. “However there’s additionally one thing very legitimate about true historical past and never revising stuff — not simply with POSSESSED however any band. And the way in which it is spun is, like, bands will exaggerate what they did and the writers can be wanting to impress who they’re writing about, as a result of the very last thing a author needs is for the band to go, ‘That is fucking fucked up.’
“Within the outdated days, it was very truthful. Folks did their analysis. They did not have clickbait. There was no ‘POSSESSED versus DEATH.’ I hate that shit. As a result of if Chuck was alive in the present day, I would like [us to] collaborate. And I do not prefer it fucking with my remembrance of what it actually was. I just like the historical past. Possibly I am being bizarre about it, however I feel that the reality is so a lot better than the story.”
Becerra instructed Antihero in 2017 that Schuldiner cited POSSESSED as a “main affect” in “numerous” journal interviews. However although DEATH was impressed by POSSESSED, “they ran with it and went in their very own course and created their very own vibe,” Jeff mentioned. “To go a step additional: Chuck used [’80s death/thrash producer] Randy Burns, who did ‘Seven Church buildings’ to do ‘Scream Bloody Gore’, his first album. He additionally did a canopy of [POSSESSED‘s] ‘The Exorcist’.”
Schuldiner died in December 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a uncommon sort of mind tumor.
POSSESSED initially break up in 1987, abandoning a brief however extremely influential legacy, most notably “Seven Church buildings”. Inner tensions after the discharge of 1987’s “The Eyes Of Horror” EP led to the band’s dissolution, with guitarist Larry Lalonde becoming a member of Bay Space tech-thrashers BLIND ILLUSION, then PRIMUS, whereas Becerra, Torrao and drummer Mike Sus every going separate instructions.
Two years after POSSESSED‘s break up, Becerra was the sufferer of the aforementioned failed armed theft try, sending him right into a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse. POSSESSED was reactivated by Torrao in 1990 with a totally totally different lineup, however solely launched two demos earlier than dissolving in 1993. Becerra then reformed POSSESSED in 2007 together with his personal lineup, which launched its first studio album in 33 years, “Revelations Of Oblivion”, in 2019.
