POSSESSION REVIEW

POSSESSION - THE MOTHER OF DARKNESS

By now Possession have gained a foothold in the underground with their classic-style dark blackdeath that can shine with elements from Cogumelo to Gothenburg and all things in-between thrown together in a devilishly good mix. Now with their second full-length after almost a decade without a proper one they have returned with all of Hell's vengeance fiercely alongside them.

A foreboding intro of church organ, bells, and distant tortured voices and gasps coalesces into our entrance into "The Black Chapel" and soft, whispered vocals with just the right amount of angst and suffering to piggyback a blasting battery and echoed riffs as if the walls of said chapel were themselves shaking. This goes headfirst out of the walls of the building and "Graveside Prayer" then ensues, with the musty aridness of a fog-laden landscape of graves strewn in total disarray and desperation. Do we dare do an Outro? Well we have 1 halfway through of a disgraced violinist's corpse playing one final farewell to their existence before "Cry-Shine-Die" offers an obsidian dirge on cobwedded keys before a fierce outburst of hellfire once again emerges. We are faced with the title track next and a total onslaught of furious, blazing strings and otherworldy, almost militant machine-like drumming patterns. Nothing left to the imagination and nothing certainly being sacred, "Young Blood Ritual" hammers hard with that rotten 1990s death metal sound when the world momentarily felt safer after one mighty power crumbled yet as it was then this was a fleeting feeling and even if the horror film soundtrack of the second outro and it ritualistic chanting is any indication, then so it shall be written, so it shall be done.

Showing no signs of fatigue, Possession once again prove that The Devil is very much alive and well and corrupting to minds and souls of the most impressionable of mortals. And with this diabolical tale of the rise of morbidity and the spread of it across the land, abandon all hope!

9/10