UK metallers Possessor have been a band fear and lust has equally and simultaneously been spawned for in the face of each release uncaged since they emerged within the death throes of 2013. The band’s doom nurtured, thrash fuelled sound is a crushing and violating experience but one which has enslaved body, imagination, and soul here with its virulent, invasive boogie. The London trio recently released new album The Ripper and we can tell you nothing has changed. Their third album is a cauldron of corrosive riffs and destructive rhythms honed into one of the rawest, insatiable, and thrilling trespasses you are likely to hear across this coming year and beyond.
As much grunge, stoner, and alternative metal as those earlier mentioned hues, Possessor’s sound is pure predatory confrontation often as demonic and lewd as the horror soaked premises it spawns. The band’s 2014 debut album, Electric Hell, was an unpolished gem of an introduction providing “a thrilling ticket to the start of their inevitable ascending ride.” It was a journey which has bruised and abused, gripped and thrilled across the following Stay Dead EP a year later and second full-length Dead By Dawn eighteen or so months on. The last album really thrust the band into new spotlights but it has to be said that all have been rousingly eclipsed and put in their place by the carnal majesty of The Ripper.
Instantly opener Conjure and Possess casts a sonic storm over the senses, its abrasive scouring the warm up and prelude to a ravenous stomp of riffs and rhythms bound in the most lustful of grooves. A temptation to rock the residents of a graveyard into life with the swinging beats of Matthew Radford as arousing as they are destructive, the track roars through ears bearing the raw dirty vocal tones of guitarist Graham Bywater with open devilment. The bass of Tom Fowler is just as devilish, its own grooved swing instinctive incitement in the multi-flavoured onslaught.
The following Guillotine is just as fevered in its attack, maybe more so but unafraid to slip into less intensive examinations of the listener as it conjures its own web of salacious grooves and rapacious enterprise. Bywater’s voice and riffs infest ears but even more so his grooves and sonic espionage manipulates body and appetite already caught by the primal claws of the rhythms.
Fowler’s bass finds an even more carnivorous voice for the following Wet Cemetery, its visceral gurning leading a wash of rasping riffs within which vocals spew causticity. Toxic melodies vein the relative calm which separates the song’s energetic lust, it all leading to moments of nefarious endeavour which itself is sheer magnetism. A mesh of essences which lure references to bands such as High On Fire, Cavalera Conspiracy, Electric Wizard, and Unsane, flavours rising throughout the album, the track emerges unique to Possessor and again a common factor to The Ripper echoed in The Slime immediately after and thereon in. The fourth track hits its crunchy stroll instantly, snarling riffs chewing sinew before grooves send liquor coated tendrils through ears, its varied metallic irritancy swiftly addictive as the psyche is increasingly possessed.
Through the grim viscera of Whitechapel Murders and the scalding tension of Lava, the scorching of the senses and unrestrained pleasure escalates, the first of the two bearing the early Therapy? scent our ears have always found and greedily consumed within the Possessor sound. Every part of the band’s unholy trinity is on the top of their game, a success applying across the whole release but at their hungriest or certainly most fervid here. Its successor is an inferno of threat and intrigue, less equipped with irresistible hooks and addiction sparking grooves than others around it but just as commanding in its escalating incessancy.
Notting Hell opens in a jungle of rhythmic machination, the piece a brief shamanic infestation of devilry setting up the blood strewn quarrel and sonic narcotic that is Hacksaw. The most barbarous exploit on the album, it is a bestial and concentrated blitz on the listener, manna for the beleaguered senses and primal rock ‘n’ roll instincts.
A pause as things take a breath simply marks the insatiable devouring sprung by closing instrumental Earth Shaker. It is a rampage driven by a horde of voracious riffs and fearsome rhythms with grooves and twists just as mercilessly toxic and though it does not quite hit the spot as fully as what came before, the track consumes attention and satisfaction with ease.
There are few bands which truly excite just from news of a new encounter with them but Possessor is among them and will continue to be so with hellish offerings like The Ripper.
The Ripper is available now through Graven Earth Records on cassette, Wicked Lester Records on CD, and digitally @ https://possessor.bandcamp.com/album/the-ripper
https://www.facebook.com/possessorband
Pete RingMaster 10/01/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The album’s title track keeps the grip on pleasure and appetite just as tight, its bruising weight and cantankerous intensity carrying an air of Pigs and Discharge to its irritable storm. It too is a song which twists through a host of inventive changes and detours, leaving a lingering psyche infesting dark presence and tempting which carries on into the likes of the emotively and sonically cancerous Kreative Center and the stalking animus of Pig In The Pen. The first of the two chews the senses with its nagging riffs whilst hooks and wiry grooves vein the scything swings of Zyon which cross another bestially toned bass trespass by Shanks. It is an unrelenting pressure of sound matched in its individual way by its successor whose initial doomy prowl soon expands into tar like sludge voracity interspersed with frenzied canters of energetic animosity.
Produced by Cristian Machado of Ill Nino, with many other contributions, Resist To Exist sees the quartet of guitarist/vocalist Addasi, vocalist Mike Black, bassist /vocalist Drew Petropoulos, and drummer Michael Gomez joined by a host of guest contributions including Fear Factory/Archaea’s Raymond Herrera and ex-Static X/Soulfly and now Fear Factory bassist Tony Campos amongst them. This and the unbridled imagination and ideation soaking songs all goes to create incendiary tapestries of sound and energy which from the opening track makes Resist To Exist one feverish conquest of body and emotions.
It is an explosive and gripping start matched by the following Vultures Of Prey, an even more predatory and sinister corruption of the senses. Though the song has less of the physical and creative rabidity of the first, it is a just as rigorous and intimidating stalking of ears and emotions with a Static X like breath creeping in with vocals and riffs from the simultaneously enticing and savage guitars of Alex Olivetti and Mike White. Two songs in and fair to say Threatpoint would have to seriously go awry to lose the hungry appetite and inflamed satisfaction already ignited by the opening pair of rages. Though some tracks understandably impress more than others, the quintet continues to enslave with craft and diversity as the ferocious Divide & Conquer takes over. The great raspy tones of James prey on ears as the rhythmic hostility of drummer CJ Krukowski and the increasingly bestial qualities of Eric Ross’ bass lay down addictive bait within a flood of salacious grooves. A spicy solo adds further heavy metal magnetism to the torrent of sound and persuasion before it all departs for the sonic devilry of Mockingbird.
and into a charge of thumping rhythms and explosive riffs; its eager and hungry assault gnawing the ear to spark an immediate appetite for release and sound. As the hoarse vocals of Jaime Ocampo graze the senses from within the fiery and greedy exploits of his and Eder Zapata’s guitar enterprise, the track brings the prime essences of Slayer and Anthrax into a keen and potent mix. It is maybe not the most staggering start but is the perfect appetiser for the likes of the rapacious Fill Your Heart With Fury and the predatory Unsocial God to build upon. The first of the pair employs essential grooves into its adrenaline driven riff attack with the vocals finding an even more impressive position at the heart of the climactic song. The bass of Kike Ramirez enjoyably grumbles and prowls gloriously throughout song and album whilst the drums of Juan Carlos Sanchez, which for personal tastes are given a weak tinny production, cages it all with flare and skilled eagerness.
Its successor Architect of Disaster again opens with a scene setting breath, this time an industrialised haunting atmosphere generating menace and fear. It leads into first song Morbid Fear with evocative hues which seamlessly evolve into confrontational jaws of the opener. Instantly there feels a darker more predacious energy and breath to the album than its predecessor which soaks the song with formidable intensity. Like on the previous album the opening song is a very solid and welcoming encounter which awakens the senses for following songs to exploit better, though it should be noted the guitar play and spicy latter hooks offered are pure addiction.