Venom

Possessed

Powerful Music But Weak Mix

Review Score:

(8/10)
This is by no means a bad album. In fact, it's pretty damn good. It's massively heavy, has great riffs & really well-written lyrics, but it's still not quite as "groundbreaking" as the previous three. Mostly, the poor mixing is what gives this only a four star rating (at least that's what I think). The whole album is just a little bass-heavy, with the vocals, especially on "Possessed", too far in the background. But that's really the only true negative thing about it. But it is raw, sleazy, heavy & just plain evil. It's pure Venom. The best tracks are "Flytrap", which has just an immensly heavy bass riff; "Satanachist", which has a creepy beginning and some of the coolest lyrics Cronos ever wrote; "Possessed", possibly Venom's most outright blasphemous song (and also concludes the "story" that Venom started with the quote on the back of "Welcome to Hell"); an awesome instrumental called "Wing and a Prayer" which really smokes; and the really rowdy concert-opener, "Too Loud (For the Crowd)", which ends with a little "preview" of a Venom live show. Of the bonus tracks the best are "Nightmare", also a song with powerful riffs & lyrics and opens, believe it or not, with Mantas playing ACOUSTIC! Cronos' bass riffs in the middle are also pretty inspired. Few bands can even begin to compare to these guys. Also, part of Venom's live show is featured here with the extremely rare "Witching Hour" and "Teacher's Pet/Poison" taken from the limited "Hell at Hammersmith" ep. Venom has always been a little sloppy live, but who cares?! Their live shows are always totally over the top, insane & heavy as Hell! What they lack in skill, they more than make up for in pure POWER! "Witching Hour" is, in fact, a thrashers dream come true. Turn it up extremely loud and break all your windows when you play this one. This whole album usually gets poor reviews, but it still sounds like nothing on earth.

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