Review: POSSESSED – Revelations of Oblivion

Year of release: 2019
Label: Nuclear Blast
Rating: 8 / 10

These days, the entire metal public is discussing an incredible event - the release of the new album of POSSESSED - and I’ll put in my five cents as well. The situation with “Revelations of Oblivion” is really exceptional and amazing, it just doesn't happen that way. This is the first album of the band in 33 (!!!) years - after such breaks, people should count the retirement, not to play music. This is an album that was released on Nuclear Blast, but it sounds suddenly cool and old-school, almost like the previous two. Finally, this is an album that does not make even the slightest compromise; it completely ignores all musical progress over the last third of the century. From a musical point of view, “Revelations of Oblivion” is practically no different from “Seven Churches” and “Beyond the Gates”, although from the original line-up, only Jeff Beckerra remained in the band. It seems that he acted as the main composer - otherwise the inviolability of the POSSESSED style can be explained only by a miracle.

Diligently following the laws of the 80s, “Revelations of Oblivion” does not entertain the listener with catchy slow songs and melodious diarrhea. 90% of the material is high-speed infernal Death Thrash Metal. And solos - how could it be without them! The atmosphere and sound haven't been fucked up even by mixing and mastering at Abyss Studio. I repeat, the similarity of the new album with the old is so strong that even my feelings from it are absolutely identical. The classical works of POSSESSED, with all their steepness and importance, always seemed to me to be devoid of some important component ... or just not quite right somewhere deep inside. With “Revelations of Oblivion” everything is absolutely the same: I can’t make a single claim, but something doesn’t allow me to call it an unconditional and unbeatable masterpiece. Interesting ... this feeling always warned me about the trick when I listened to bands like MORBID ANGEL, KREATOR, KATHARSIS, GORGOROTH with Gaahl, TRELLDOM. I think you all know what unites them. I sincerely hope that the hidden disadvantages of POSSESSED are related to something else.

Anyway, I should stop wasting words. If you love the first two POSSESSED albums, you have NOT A SINGLE reason to not buy the new one. This is the perfect comeback, that's all. I myself have not yet purchased the disc, but I will definitely do it. The cover, by the way, is simply killer.