Proto-death, pure hellfire, and a track literally called Death Metal.
After soaking in the glorious chaos of black metal, I figured it was time to switch gears—and by switch, I mean rewind. Back to the blood-splattered birth of another extreme metal beast: death metal.
Depending on who you ask (and how long you’re willing to listen to them argue), death metal either began with Death’s Scream Bloody Gore (1987) or with Possessed’s Seven Churches (1985). Metal history is full of these weird blood feuds: Who invented black metal? Venom? Bathory? A sentient leather jacket?
For my purposes, I’m not here to crown a winner. I’m here to hear the chaos. Seven Churches was released two years before Scream Bloody Gore, and it felt like the right place to begin my descent into the genre that’s going to eat what’s left of my serotonin.
A Band Born From Riffs and Satan
Possessed formed in 1983, with drummer Mike Sus and guitarist Mike Torrao dragging the whole thing into existence. Jeff Becerra joined soon after on vocals and bass, and Larry LaLonde was brought in for lead guitar in 1984—yes, that Larry LaLonde, who would later go on to play in Primus because apparently the only natural path from Satanic death thrash is surrealist funk metal. Sure.
Possessed disbanded in 1987, with only two studio albums and an EP to their name. Then, because metal refuses to die quietly, they came back in 2007—Jeff Becerra still at the helm—and dropped Revelations of Oblivion in 2019. Three albums across four decades. Sparse, but potent.
And yet, despite their limited discography, Possessed are metal royalty. If you like thrash, death, or first-wave black metal, this is a required listen.
Seven Churches: Chaos, But Make It Historical
The album clocks in at just under 40 minutes and features ten songs, all thoroughly saturated in Satan, demons, hell, and death. The only breaks you get are during The Exorcist and Fallen Angel, and even then, don’t expect breathing room—just ominous buildup before the next ritual begins.
The Exorcist opens with Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells from the Exorcist soundtrack, which—yes, absolutely, traumatising (Hi, Tanny!). That film haunted my childhood. Thanks for the flashbacks, lads.
Then all hell breaks loose. The sound is raw. The structure is questionable. The vocals hit like sandpaper, the drumming is unhinged, and the guitars never slow down enough to make sense of.
My first thought was:
"This is death metal? Sounds more like black metal."
The raw production, the full-body chaos, and the Satanic themes gave me strong Venom – Welcome to Hell energy. But not just Venom—I also heard hints of early Kreator, maybe a little Sodom in the guitars. Makes sense: Possessed members have cited Venom and Exodus as key influences, and they toured with Metallica and Exodus in 1984 before unleashing Seven Churches on the world.
This wasn’t death metal yet. But it was the shovel to the face that broke the ground for it.
They Weren’t Subtle. That Was the Point.
Becerra famously said their mission was to create "the fucking heaviest, most satanic, fastest, most evil band on the planet." A noble goal, honestly.
Back in 1985, glam metal was still being considered part of the metal scene. So Possessed said "no thanks" to eyeliner and power ballads and instead wrote Death Metal—literally. That’s the name of the final track.
Just like Venom had a song called Black Metal, Possessed claimed their own bloody flag with Death Metal—a thrashy, high-speed rager that doesn’t even pretend to be subtle. And it ends the album on the same high-velocity, blood-spattered note it started with.
Best Moments in the Mayhem
Apart from The Exorcist (which earns points for psychological damage), my favourites here were Pentagram (for the sheer audacity of that intro) and Twisted Minds (mostly for that sludgy, slow midsection around 2:35. A rare moment of breath in an album that otherwise drags you through hell at full sprint.)
Final Thoughts from the Pit
Seven Churches isn’t clean. It isn’t polished. It’s not even particularly listenable by today’s standards. But that’s the point. It’s a jagged, ugly, glorious thing—thrash pushed to the absolute limit until it spills over into something darker, something meaner, something new.
Jeff Becerra may not have had the deep growl that would define death metal later, but his vocals were raw enough to set the tone. The shift away from politics toward pure horror, the chaotic time changes, the ritualistic atmosphere—this was the prototype.
Look—I wasn’t there. I don’t know who really started death metal. Maybe it was Possessed. Maybe it was Death. Maybe it was just a collective scream from the underground. From Becerra’s point of view, that rivalry didn’t matter. He had a good relationship with Chuck Schuldiner, and after being shot in 1989 and unable to play for years, he was just genuinely happy that the genre lived on. That Death kept it alive. It wasn’t about credit. It was about continuation.
And honestly—this album was something. Raw, chaotic, and ahead of its time. If it was the first of something? Cool. If it wasn’t? Who the fuck cares. What matters is that it cracked something open. And metal poured out.