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 POSSESSED's Profile |
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Official Possessed |
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| Location: | SAN FRANCISCO, California |
| Country: |  United States |
| Last Login: | Jun 12, 2008 (528 days back) |
About Me |
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Possessed started with Mike Torrao (guitar) and Mike Sus (drums) as a garage band in San Francisco's Bay Area. They formed in 1983, and were basically a garage band, with several lineup changes. Late in 1983, though, their singer Barry Fisk committed suicide, and when they managed to recruit singer/bassist Jeff Becerra they formed the band Possessed. Jeff was fronting a local commercial-style metal band called Blizzard before he quit to join Possessed. (Also involved in this band were future Possessed guitarist Larry Lalonde and the band's future manager, Debbie Abono.) Jeff and the two Mikes, along with second guitarist Brian Montana, started perfecting their own brand of metal which was the precursor to modern death metal - very fast, savage riffs, warp-speed drums, mile-a-second solos, and the raspy growl of the vocals later perfected by Chuck Schuldiner of Death. (In fact, Chuck's vocals on "Scream Bloody Gore" sound almost exactly like Jeff Becerra's vocals on "Seven Churches," an album Schuldiner cites as a significant influence.) Possessed took San Francisco's metal scene by storm, playing out with fellow Bay Area thrashers Exodus (it happened that the two Mikes were pretty good friends with Exodus' H-team, Rick Hunolt and Gary Holt) and other bands (many now long gone). In 1984 they recorded a four song demo which made its way to the ears of Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records. He was impressed enough to ask them for a track for the upcoming Metal Massacre 6. Possessed gave them the song Swing Of The Axe, which proved to be the highlight of that compilation, and was included on the later "Best of Metal Massacre." However, at the same time the band was deciding which track to give them, they were dealing with a weak link in the band, and his name was Brian Montana. In interviews after the fact, Torrao says that Montana's playing skills and dedication to the image that the band was trying to create (the 'leather and stud, inverted cross death/black stage presence) left much to be desired. He was fired, and Possessed then enlisted the axe-playing skills of Larry Lalonde, finagling him from that earlier band. Thus, all at once, Possessed got one track released and a new guitarist. However, Metal Blade did not sign Possessed, and neither did Torrid Records, by this time the home of Exodus. Then came Combat. Combat Records signed Possessed in 1985, and the band spent the school Easter break recording the heaviest, fastest, most evil piece of metal ever to be carved into vinyl grooves - Seven Churches. This is the album that set the standard for death metal. Released in October of 1985, it was light-years ahead of its time, with the intricate-yet-heavy riffing of The Exorcist, Twisted Minds, and the title track (LaLonde's first co-writing credit) and the skull-pounding brutality of Burning In Hell, Evil Warriors, and the seminal Death Metal. The album was masterfully produced by Randy Burns, and recorded at Prairie Sun Studios. Seven Churches went on to be Combat Records' biggest-selling album. Not bad for a quartet of high school kids. They spent most of the next year gigging around the US and Europe, and in October 1986 (on Halloween, to be exact) unleashed their second album Beyond The Gates. A poor production job by Carl Canedy robbed the songs of some of their energy, but the musical genius of Torrao's and Becerra's songwriting shone throughout the album, especially ..s like The Heretic, Beyond the Gates, and No Will To Live. Torrao and Becerra also got some help from LaLonde, who wrote three of the album's songs: Phantasm, Seance, and Tribulation (a crowd favorite from before the first album). This album was especially well received in Europe, where they toured at the end of 1986. They toured more in the states early in 1987, and later that year they recorded and released The Eyes of Horror, a five song EP produced by LaLonde's guitar demagogue, Joe Satriani. It was musically the most advanced thing that Possessed had done, but the trademark satanism was almost completely absent on the EP. They had begun moving more in a thrash direction, and were getting away from the death and black magic imagery of their first two albums. Shortly after the release of The Eyes Of Horror, the members of Possessed decided to call it a day, and Sus, LaLonde, and Becerra left the band. Mike Torrao continued writing and recording music music under the Possessed name, taking over vocal duties. This part of the history is incomplete. Possessed went through several people trying to settle on the perfect mix for the band. After several tryouts (including, among others, Duane Connley [guitar] and Colin Carmichael [drums] from fellow Bay-Area thrashers Sanguinary), the line-up finally settled on Bob Yost (bass), Walter Ryan (drums), and Mark Strausberg (guitar) in 1991. This line-up recorded one two-song demo. Yost quit, but Torrao, Ryan, and Strausberg continued with new bassist Paul Perry, and this lineup released a three-song demo in 1992 (though apparently there was also a four-song version, including a newly- recorded version of The Exorcist). In 1993 Possessed returned to the live stage in the Bay Area, opening a few shows for Machine Head Possessed @WOA - 03.08.2007 PHOTOS BY RACHEL |
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My Interests |
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Music:Member Since: 1/12/2006Band Members: Influences: Black Sabbath, Motorhead, AC/DC, OZZY, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST. Also Exodus, Metallica (Before the Kill Em All Album even, RAVEN, Mercyful Fate, Venom, King Crimson, Sex Pistols, Fang, TSOL, Discharge and any other UG underground Metal or Hardcore that we could find later on. Ron Quintana and his late night circus KUSF Rampage Radio was probably the most influencial thing to me of all. We would stay up from 1:30am to 4am every Saturday and listen to all of the cool shit that Ron had found out in the world. .............Jeff Becerra Sounds Like: POSSESSED DISCOGRAPHYPOSSESSED WALLPAPERSPOSSESSED VIDEOPART 1PART 2live at Wacken 2007GET THRASHED CLIPRecord Label: Combat Records Type of Label: Major |
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My Background and Lifestyle |
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| Occupation: | Music Artist (Death Metal) |
My Pictures |
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My Blog |
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WANT TO BOOK POSSESSED? |
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| FOR BOOKING POSSESSED CONTACT ELSADISTICO
FOR BOOKING CONTACT
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ELSADISTICO OR WWW.E2112M@MSN.COM (EMILIO,drummer) POSSESSING THE LAND WITH DEATHMETAL.HORNS UP JEFF BECERRA... Posted by POSSESSED on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:12:00 PST |
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Possessed Song For the Page?! |
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| Hello!
Hey this is Jeff Becerra writing to you at the request of the Possessed webmaster. We are asking for your input in order to chose the last song to add to the Possessed page. If you have any su... Posted by POSSESSED on Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:37:00 PST |
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My Friends |
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Randell Decomposed NYDM International President, USDM: United States of Death Metal, NOXIOUS CALIFORNIA VICE PREZ SFBADM LADM PREZ, Toni, This profile no longer exists, LARRY/NYDM/SF Bay Area, NYDM: California Chapter, NYDM: ROCKLAND COUNTY CHAPTER, NYDM CANADA, NVDM, Sadistic Intent, OBITUARY, HOLLOW, Secrets She Kept (OFFICIAL), Metal Messiah Radio, Kult ov Azazel (Official), RAGNAROK, Infernus, BLOOD OBSESSION, Endemoniada: Possessed Women in Extreme Music-NYDM, UNDIVIDED, DANTE, Elizabeth NYDM/NCDM President, BILLY DEATH, Nightstörm European Emissary, Lord Crusan, "Soy una criatura voluble y lunática"., red haired stepchild, BLACK METAL, Мъртва Зона, INTO DAGORLAD, UNDERCOVER RECORDS BRASIL, Brutal Crisis (Profile on Construction), Modesto Headbanger Society, Karrie, AOI, southun's corpse bride, Madness-Is now available split cd, KOYOTEGRIND, HEADHUNTER D.C., Abusor, VOIDD, RIPCHAIN, johnny, Eternal Fury (2 New Songs Posted), Futant Oblivion, Jumalaton666, FÁBIO, Lissa Luv's Heavy Metal, Decomposed God - "Bestiality" is coming!, Evil, Stigma Diabolicum, Bryan, jonse666, Zombie Death Stench, InTermenT-DeathMetal, MikeV of 209productions, NN, Hardegon, ┼ George ┼ Deathmetal-Grindcore Vokills-Wien/Baden, Norsefire, Soulerosion, Insanity Complex (seeking members), Braindead, SEND THE SLAVES TO CHRISTGRINDING AVENUE!!!, Music Minds Memories, PRIDE SUBJECT, Agent of Evil, †Ash†, Torture Pulse (new songs online), LungLance (R.I.P.), Chevesche, Poison Taiga, Serious Grind
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POSSESSED's profile has been tagged with the following keywords. Click a tag to search for profiles with the same tags. metal blade records, chuck schuldiner, larry lalonde, scream bloody gore, gary holt, guitarist brian, song swing, fellow bay area, warp speed, seven churches, san francisco california, future manager, metal massacre, san franciscos, song demo, modern death, commercial style, rick hunolt, lineup changes, committed suicide |
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