Possession – (Belgium) Anneliese 7″ EP
Possession deflowered the sound-catching cartilage of this writer and many others with last year’s His Best Deceit cassette, its four songs easily grabbing a spot on my ‘Honorable Mentions’ section of 2013 list. With their new 7” Anneliese (out April 12th), I expected more black/thrash devastation, but the opener and title song (referring to Anneliese Michel, a young German girl who died during an exorcism in the ’70s) on this two-track demonspawn surprised me. Instead of just giving us more of the same, we are met with a mid-tempo stomp that, while engulfed in the same thick, low-mid range distortion of its predecessor, punishes the weak with a 4/4 mover that encourages both headnods and hair-raising fear, as vocalist Mestema brings back his convincing wails and fervent screams to great effect. Second song ‘Apparition’ begins with a deliberate build, but those desiring their debut’s speed have nothing to worry about – here again the blasting drums and descending, open-chord freneticism returns unabated, but before I could settle back in comfort saying ‘Yes, I remember this clearly’, Possession do something unexpected again by slowing to a near stop – albeit briefly – with an appropriately evil, heavily distorted ‘acoustic’ interlude, before closing out in shrieks and howls with that nigh-punk static charge they have. Needless to say, a perfect complement to their first release, and I will be ordering a physical copy. Expect them on the cover of some glossy magazine very, very soon. -Jim
Iron Bonehead Productions
Worm Gear 