ALBUM REVIEW: Damn The Light – Possessor

Since its inception, heavy metal and horror have gone hand in claw-like hand. All things spooky and spectral have influenced bands for generations and, whether it’s the silly or the satanic, for many metal’s link to horror imagery is bone-deep. Few bands make that link as obvious as London based sludge/thrash trio POSSESSOR, whose heady blend of driving riffs and Hammer-themed lyricism will turn even the most dedicated Nosferatu into a hell-Yesferatu.

Latest album (the band’s fifth full length) Damn The Light dropped rather fittingly just in time for Halloween, and sees the three piece, now featuring sticksman (or should that be stakesman?) Nathan Perrier of 11PARANOIAS and CAPRICORNS fame, armed with razor-sharp riffs and out for blood.

Opener Bloodsuckers sets the tone with rushing thrash riffing and a galloping, furious, foam-flecked pace, shot through with growling bass, pounding drums and reverb-drenched vocals. Coffin Fit bounces from the off, powered by hefty toms and a slickly sliding guitar riff, crashing cymbals and blazing solos doing battle with a sneering main groove.

Take It To The Grave trills with righteous NWOBHM guitars, shamelessly channelling the greats of yesteryear with stomping bass/snare patterns and call and response vocals over descending riffs. The Strangeness burbles and chugs, driving with focus through mirrored riffing through a slow breakdown and strident shouts of “it came from the sky!” before descending into a maddening, coffin-lid-scratcher of a solo. Razorback lives up to its name with a burly, snorting drive, dropping into sludgy, winding bass before uniting in righteous, triumphant riffing.

The title track blows in on an ill-fated wind, ringing guitars looping around a rising bass line. It’s mid-paced and lushly spacious before the groove resurrects through guitar noodling and cascades of snapping, military snare rolls. Fresh Hell phases through hard panned drums and rising synths before building through dual-guitar overlays and grunting bass licks. Confession is a creeping noisescape, cavernous toms and tolling church bells surrounding a spoken-word confessional.

Scalpel clatters with huge snares, charging into a head-down drive before escalating into a broken-legged groove that’s battered and buffeted by double kick work. Closer Return To Slaughter High begins with the sound of distant thunder before low, snaking bass brings that thunder closer, bouncing toms and high-octane groove summoning shades of ELECTRIC WIZARD, passing through a waah laced solo before ending on hellish guitar scraping and a spoken word sample.

With Damn The Light, POSSESSOR have laid down a graven slab of deliciously unpretentious heavy-fuckin’-metal. Suffused with the kind of infectious, relentless grooves you’d expect from a record born of a global pandemic, it’s not cerebral but it doesn’t set out to be. It is metal scraped down to the marrow – big of riff, girthy of groove, and unashamed of its influence. Crank it up loud, raise a beer in one hand and the horns with the other.

Rating: 7/10

Damn The Light is out now via APF Records. 

Like POSSESSOR on Facebook.