Venom's follow up to 'At War With Satan', 'Possessed' dissapointed many. I felt it was a dud also but I was in denial at the time cause Venom ruled the world for me back then. A few tunes that stood out but overall it lacked the energy of past recordings. Perhaps the creative juices ran dry? The rundown goes something like this:

'Powerdrive' - speedburner, a good opener, does exactly what Cronos implores when he says "Let's get some Hell going down here"!!!.
'Flytrap' - slower and heavier than powerdrive, good riff with some pummelling kickdrums.
'Satanchist'- fast number, equal in heaviness and velocity.
'Burn This Place To The Ground'- another fast one, typical Venom tune as they don't talk bullshit or fuck around
'Harmony Dies' - Crappy song, mid paced and boring
'Possessed'- Title track is a strong one, muscular sounding , slower in pace like 'Flytrap'
'Hellchild'- typical Venom filler doesn't grab you by the throat
'Moonshine'- Average song, funny Mantas solo.
'Wing And A Prayer'- fast instrumental, no big deal
'Suffer Not The Children'- who cares whether the children suffer, I suffered through this track.
'Voyeur'- Cronos singing about his pulsating gland, spare me.
''Mystique'- Man, this CD is getting pretty crap, what's this attempt at melody , I thought harmony was supposed to die?
'Too Loud For The Crowd'- Boring, I'm gonna start snoring is more like it.

There you have it folks. I guess the final sumation of this all is that this album stinks. Only worthwhile reason for having it is that it's the last one of the original lineup before their reformation of a year or so ago, that and a few (4) decent songs.

© 1999 malphas