Possessed - The Eyes of Horror

POSSESSED - The Eyes of Horror (COMBAT Records - MLP 1987)

The infatuated trilogy of Possessed classic releases is closed with a 20 minute short MLP “The Eyes of Horror”. Well, the previous album – “Beyond the Gates” – was for me personally a slight disappointment, if I can be honest with you. OK, I will never say it was a complete shite or something like that, because it is a decent thrash metal album, but the problem I have with it is that: 1. It is not as good as “Seven Churches” and 2. The quality of songwriting on this album is fine, but not outstanding and personally I would expect something more from the masters of death / thrash metal. I have a feeling like this album hasn’t aged that well and when I listen to it nowadays I just don’t feel as thrilled as when I listen to any my top thrash metal releases of all times. But another thing is “The Eyes of Horror”… this album is 26 years old now and I think that music wise is it a better effort than the earlier Possessed release.

I simply like these songs more. The riffing is better and more arse kicking, there are more memorable parts on the MLP and the whole material is more straight forward affair rather than a dull guitar masturbating. Already the opening song is crazy – “Confessions” sounds incredibly well, the fast pace, at which it was played, is great and literally this track will force the listener to bang the head otherwise something wrong will happen to him. And “Confessions” isn’t even my personal favourite from “The Eyes of Horror”! That would I think be “My Belief”, which has that killer opening riff and as a whole I think it would be perfect on some early Destruction records. And those riffs in the title track? They’re just excellent, especially with that galloping tempo, which definitely will never let the fans stand like stones, when they’ll hear this song played live. And finally there’s also “Storm In My Mind” – oh, how sweet bad ass thrash metal devastation.

So what I will say for the end of this short review is that I definitely like “The Eyes of Horror” more than “Beyond the Gates” and for me personally it is one of the most classic and obligatory thrash metal releases of all times. Check it out, especially on LP, so you can look at this excellent front artwork of this album.

Standout tracks: “The Eyes of Horror”, “My Belief”

Final rate: 88/100