The Classic Metal Album Reviews:
Title: Beyond the Gates
Artist: Possessed
Label: Combat Records
Release Date: 1986

Rating: 4 Skulls
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    • Hel's Review:
    I know, I know - I should really be reviewing Seven Churches. Unfortunately though, it's on vinyl but I don't have a turntable, and I just don't feel right reviewing something I haven't listened to in a decade. So instead, we turn to the reissued and "re-mastered" copy I have of Beyond the Gates.

    Even re-mastering couldn't help the terrible production on this disc. But despite that flaw, the music on this release was so impressive that the record has become legendary anyway and the poor production job is now infamous.

    Beyond the Gates once again featured enormous musical talent underlying the intense riffs and blasphemous themes which helped Possessed gain their notoriety. Here also we are able again to witness Larry Lalonde's pre-Primus guitar wizardry, the speed and ferocity of which were inevitably toned down in his style in the later Primus years. So here too is yet another reason this band is worthy of note.

    I admit, I wasn't cool enough to know about this album until many years after it came out, but this was hardly my fault. Growing up in pre-Internet times, the Midwest was a particularly desolate place, especially for good metal. Still, it's never too late to learn about classic metal, thus the reason for Metal Judgment's Classics' existence.

    It is commonly agreed in the metal world that Seven Churches was integral to the development of death metal. With Beyond the Gates, Possessed turned slightly more in the direction of thrash and speed. But regardless of where it fell within sub-genre classifications, it remains to this day a work of superior musicianship and impressive songwriting.

    Perhaps someday, someone will perfect what NewsRadio's Jimmy James called a "wayback machine" and we can get in it to go back and correct that terrible production. Until that day however, Beyond the Gates will remain an incredible album with infamously poor production. If you haven't had a chance to hear it for yourself, find a copy and hear this little piece of history for yourself.
    4 out of 5
    HEL  Email Hel

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