Jeff Becerra says Possessed intend to enter the studio in September to record the follow-up to Revelations Of Oblivion, seven years after that album ended a 33-year gap in the band’s discography.
The frontman delivered the update in a video posted Friday (July 31), his first message since the band returned from Europe.
“Hey, this is Jeff. I’m just saying what’s up. I haven’t been around. I haven’t really checked in since we got back from Europe. I’m just kind of keeping you up on things, give you a little update, what’s going on with Possessed. I’m fine-tuning the songs in preparation to go into the studio. Hopefully we’ll record the new album, if everything goes right, in September. So basically, I’m just making some alterations, something to make the vocals hit a little harder and be heavy. I hope you like the album. I hope everything goes well, and we’ll be able to record in September and then get the mechanisms and the machine rolling so that we can get you that new stuff out ASAP. Hold tight. Thank you for your patience. Stay blessed, stay possessed,” he said.
The qualifier matters. Becerra has been describing this album as close to finished for roughly two years.
In October 2024 he told MetalMasterKingdom.com he had two songs left to write and floated a 2025 release. By October 2025 he was working on the final three sets of lyrics. In February this year he posted that he was on song nine.
The delays have documented causes. Speaking to “El Planeta Del Rock” in 2024, Becerra explained that surgery and illness had stalled work at a point when he had expected the pandemic to free up writing time.
In March, Becerra described a process that has the band tracking remotely before anyone books studio time.
“It’s my process this time to kind of listen back, see what it sounds like, and then make changes from there. And it’s pretty fun. It’s been a really, really good experience. Meanwhile, remotely, Bobby/Robert‘s [Cardenas] doing his bass tracks over the same recordings with the hidden click track. Of course, [guitarists] Daniel [Gonzalez] and Claudeous [Creamer] are doing their tracks, and Chris [Aguirre] is putting the real drums over the electronic drums so that we’ll have a viable scratch track when we go into the big studio.”
He set out the plan for the studio sessions themselves.
“After all their parts are done, Daniel will come over here. We’ll go down into my basement down here, and record the vocal tracks. Then we’ll head to the big studios. Traditionally, drums have a, a larger studio for a bigger drum sound. And then me and the guys will go into the other studio for the guitar, bass and vocals, and we’ll go from there. I’m really looking forward to it,” he continued.
Chris Aguirre on drums is the notable change from the Revelations Of Oblivion lineup, which had Emilio Marquez behind the kit. Robert Cardenas of Coffin Texts remains on bass, with Daniel Gonzalez of Gruesome and Claudeous Creamer on guitars.
Becerra has been describing the material as a departure since he started work on it.
Speaking to MetalMasterKingdom.com, he said the songs featured considerably more tempo variation and would likely rank among the band’s darkest, while insisting the group would never soften. He added that he wanted a record listeners could get through without gritting their teeth.
“Possessed will never sell out,” he said at the time. “I’d rather die. But it’s still very, very heavy. It’s probably gonna be one of our darkest albums. And also something that you don’t have to grit your teeth to get through the whole thing.”
To Australia’s “Devil’s Horns Zine” last October, he was blunter about the risk: he called it a whole different animal and said he had no idea whether people would love it or hate it.
Possessed formed in the Bay Area and released Seven Churches in 1985, a record routinely cited as one of the foundations of death metal. Their 1987 EP The Eyes Of Horror was followed by a split that same year, with guitarist Larry Lalonde moving to Blind Illusion and then Primus, while Becerra, guitarist Mike Torrao and drummer Mike Sus went separate ways.
Becerra was shot during an attempted armed robbery two years after the split, leaving him partially paralyzed. He has spoken publicly over the years about the substance problems that followed.
Torrao revived the name in 1990 with an entirely different lineup, releasing two demos before folding in 1993. Becerra rebuilt the band himself in 2007.
Revelations Of Oblivion followed on May 10, 2019 through Nuclear Blast, produced by Becerra and recorded at NRG Studios and Titan Studios. It entered the UK Rock & Metal Albums chart at number seven and reached 59 on Billboard‘s Top Current Album Sales chart.
Becerra has noted that this incarnation of the band has now lasted more than three times as long as the original.
