War Possession - Through the Ages

WAR POSSESSION - Through the Ages (HELLTHRASHER - CD 2012)

There’s no doubt that once more the Greek bands prove to have a strong and healthy extreme metal scene and finally, many years since the inception of the so called Greek black metal sound this country spawned a decent number of more extreme acts, mainly within the old styled, dark death / black metal tag. If I mention such names as Embrace of Thorns, Nocturnal Vomit, Dead Congregation, Resurgency, Necrovorous, Acrimonious, etc then you may realize how strong it has become again. And bands like War Possession just show that they’re not giving a shit about the whole financial crisis or whatever problems the Greek nation has met recently; they just focus on bombarding the maniacs with killer metal sounds… and “Through the Ages” is a product, which does that exactly. Prepare for war.

And it (the music, war, etc) will be as merciless and ruthless as you can only imagine. Bands like War Possession do not waste time on melancholic or harmonious parts, instead opting for more cruel, straight forward and simple ways of expression. And that means the music will be just right in the face, with as much throat cutting riffs and aggression as one may hope for… plus there’s the essential morbid and obscure atmosphere, which just has to be present in albums like this. Musically War Possession definitely doesn’t discover any new planets, they just follow the traditions of the bestial death / black metal, without caring too much about the originality or technically effective parts. The music is simple, the riffing is just basic, not primitive, but more if someone combined the early releases of such Bolt Thrower, Incantation, Acheron with the blasphemous spawns of Archgoat and even Blasphemy plus few more recent acts like Grave Miasma or Embrace of Thorns. The music is 666% violent, punishing and aggressive; it is heavy, but also quite primitive, if you listen to many riffs or drums parts. You know, War Possession definitely prefer simple meanings for their music, simple rhythms, but which would crush you instantly, rather than make you wonder for what the hell is going on in the technical show off. So, if you like death / black metal in the old, simple vein, dark and obscure, then I’m sure that “Through the Ages” will be your kind of release.

Personally I can say that I like this MCD, definitely, there are some very good parts, which prove War Possession to be a promising band. From the other hand I must also admit that in the recent months there were better offerings released; many better albums of demos have been spawned, which shouldn’t be a surprise, if you look at the number of old styled death metal releases and bands, which pop up every month. When I compare War Possession to those, which I liked most, then I am afraid that “Through the Ages” is not as effective, but luckily it is still decent enough to give it few spins. I must say that I like the slower parts of War Possession most, while the faster ones are sometimes quite dull. Oh, and if I said that there are no melodies on “Through the Ages” then I am not 100% correct, as the ending part of “In the Shadow of the Ancient Gods” definitely has a nice melodic fragment, in the vein of old Asphyx hehe! Anyway, I am sure that War Possession will satisfy your hunger for archaic death metal, but personally if I would have to recommend you some Hellthrasher releases, then I would probably go for Engulfed or Abysme more, but War Possession is also worth to be collected and listened to.

Standout tracks: “In the Shadow of the Ancient Gods”

Final rate: 70/100