Wildly Possessed

As a huge fan of their EP and recent demo, I was ecstatic to see Reversed have signed to Invictus Productions for their debut album. This Canadian horde plays death metal, properly, and their record lands on May 24th…

Funereal guitars build a dissonant array of chords atop some crushing toms. Thrashing bestial violence forcefully springs into life with menacing guitars and deathly bass rumbling below, crushing all with the hammer of extremity. Their exciting blend of old school visions is demonic and tormenting with ghastly vocals and some of the most insane drumming to boot. Invoking the 80s death metal of Possessed, Necrovore, Sadistic Intent, Morbid Angel and more, this is malicious carnage at its finest. Their warped guitar lines contort with the bass in a unique manner, offering a renewed ferocity to their vision that is harrowing, punishing and anguishing in equal measure. The musicianship feels incredibly tight and natural with a superbly organic flow across the board, between sections and in terms of mixing everything has plenty of breathing room. Without the need for tons of distortion or compression nor over-mixing, Reversed have that savage archaic feeling to their music that will have you wildly possessed within the first couple of songs… Then begging for what comes next.

Violently twisting passages evoke more chaotic apparitions from the black abysses. As we forge on, the ravaging death metal whips up a storm with its tornadoes of sadistic sonic upheaval. From the more unhinged moments to the straightforward primal battery, everything feels truly insane and yet played with a tightness that is unmistakable. Chiming cymbals, inhuman guitars or monstrous vocals; whatever takes the centrefold never overshadows the onslaught of evil happening all around as the air is permeated with a ritualistic scent of blood and rust. Striking iron on iron, the metallic forging of sound is true to the ancient ways without feeling like some tepid worship of their forebears in blasphemy, carving their own path from stone and steel. Reversed breathes both death and metal into their cavalcade of death metal. A reigning cry of primordial supremacy from the abyss, funereal and visceral in every facet.

Transporting us to those times before homogeneity in extreme metal became so widespread, this record harnesses all of those blackened, deathly, thrashing elements that should never have separated. Re-forging and splicing the unholy essence, this record fixes what the 90s left broken in many cases. Ultimately evil triumphs, these Canadians showing it even lingers by recording in the same studio as Blasphemy, the ultimate in sonic barbarism. Although utterly malicious and salivating for destruction in every way; there is plenty of melody and intellect to their songs. Take “Beneath Evil Eyes” for example which feels like Mercyful Fate’s spirit is present. Everything I love about heavy metal and all of its classic incarnations is here and preserved while presenting it in anew. Reversed were a band I knew I would hold dear from that first EP and still spin the promo tape (featuring two tracks from this very record) til my deck smoulders… Every moment of anticipation for how their record would sound, waiting years with bated breath in the way old school mania has paid off. Trust in merciless obliteration, receive the spirits of darkness and revel in desecration. Prepare to be conquered by some of the most perfect death metal that this modern age has to offer, enduring and rebelling against the flaccid idiocies of current trend.

Screaming for vengeance with death metal might, Reversed showcase how the glorious few beat the hammer of true evil malignancy into the modern age. Sitting alongside bands like Degial, Concrete Winds, Vorum and Sijjin, Reversed are luminaries of a new age of morbidity. Show no mercy and fear no evil, “Wildly Possessed” is what it says it is, a maelstrom juggernaut bringing plagues and decay to all the deceased maniacs their necromancy can summon.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com