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16 июн 2025
POSSESSED's JEFF BECERRA: 'I Don't Think Death Metal Would've Had The Staying Power If It Wasn't For CHUCK SCHULDINER'
In a new interview with Conexión Rock Radio, Becerra, who was shot in a robbery in 1989, leaving him partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, weighed in on the never-ending debate on who can lay claim to being the first "true" death metal band: DEATH or POSSESSED. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "As you know, Chuck was a good friend. And I don't see death metal as just being one thing or ever being perfected. I see it as a spiritual freedom. It's not necessarily a combination of certain elements that make a predictable outcome. And Chuck and me were very much similar on our thoughts there.
"I don't know if you know this, but Chuck, before 'Scream Bloody Gore', he moved down [to the San Francisco Bay Area] into the POSSESSED fan club president's house to be nearer to us, to be nearer to me," Jeff explained. "And so I remember when Chuck was showing me the precursors of 'Scream Bloody Gore', he was very, very into POSSESSED. He said, 'Listen, Jeff. I sound just like you.' And he said, 'Is that okay?' And I said, 'Hell yeah, it's okay.' And it was that moment I realized that there would be more than one death metal band because it was really branding. We knew that there was thrash metal, we knew VENOM was black metal, we knew there was speed metal, and we said, 'We wanna make…' POSSESSED was very unique. At that time we were carte blanche the heaviest band on the planet. And we said, 'Let's call ourselves death metal. And that will separate us from the other bands, 'cause people will say, 'POSSESSED is that death metal band.'' So naively, I thought that POSSESSED would be the only death metal band and would be known as 'that death metal band'. But then when Chuck came around, just really, really enamored and coming, wanting to be closer to the scene, I knew it would take off. And so I think that without Chuck, I don't think it would've ever become a 'genre genre'. I think that was a combination of me and Chuck and what followed after that, that that really made it take off.
"To put things in perspective, DEATH was probably quadruple as big as POSSESSED," Jeff added. "We pretty much ended when they were hitting their heyday, and they just took off. They were wildly successful. And so they were a much more commercially viable band that was sellable, and POSSESSED has always been kind of a weird 'nichey' band that doesn't sell as much. So, yeah, it took that. And I, honest to God, don't think that… I think it was a combination. I don't think that death metal would've had the staying power if it wasn't for Chuck. And he was a good friend — a really good friend and a great guy."
Elaborating on the musical connection he had with Chuck, Jeff said: "It's weird because I was very much into… And remember, I was just a kid back then. We were young teenagers. And so when I met Chuck, I didn't know who he was. He was just some kid sitting on the couch. And he was really, like, 'Hey, Jeff, come here.' So I sat there and he's, like, 'Check out this riff.' And I was, like, 'Hey, whatever. I'm doing whatever.' 'Hey, check out this riff.' And then pretty soon he just kept riffing and riffing, and I was taking notes. I was, like, 'Dude, this is a riff lord.' He was just busting out with riff after riff after riff. And so I just kind of witnessed the way his mind worked. He was just very intense and very into his craft. And, of course, that was really inspiring. We were both very individual and doing what we're doing, but Chuck, he was noticeably amazing right from the get-go. Chuck was a genius in his creations. And I think that I was in good company. It was good that he was sitting on our couch at the right time. It seemed like a normal day back then, but now that I look at it, it's like — there are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. Like when I broke up with my first band BLIZZARD, I just happened to meet [early POSSESSED guitarist] Mike Torrao, who was of a similar mindset to be the heaviest band in the world. That shit is amazingly coincidental, because nobody was thinking that back then. I just happened to meet that one guy that's like-minded. And so it's crazy. I think it was destined to be. I think that bands like POSSESSED and DEATH, it was just something that was happening… I wanted to be heavier, and I couldn't get heavy enough. And I think that Chuck saw that in me, and he heard it in our music and he wanted to be closer. And it was just really cool to be part of that scene. And then, of course, you [later] had bands like SADUS and AUTOPSY, and it just kind of snowballed from there. And it's been a really neat history and just visceral and organic, the way it went."
Less than two years ago, Becerra was asked by Jerry Kurunen of Finland's Rauta if POSSESSED is rightfully credited with initially creating the term "death metal" in 1983. He said: "One hundred percent. I had the copyright in 1983. POSSESSED was the very first death metal band. That doesn't mean we created death metal; it just means we were the first [to call ourselves death metal]. 'Cause every band after that does their own shit. So, yeah, we were just the first, man. And I'm surprised somebody didn't think of it before, to be honest. It's so obvious.
"Back then, you've gotta realize, with very few exceptions — maybe SLAYER, KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION, EXODUS — most thrash metal bands were — and with all due respect — were kind of bouncy kind of hair bands," he explained. "They would say, 'Oh, we're so heavy,' but they were never really heavy. 'We're so evil.' And there was nothing wrong with that, but that just isn't what blew our skirts up.
"I happened to meet Mike Torrao at a very pivotal moment in our life, and we were just, like, 'Fuck the world. Fuck everything. And let's just make the heaviest, most Satanic music in the world.' And trash metal was taken, black metal was taken, speed metal was taken, fucking power metal was taken. Why not death metal? Like, 'Okay.' So then I wrote a song called 'Death Metal', and that was it. But it was more about the music and then the title, but the title seemed to outweigh the music. I don't know.
"These days POSSESSED get a lot more recognition, but we're not one of those famous bands; we're still underground. You're really lucky to be recognized within your lifetime."
Becerra previously weighed in on the debate about DEATH or POSSESSED being the first death metal band during a June 2022 appearance on "The Haunting Chapel" podcast. He said at the time: "We [POSSESSED] were selling ourselves as a death metal band, and that was what we went with. And to this day, it's both a blessing and a curse because it's highly debated and contested. And we literally, after I got shot, certain revisionists tried to block me out of history. The POSSESSED Wiki is the most vandalized page of Wikipedia. There was a certain person — he recently passed away — that was just relentlessly retitling our YouTube, moving our dates forward, messing with the timeline. It was like a battle. When I left, we were the death metal guys. When I came back, it was no more. So I had to fight for my own history back, which was weird. 'Cause there's no cool way to do that, because it sounds like you're tooting your own horn.
"I'm not saying I created death metal; I'm saying POSSESSED was the first death metal band," Jeff explained. "And it's a bone of contention with many DEATH fans. And because of the way that their management spun it and the way that the magazines spun it… Remember, me and Chuck were friends. He literally was like my protégé. He moved out to Antioch [California from Orlando]; he lived at the [house of the then-]POSSESSED fan club [president Krystal Mahoney]. He was pen paling for a while and tape trading. And he very much modeled himself after me. I was so honored because, remember, I'm just a young teenager. But he was the first person to really get what we were doing, what I was doing, and he was the first person that really understood what it was about. And he was so smart that way because it was undefined and so hard to explain what it is, without putting rules on it, because the last thing you wanna do is put rules on anything and stifle it. But he would just grasp it; he loved it. He said, 'Listen, Jeff. I sound just like you.' And he was proud of that. And I was proud of him. And there was a bromance going there. It was a respect.
"I've never been jealous of another band," Becerra clarified. "I've never claimed anything that wasn't mine. And it's just so obscure to see people trying to claim what they know they wouldn't do in front of me. They know what they didn't do; I was fucking there. And I'm not hating on anybody, but it's a very coveted position.
"What makes me mad is when the magazines spin this 'DEATH or POSSESSED, DEATH versus POSSESSED.' And it even tainted the relationship between DEATH and POSSESSED, and that pisses me off, because we were friends.
"I realize that metal is supposed to be fun," Jeff added. "But there's also something very valid about true history and not revising stuff — not just with POSSESSED but any band. And the way it's spun is, like, bands will exaggerate what they did and the writers will be eager to impress who they're writing about, because the last thing a writer wants is for the band to go, 'This is fucking fucked up.'
"In the old days, it was very truthful. People did their research. They didn't have clickbait. There was no 'POSSESSED versus DEATH.' I hate that shit. Because if Chuck was alive today, I'd like [us to] collaborate. And I don't like it fucking with my remembrance of what it really was. I like the history. Maybe I'm being weird about it, but I think that the truth is so much better than the tale."
Becerra told Antihero in 2017 that Schuldiner cited POSSESSED as a "primary influence" in "countless" magazine interviews. But even though DEATH was inspired by POSSESSED, "they ran with it and went in their own direction and created their own vibe," Jeff said. "To go a step further: Chuck used ['80s death/thrash producer] Randy Burns, who did 'Seven Churches' to do 'Scream Bloody Gore', his first album. He also did a cover of [POSSESSED's] 'The Exorcist'."
Schuldiner died in December 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a rare type of brain tumor.
POSSESSED originally split in 1987, leaving behind a short but highly influential legacy, most notably "Seven Churches". Internal tensions after the release of 1987's "The Eyes Of Horror" EP led to the band's dissolution, with guitarist Larry Lalonde joining Bay Area tech-thrashers BLIND ILLUSION, then PRIMUS, while Becerra, Torrao and drummer Mike Sus each going separate directions.
Two years after POSSESSED's split, Becerra was the victim of the aforementioned failed armed robbery attempt, sending him into a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse. POSSESSED was reactivated by Torrao in 1990 with a completely different lineup, but only released two demos before dissolving in 1993. Becerra then reformed POSSESSED in 2007 with his own lineup, which released its first studio album in 33 years, "Revelations Of Oblivion", in 2019. A follow-up LP is currently in the works for a tentative 2026 release.
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Ну и конечно последующие супер кайфовые альбомы 98 и CD 99.
На вскидку и не вспомню, чтобы кто-то ещё по сути в одно лицо так прогрессировал.
Масвидал, Рейнарт, Хоглан, Ла Рок, Ди Джорджио конечно крутые, но лишь наёмный персонал.
Я имел в виду бешеную разницу в 8-ми летнем промежутке по качеству материала.
Все-таки разница между 95 и 98,99 не такая сильная как между 95 и предыдущими.
Но такое дело, сырой, грубый примитивный материал Possessed, сохранился с годами прям неплохо,такой ретро-шик.