Never ones to think twice about flirting with supernatural evil forces, San Francisco's Possessed scheduled their second album, Beyond the Gates, to be released on Halloween, 1986! Maybe they should have been a little more wary, as the recording that should have built upon the solid foundation laid down by the previous year's genre-forming debut Seven Churches (still regarded as one of death metal's inaugural cornerstones), wound up coming as a disappointment to most critic and fans alike. Verily, in most every observer's eyes, Beyond the Gates represented an almost indefensible step backwards; transforming a sound previously distinguished for its inexorable power into a ragged, decidedly weaker-kneed replacement. Perhaps the record's feeble production was to blame, although it's hard to lay the blame entirely on experienced producer Carl Canedy in light of his previous triumphs with Anthrax and Overkill. More likely, it was a combination of difficulties: poor funding, rushed recording conditions, questions over musical direction, and simple lack of preparedness (all common problems for starving, under-pressure-to-deliver extreme metal bands) that doused the flames in disappointing efforts like "Tribulation," the title track, and the simply god-awful "The Beasts of the Apocalypse." Occasional bright spots do surface with the focused and forceful "March to Die," the refreshingly elaborate "No Will to Life," and even opener "The Heretic," thanks to its nifty, scary intro. But, taken as a whole, there was no denying that Beyond the Gates packed nowhere near the consistency, inventiveness and, most importantly, eventual influence of its predecessor, signaling the beginning of Possessed's inevitable decline. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

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