With a band like Belgium's Possession you could easily assume you know what to expect from them, but then I think you'd likely be wrong. Sure, Possession looks like a second-wave black metal band- and they assiduously are- but comprehending a thing is different than experiencing it, and you really do need to experience Exorkizein firsthand. Possession released the record in 2017 as their first LP, and have yet to follow it up with a sequel. Of course, when you nail it on the first try, why take another swing? Especially when the first is still sailing through the air like a lightly singed bat escaping a smoldering belfry. Groups like Bathory cast a long shadow, and Possession certainly has staked out territory in that legend's sinister pall, but beyond the tremendous spin-tingling tremolos and arresting reptilian howls, their dark aura is manifested most potently through the atmosphere they cultivate. It's not a heavy ambiance, like Hooded Menace, but one of brisk peril and bewilderment, conjured by distant maniacal shouts, half-croak incantations, and highly engrossing cutaways that align to impress upon the listener that something truly diabolical is afoot. The album sounds like the arc of an unfolding calamity, baited by hubris and blind avarice. A satanic blaze that consumes a monastery and all its inhabitance as punishment for their transgressions against God and nature in a force majeure of cleansing absolution and exercise by fire- evil feasting upon evil, flame dosing flame, rot cured by conflagration, burning until nothing is left by ash and brittle bones, and the memory of a nightmare that came alive as a warning to all mankind.
