I would have never thought that going to see Possessed, the godfathers of death metal, would serve as an inspiration. So with the holidays upon us all, here is a great story of a come-back kid that shows us why metal never dies. It's because metal never gives up. Now I could spend lots of time telling you the details of this show and telling you why this band was or wasn't good, but the angle of this article needs to be a little different.

As the show opened the leather and stud clad band ripped into their 80's death metal. The memories of hearing Possessed on an AM college radio station on a Sunday night at 3am rushed to mind. The singer had not yet made it to the stage. Then as the vocal portion of the song came near, the singer rolled across a ramp and onto the stage in a wheelchair. This was something I wasn't expecting. Admittedly, I never followed the trials and tribulations of Possessed once I left high school, so I was perplexed. I ran over to the tour manager and asked him why the singer was in a wheelchair. He proceeded to tell me that the singer had been leaving a convenient store late one night after buying some cigarettes. He also had $1300 in his pocket. As he left the store, someone held him up at gunpoint for his smokes. Once the cigarettes had been turned over to the assailant, the gunman put a bullet into him and left him for dead. Instead of death, the Possessed vocalist was left paralyzed from the waist down. As you can imagine this was not something I was expecting to see this evening.

It turns out that the singer is the only original Possessed member of the band. He asked a band called Sadistic Intent, to serve as his backing band on this tour. The band was excellent and only afterwards did I discover the "backing band" story. The 300 people in attendance got one hell of a classic show. The singer was thrashing, fist pumping, and most importantly, was sounding exactly like I had heard him hundreds of times before. The guitars were tearing out with classic 80's thrash tones and the drummer whipped across his roto-toms and had full control of the nights tempo. Even thought the set was pretty short, I was pretty damn happy when the show was over. See, once I learned the story about what had and was going on, it made me proud to be a metalhead. It seems that when we hear of tragedies in the world of music, it usually means that careers end. But oh no... Not for us metalheads! From Rick Allen of Def Leppard, to Cliff Burton of Metallica, to Vinnie Paul of Pantera, and goodness knows that we could take this list on and on and on... But Jeff Becerra of Possessed showed once again that metal never dies. Whoever or whatever is lost, metal still soldiers on. Final Score? Cmon. This one aint about the numbers kids... (But honestly, the score woulda been high)

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Possessed show on 11/24 ! Stay tuned.

Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.

BE SURE to check out our friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! www.jaxxroxx.com

If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.

Comments Questions or Concerns? Hit me up! berube@braingell.com

And oh yeah...

Peace and Metal Grease!

berube