POSSESSED Schedules Brooklyn Meet-And-Greet For This Saturday

Duff's Brooklyn the heavy metal bar located at N. 3rd St & Kent Ave in Williamsburg, New York will host a special "Brutal BBQ Bash" and meet-and-greet with reactivated California death metal pioneers POSSESSED on Saturday, June 21 one day before the band's scheduled performance at at Europa in Brooklyn, New York. According to a posting on the Duff'sweb site, "The band will be hanging out all night long grilling and partying with us as we get warmed up for the band's much-anticipated show the following night. The BBQ, as always, is free, and there is no cover charge for the event. The fine print: The show Sunday at Europa is all ages, the event at the bar is 21 and over with ID."

POSSESSED will reportedly film the June 22 concert at Europa for future DVD release. Also scheduled to appear are AT WAR, MORTICIAN, RUMPLESTILTSKIN GRINDER, BLOOD FEAST, SADISTIC INTENT, MIDNIGHT, MALKUTH and SACRIFICIAL BLOOD.

As has been the case with all of POSSESSED's recent appearances, the group's lineup for the Brookyln show will consist of sole original member Jeff Becerra (vocals) backed by members of California's SADISTIC INTENT.

In a recent interview with Metal-Rules.com, Becerra explained when he actually decided to bring POSSESSED back to life.

"When I got together with SADISTIC INTENT and did 'The Exorcist' for the POSSESSED tribute album, we really got along well and became friends. A few years after we recorded that song, Rick asked me to do the song live in Hollywood, California, and it was my first time back on stage in like 17 years. In my mind I never planned on reforming POSSESSED, but between the studio and the Hollywood show, the crowd response and the quality musicianship of SADISTIC INTENT, it was just too good of a thing to pass up. Eventually we decided to do more POSSESSED songs and it just was an organic thing to bring POSSESSED back."

Some time after POSSESSED's last release in 1989, Jeff Becerra was left paralyzed from the waist down in a shooting incident. In a 2002 interview with Battle Helm, Becerra was asked about the many different reports that had circulated about what happened to him ranging from punishment from God to a carjacking. "That's all bullshit," he replied. "Firstly I don't believe in God. What happened is that a couple of crackheads robbed me when I was coming home from work and they shot me with a 9mm in the chest and a 21 in the hand. In some ways it was kinda stupid because I could've given them the money but it was the way they asked me and I told 'em to get fucked. They were caught that night and at their trial one of them said that the only reason they didn't finish me off was because they ran outta bullets. They went to prison but one of them somehow got released later and he managed to kill five more people..."

Formed in the early '80s, POSSESSED released "Seven Churches" via Combat Records in 1985. They would follow with "Beyond the Gates" and the five-song EP "The Eyes of Horror" before disbanding several years later. A "best-of" collection, "Victims of Death", was released in 1993.

Fan-filmed video footage of POSSESSED performing the song "Tribulation" live at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City in 2007 can be viewed below (courtesy of AngryPit.com).