1991 was the most emblematic and, possibly, the most productive year when it comes to Death Metal classics. I don’t remember any other year as prolific for the genre as that one. The list is long – huge, in fact! Just to name some more relevant releases: “Blessed Are The Sick”, “Mental Funeral”, “Cursed”, “Considered Dead”, “World Without God”, “Human”, “Warmaster”, “Like An Ever Flowing Stream”, “Into The Grave”, “Butchered At Birth”, “The Rack”, “Effigy Of The Forgotten”, “The Ten Commandments”, “From Beyond”, “Testimony Of The Ancients”, “Been Caught Buttering”, “Of Darkness…”, “Nothing But Death Remains”, “For The Security”, “Dreaming With The Dead”, “Where No Life Dwells”, “The Grand Leveller”, “Luck Of The Corpse”, “Children Of The Scorn”, “Soulside Journey” and the best, greatest and most bombastic of them all in my opinion: “Dawn Of Possession” by the almighty IMMOLATION, our album in question here! In Brazil and South America as a whole, few albums of the genre were released at the beginning of the decade, and among them, if you allow me to quote completely free from any pretentiousness, I am very proud and immensely honored to have my band’s debut among the most relevant ones launched in ’91, but that’s a topic for another conversation… My first contact with the gods IMMOLATION (formerly RIGOR MORTIS) was through old fanzines like Slayer Mag., Rotthenness, U.S.D., Peardrop among others and almost simultaneously through the tapetrading circuit in the late 80s, when I got their debut demo from 1988 with two songs: ‘Immolation’ and ‘Dawn Of Possession’ – the latter initially known as ‘The Second Coming’. The reviews in zines at the time spoke of a band extremely influenced by MORBID ANGEL (some even – and very maliciously – suggesting a kind of clone of them, which, despite the assumed influence and inspiration from Trey Azagthoth’s gang, used to make the guys of the Yonkers band somewhat uncomfortable in their interviews) and SEPULTURA “Morbid Visions”, but when we listened to the aforementioned demo with due attention, even with the notorious references mentioned, what we witnessed was the birth of a band with a strong identity and the urge to play the greatest and most perfect Death Metal in the world. “High Class Brutal Death Metal”, as the French Peardrop ‘zine once mentioned when they released their second magnificent demo from 1989 with three tracks, even more killer than the first one and performed with truly impressive class. I have this second IMMOLATION demo in my top 10 (5?) of the best Death Metal demos of all time, what is no surprise, such is the magnificence of this masterpiece! With the extremely high level of their two demos and the apotheotic impact caused by both in the scene, the expectation for the New Yorkers’ first album among the deathsters back then was enormous, so, behold, on July 16, 1991 (some sources say July 19), recorded at Musiclab Studios in Berlin, Germany, and produced by Harris Johns, responsible for a heavy and flawless recording, even for today’s standards, “Dawn Of Possession” was released via Roadrunner Records, a milestone of unprecedented proportions within the worldwide Death Metal universe. Starting with the anthological cover, a real masterpiece signed by Andreas Marschall in which one can see a horde of demons stalking, terrifying, kidnapping, raping and carrying angels of light to the depths of the abyssal planes with a beautiful dawn on the horizon in the background, everything one sees, hears and feels on “Dawn Of Possession” is frighteningly perfect in the art of Unholy Death Metal – in fact, I can say that this album is ground zero for this denomination agreed to classify bands of the genre with unholy and antichristian lyrics. But the texts on “Dawn Of Possession” go far beyond plain unholiness and antichristianity. Its lyrics are like true epopees of repulsion and rebellion against Christianity written with highest mastery, capable of drawing praise even from Christ’s apostles themselves. It is not about puerile and rebellious hatred, as years later they would make clear on, among others, ‘I Feel Nothing’ from their second and no less classic album “Here In After” from 1996, where they say: “Your prayers, I don’t feel them in my heart / It is not hate that I stare coldly at the son of God / I cannot force the blood of Christ to flow through me / God is love and his love is dead”. It’s about a conscious atheistic / antichristian ideology with strong traces of nihilism in its way of denying all religious (im)moral principles imposed by Christianity. “Will the love of God shed its grace upon the evil side of man…”, thus begins the dawn of possession with the classic (but which one isn’t?) ‘Into Everlasting Fire’, like a real psalm of perdition sinisterly ornamented in uncontrolled oppressive rhythms and under the vocalic-guttural rumble of Mr. Ross Dolan, leading everyone to eternal fire’s damnation, giving the followers of the Nazarene the fate of pain and eternal agony for sinners created by themselves. Here, the memorable riffs of the band’s founder Robert Vigna (a constant throughout the album) supported by the ultra-fast pickings of Thomas Wilkinson and the intrincate drum rolls and neck-warping rhythms of Craig Smilowski (then ex – GOREAPHOBIA) serve as the perfect vehicle for all the anti-sacred oppression of IMMOLATION’s music that would remain intact to this day. Afterwards, ‘Despondent Souls’ appears in an even more colossal version than in the ’89 demo, a real slaughter of innocents such as the Old Testament of the Bible could not even come close to. Mr. Dolan’s metrics following the macabre melody of the main riff leads us into labyrinths of horror where the hope for escape is a mere illusion. “Vile and weak, despondent souls are prematurely dead…”, the discouraged and desperate souls succumbing to the affliction of terror, even though begging for their lives, are now untimely dead. Suddenly the title track announces the coming of the dawn, a false hope for those who cling to it as a new opportunity for life through a morbid metaphor in which Christ is possessed and obsessed with evil: “The dawn has coooooome… “, and the headbanging becomes unavoidable for even the most decrepit of the undead! Aaargh!!! The sequence of true mega classic Death Metal anthems continues with ‘Those Left Behind’, an ode to all those who were left behind by the filthy Christian society and its decadent institutions, a kind of “cry of the excluded” of those who, like us, do not turn the other cheek and live free from Christ and the so-called “holy” laws and dogmas created in his name by the hypocritical and avaricious man. Its intro is pure morbid and gloomy delight, sounding like an instrumental mantra leading a procession of antichrists! ‘Internal Decadence’, another song from the demo # 2 ’89, now restored by an even deadlier deathmetallic shield, shows the human being’s internal decay in a growing and distressing physical and mental rottenness, all framed by the riffs, octaves and hypnotic solos by master Vigna. ‘No Forgiveness (Without Bloodshed)’ reveals all the rottenness behind the golden gates of the Catholic Church, with its pedophile priests and bishops mercilessly stripping away the innocence of the youth, in a sequence of vicious circles of hypocrisy and degeneration. No bloodless pardon will be granted to this bunch! Revenge!!! Being the third and last of the songs from the second demo, ‘Burial Ground’ talks about the misfortunes caused by wars and exposes mankind as a corpse, result of man’s insanity, and the Earth as a vast cemetery burying the greatest responsible for its imminent decline. The motto “man destroying man” says it all! ‘After My Prayers’, with its cacophonically evil introduction, constant tempo changes and hallucinating rifferamic phrases (once again Dolan’s vocal metrics following the morbid melodies of the riffs, as in the verse “Stagnant cooling blood, starts to coagulate… “, are absolutely killer and mesmerizing!) and ‘Fall In Disease’ (originally entitled ‘Infectious Blood’), in which drummer Craig’s impressive technique stands out even for that time, with several rhythmic nuances and the aforementioned intricate conventions, keeps up the ambience of total death, musically and conceptually wise, until we finally reach the song that names this real machine of mass destruction with the power to eradicate all the secular lies of Christianity called IMMOLATION, with its fast and frantic rhythms interspersed with the cadence of death, the way true Death Metal was meant to be – calling it ‘old school’ would be pure and total redundancy! “Dawn Of Possession” is pure and genuine Death Metal in perfection of which I have been a faithful disciple and assiduous listener of its hymns of praise to the perdition of the human race since its year # 1 and whose visual representation is marked in ink on my skin forever. It would be the least that such a devoted worshiper of this masterpiece of unholy and antichristian Death Metal could do! 33 years later (the supposed age of Christ when he died on the cross, according to christians), it’s still a supreme reference, school and total relevance within the elite of the genre, a must for every self respected Death Metalhead. “Angels fall… their wings decayed”! “Dawn Of Possession” worship eternal!!! 11/10 www.facebook.com/immolation