The first two albums (I'm not mad keen on AWWS either if truth be told) had great songs, Welcome to Hell, Witching Hour, Sacrifice, Countess Bathory, Buried Alive, these are songs that I still go back to now, Possessed had nothing, sure the musicianship was up to the same standard as ever but I thought that the songs were boring, made even more disappointing by the fact that it had an awesomely creepy cover that made me think that it was going to be great.
I think that the fact that bands like Slayer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Sodom and even Bulldozer had released records that were heavily influenced by Venom at that point meant that they really had to up their game to stay relevant. I feel that they never came close to doing this and Possessed is a step back.
Honestly, At War With Satan ain't that hot either. There are a couple decent tracks on side two but overall it's a pretentious dud, a band reaching FAR outside their musical grasp. The b-sides from that album are better than most of the stuff that made it.
Possessed wasn't any fun. The great part about the first couple Venom albums is they're just amazingly goofy and the absolute lack of anything resembling musical talent just makes it work all that much better. Possessed sounds like they wanted to be serious, but once you removed the humorous aspect all you're left with is an album of mediocre songs, performed barely adequately, recorded very poorly.
I actually love 'At War With Satan', well at least the 20 minute title track, thou S.D. is right, they went way outside of their musical grasp, but I love it.
My favorite Satanic bastards 'Possessed' album was possessed by medicore songs and a production that made the first three Venom albums sound like their produce by John 'Mutt' Lange in comparison.
Not only that they branched out from singing just about Satan and hell, to adding loft lyrical ideas such as Satan, Hell and Mayhem. How did these guys they were becoming, Tom Waits?
Great album. I just saw them live last week and they didnt play any song by POSSESSED if i remember right. A lot from the first 3 albums and the title tracks from RESURRECTION, HELL and CARVED IN STONE by my surprise. All great songs. They also played HEADBANGER from their new album FALLEN ANGEL. An other album i love is CALM BEFORE THE STORM or PRIME EVIL.
To answer the question though, they drifted a bit from what made them Venom on the Possessed album. So a lot of the fans drifted a bit from them at the time!
They have never released a bad album though. Just a few that aren't as strong as others.
Someone mentioned At War With Satan and that album is GENIUS!!!
I like Prime Evil and Calm Before the Storm as well!
I didn't care a lot for Metal Black though. Its good but not sure what they were thinking. Not as strong.
Subject: Venom - Possessed 
Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:45 am
but I thought that the songs were boring, made even more disappointing by the fact that it had an awesomely creepy cover that made me think that it was going to be great.
