image taken from http://doug-wewillburyyou.blogspot.ca/2009/07/beyond-possession-tell-tale-heart-7.html
In the mid 1980s, the underground music scene – while divided into factions nearly as much as it is today – appeared as a vast unified counterculture to outsiders.
Punks, thrash metal fans and skateboarders may have had disagreements between themselves, but there were some bands that had enough common ground with all of the above to make them put there differences aside.
Calgary’s Beyond Possession released a classic 7″ ep, Tell Tale Heart, in 1985, and followed it up a year later with a truly epic metal/punk crossover lp, …Is Beyond Possession.
This album rivals similar works by the likes of DRI, Suicidal Tendencies, Agnostic Front and other heavy hitters of the era as the quintessential metal-influenced punk album (or is that punk-influenced metal?)
Known in the US as a “skater” band due to their inclusion on Thrasher magazine’s widely distributed Skate Rock Volume 3, Beyond Possession was realtively popular and well liked in both the punk and metal scenes.
While little is known of the band’s history, they did leave a musical legacy that is worth exploring.
The title track of Tell Tale Heart may well be their finest achievement – Edgar Allen Poe’s tale is introduced to a buzzing speedmetal environment that is also surprisingly melodic.
The subsequent album is even more musically proficient; some may say even too much so for an ostensibly punk album: speedy guitar solos and dizzying, stop-on-a-dime drumming compete for attention with shouted vocals and relatively simple punk rock song structures.
The lyrics are a combination of horror movie themes, teen angst, and rudimentary social protest – in other words, perfect fodder for any disaffected teen of the time.
It’s bands like Beyond Possession that gave the 1980s underground a rallying point; it’s as difficult to imagine a member of the counterculture of the day disliking the band as it is to imagine a mainstream music fan enjoying them.
“Attitude Problem”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGMCKfe9o0&feature=relmfu
“The Telltale Heart”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBy_Vq0z2Xo
A hilariously useless entry on the band from the Museum of Canadian Music (who wrote this?):
http://www.mocm.ca/Music/Artist.aspx?ArtistId=91462&RoomId=57
A testimonial from a Calagary fan:
http://doug-wewillburyyou.blogspot.ca/2009/07/beyond-possession-tell-tale-heart-7.html
Germ Attack 