Possessed's Jeff Becerra: Remembering DEATH’S Chuck Schuldiner & Writing New Possessed Album!

Possessed emerged from the Bay Area metal underground in the early 1980s and quickly became one of the defining bands in the first wave of death metal. After early demos and a growing local reputation, the band released Seven Churches in 1985, a record widely recognized for helping shape the sound and language of the genre. They followed it with Beyond the Gates in 1986 and The Eyes of Horror in 1987 before the original run came to an end that same year.

Jeff Becerra’s story is inseparable from that legacy. After the band’s breakup and the shooting that left him paralyzed in 1989, Possessed remained an influential name in extreme metal, even during long periods of inactivity. When Becerra brought the band back in the 2000s, it marked the beginning of a new chapter that eventually led to Revelations of Oblivion in 2019, the first full-length Possessed album in more than three decades.

This interview picks up from there, looking both backward and forward. It focuses on Becerra’s friendship with Chuck Schuldiner, a relationship he has described in direct and personal terms, and on the current state of Possessed as he continues writing material for a new album. Together, those subjects frame a conversation about history, memory, and the next phase of one of death metal’s foundational bands.