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Possessed have a bit of a bumpy legacy in spite of their well-deserved status as legends. Seven Churches is an undeniable masterpiece of Death Metal, but the follow-up Beyond the Gates saw the band cleaning themselves up and holding back their brutality to make more of a Thrash album that ended up disappointing many of their fans, myself included. Barely a year later, they released their EP The Eyes of Horror, the last major release from the band for decades, and it shows them reaching a compromise of sorts and making an album that goes for the best of both worlds. This is still more blatantly thrashy than the debut, and it certainly isn't as murky and evil, but it also has a much better production than Beyond the Gates (courtesy of Joe Satriani, of all people), and songs like "My Belief", the killer riff fest of the title track, and the rerecording of their '85 demo track "Swing the Axe" are better than anything off their sophomore effort, certainly much more evil and energized. The biggest surprise is the album closer "Storm in My Mind", which is a highly melodic and surprisingly complex Thrash song that's likely the most complex song they ever wrote, so much so it's hard to believe a band like Possessed even made it. This isn't a classic or anything, and it lacks the primitive underground quality of Seven Churches, but there's still enough of that old Possessed charm to make it mandatory for any fan of the band.