Beyond Possession

Beyond Possession was a Crossover band from Canada. Beyond Possession is a band of conviction, and its members refuse to have their names published. Their leader fears it would detract from the group’s identity. The group’s name is taken by man to imply an association with Satan and the demonic hype with which heavy-metal bands often flirt. Not so, say the members of Beyond Possession: rather, they claim they are beyond being possessed by ego and material goods. An American and a Soviet flag hang in the band’s house. “We don’t lick anyone’s boots,” says one. A skateboarding tune they wrote and recorded has been distributed on a Skaterock album, a K-Tel-type record for skateboarders. Band members say they oppose both the neo-Nazi sentiments of punk and the blatant commercialism of heavy metal; their music is a hard-core-punk-and-heavy-metal fusion, a compromise that can be appreciated by both the thrashers and the headbangers. Their nameless and energetic leader works hard to keep alternative music alive in community halls around town. They’ve got day jobs and sink all their money back into the band. They travel. They just got back from an 18-state tour on which they peddled a few home-spun records and made a few waves. Insulted by a condescending announcer on a San Francisco radio show—the DJ had had the audacity to ask inane questions about Canadian weather—the band was forced to fill the mike with rude noises. Beyond Possession confide that “he didn’t ask us about our music.”