Although DEATH is considered to be one of the most important and influential death metal acts of all time, the Florida-based band did not release its debut album, “Scream Bloody Gore”, until 1987 — two years after the arrival of “Seven Churches” by California’s POSSESSED, whose bassist/vocalist, Jeff Becerra, is credited by some with initially creating the term “death metal” in 1983.

In a new interview with Conexión Rock Radio, Becerra, who was shot in a robbery in 1989, leaving him partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, weighed in on the never-ending debate on who can lay claim to being the first “true” death metal band: DEATH or POSSESSED. He said in part: “As you know, Chuck was a good friend. And I don’t see death metal as just being one thing or ever being perfected. I see it as a spiritual freedom. It’s not necessarily a combination of certain elements that make a predictable outcome. And Chuck and me were very much similar on our thoughts there.

“I don’t know if you know this, but Chuck, before ‘Scream Bloody Gore’, he moved down (to the San Francisco Bay Area) into the POSSESSED fan club president’s house to be nearer to us, to be nearer to me,” Jeff explained. “And so I remember when Chuck was showing me the precursors of ‘Scream Bloody Gore’, he was very, very into POSSESSED. He said, ‘Listen, Jeff. I sound just like you.’ And he said, ‘Is that okay?’ And I said, ‘Hell yeah, it’s okay.’ And it was that moment I realized that there would be more than one death metal band because it was really branding. We knew that there was thrash metal, we knew VENOM was black metal, we knew there was speed metal, and we said, ‘We wanna make…’ POSSESSED was very unique. At that time we were carte blanche the heaviest band on the planet. And we said, ‘Let’s call ourselves death metal. And that will separate us from the other bands, ’cause people will say, ‘POSSESSED is that death metal band.” So naively, I thought that POSSESSED would be the only death metal band and would be known as ‘that death metal band’. But then when Chuck came around, just really, really enamored and coming, wanting to be closer to the scene, I knew it would take off. And so I think that without Chuck, I don’t think it would’ve ever become a ‘genre genre’. I think that was a combination of me and Chuck and what followed after that, that that really made it take off.

“To put things in perspective, DEATH was probably quadruple as big as POSSESSED,” Jeff added. “We pretty much ended when they were hitting their heyday, and they just took off. They were wildly successful. And so they were a much more commercially viable band that was sellable, and POSSESSED has always been kind of a weird ‘nichey’ band that doesn’t sell as much. So, yeah, it took that. And I, honest to God, don’t think that… I think it was a combination. I don’t think that death metal would’ve had the staying power if it wasn’t for Chuck. And he was a good friend — a really good friend and a great guy.”

Elaborating on the musical connection he had with Chuck, Jeff said: “It’s weird because I was very much into… And remember, I was just a kid back then. We were young teenagers. And so when I met Chuck, I didn’t know who he was. He was just some kid sitting on the couch. And he was really, like, ‘Hey, Jeff, come here.’ So I sat there and he’s, like, ‘Check out this riff.’ And I was, like, ‘Hey, whatever. I’m doing whatever.’ ‘Hey, check out this riff.’ And then pretty soon he just kept riffing and riffing, and I was taking notes. I was, like, ‘Dude, this is a riff lord.’ He was just busting out with riff after riff after riff. And so I just kind of witnessed the way his mind worked. He was just very intense and very into his craft. And, of course, that was really inspiring. We were both very individual and doing what we’re doing, but Chuck, he was noticeably amazing right from the get-go. Chuck was a genius in his creations. And I think that I was in good company. It was good that he was sitting on our couch at the right time. It seemed like a normal day back then, but now that I look at it, it’s like — there are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. Like when I broke up with my first band BLIZZARD, I just happened to meet (early POSSESSED guitarist) Mike Torrao, who was of a similar mindset to be the heaviest band in the world. That shit is amazingly coincidental, because nobody was thinking that back then. I just happened to meet that one guy that’s like-minded. And so it’s crazy. I think it was destined to be. I think that bands like POSSESSED and DEATH, it was just something that was happening… I wanted to be heavier, and I couldn’t get heavy enough. And I think that Chuck saw that in me, and he heard it in our music and he wanted to be closer. And it was just really cool to be part of that scene. And then, of course, you later had bands like SADUS and AUTOPSY, and it just kind of snowballed from there. And it’s been a really neat history and just visceral and organic, the way it went.”