"The Exorcist" begins with producer Randy Burns' version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, performed as it was in the 1973 horror film of the same name.

[7] According to David Konow's Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal, the album was recorded during the Spring Break of 1985 when Pinole Valley High School juniors Jeff Becerra and Larry LaLonde had ample time for studio production.

In November of the same year, the band flew to Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the WWIII Weekend Festival in support of the Seven Churches release, playing alongside Celtic Frost, Destruction, Voivod and Nasty Savage; the concert was Possessed's first and largest arena appearance, with nearly 7,000 in attendance.

Former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris said his introduction to metal was Possessed's Seven Churches album, a personal recommendation to him by then-guitarist Justin Broadrick.

"[19] "The Exorcist" is covered on Cannibal Corpse's 1993 EP Hammer Smashed Face, on Cavalera Conspiracy's 2008 album Inflikted, and on Death's 2011 reissue of their 1993 album Individual Thought Patterns (though Gene Hoglan plays the drums and guitar on it).