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BEWITCHED “Diabolical Death Mass”
BEWITCHED “Diabolical Death Mass”
By Dr. Abner Mality
The underground metal scene has been going for so long that Sweden’s BEWITCHED has tapped into the nostalgia vein not once but twice! When these devilish speed metal maniacs arose in the mid-90’s, they were trying to revive the sound and feel of early 80’s evil thrash and speed metal. Well, now it’s 2026 and everything that was hot during 1984 is hot again and we are into the 21st century revival of the early 80’s. So here comes BEWITCHED one more time to scratch that itch!
These guys were ahead of the curve when they first popped up. Now we have the likes of MIDNIGHT, PHANTOM, ANTAGONIZOR and virtually the entire Dying Victims roster working the same neighborhood. Can BEWITCHED keep up? With the first couple tracks here, I kinda had my doubts, because that just sounded like they didn’t have quite the juice. But once the diabolical thrash of “Crossing The Syx” burned my speakers, they started hitting their groove and it was heads down from there for the rest of the album.
OK, the Satanic shtick is older than Joe Biden’s underwear, but BEWITCHED capture the fun of those early days of MERCYFUL FATE, VENOM, DESTRUCTION and more. No heavy philosophy or sad depression here, just gleeful evil! Killer cuts like “Revenge of the Ripper”, “By Satan Enslaved” and “The Witch Spell” leave your bones burning in a speed metal hell. And they are smart enough to keep things sharp and to the point, with nothing reaching the four minute mark. Only the ho-hum intro wastes time.
It does sound like BEWITCHED has never gone away. Maybe they will still be around when the THIRD wave of metal nostalgia kicks in!
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