UMUR
"Bewitched" is a single release by US, Los Angeles, California based death metal act Abysmal Dawn. The single was released through Season of Mist, and made available for free as a flexi disc single in June 2020 where it came free with the New Noise Issue 52 magazine. The track was subsequently included as one of four tracks on Abysmal Dawn´s February 2022 "Nightmare Frontier" EP.
"Bewitched" is a cover of the Candlemass song from their 1987 "Nightfall" album. Abysmal Dawn usually play a technically skilled type of US death metal (somewhere between Morbid Angel And Death), but they opted to cover "Bewitched" in a relatively true to the original version. lead vocalist/guitarist Charles Elliott even imitates Messiah Marcolin´s semi-operatic clean singing, which is so convincing that I was actually in doubt if it was the Swedish singer himself who guests on the track. The death grows are only used as backing vocals on certain sections of the song.
"Bewitched" is an ultra heavy doom metal song featuring an epic atmosphere, and Abysmal Dawn pull it off covering the track pretty well. There´s nothing groundbreaking or particularly interesting about the cover other than it sounds good and the playing and the production are of a good quality, so it´s not a cover where Abysmal Dawn put much of their own spin on the composition. For what it is, it´s still a good quality single and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.