Review by Felix on April 28, 2026.

Let’s be honest right from the start. Bewitched have been a cool horde for a decade (1996 – 2006). They released four quite great albums and the totally vacuous “At the Gates Of Hell”. In other words, a good band, but sooner or later, every story comes to an end, and I did not really miss them. The scene, which was booming unchecked all over the world, offered more than enough great music from other black thrash heroes. Nevertheless, the return of Bewitched caught my attention. It is always nice to have a drink with an old friend you haven’t met for a long time. So now they are back from the dead or the comatose or simply the lazy, and they want to make us believe that time stood still for 20 years. My mirror tells me something different. I seem to recall, at any rate, that I wasn’t born an old man. But back to Bewitched.

“Diabolical Death Mass” – already the first word of the album’s name indicates a back to the roots mentality, and the fact that the ripper returns points in the same direction. The bridge to 'Diabolical Desecration' is obvious. This means we get smoothly flowing, short, and fast-paced songs with catchy choruses. The lack of depth, a huge number of different layers and high sophisticated song patterns makes it easy to understand the material quickly and the only question which cannot yet be answered is how long these songs will have an effect on the listener. Remember the insidious Toxic Holocaust syndrome: many good songs, but mostly no long-lasting impact. However, I am optimistic that Bewitched have managed this task cleverly too. Considering the songs of their first period of activity, I still enjoy 'F**ked by Fire', 'Hellcult Attack', or 'Beastchild', and I take this fact as a good omen for the songs of “Diabolical Death Mass”.

On the other hand, how important are the single songs of an album like this one? This comeback offers uniformity in perfection. All ten tracks after the useless intro follow the same rules. Call it style, call it a lack of imagination, call it focus on the core business, one thing is for sure. This full-length delivers a fine portion of speedy black thrash immediately, and it works as a whole. Let the individual songs blend together until they are unrecognizable, it does not matter. I am too old for the production of private best-of cassettes, and my tape deck is at risk to rot in the cellar. Incidentally, the quality differences between the single songs are small. 'By Satan Enslaved' or 'Enforcer Of Evil' are marginally worse than the rest, but still respectable. 'Crossing The Styx', 'Black Spells & Unclean Spirits', and 'Those Of The Devil Born' are my favorites right now, but this can change tomorrow. Anyway, all songs benefit from the humorless and clearly defined production and suffer from lyrics that use each and every stereotype the band was able to get in its claws. “Fire fire, the flames are burning higher” – what more do I need to say? However, this is no big problem. They could have written more intelligent lines for sure, but this is metal, this is black thrash, and maybe this means it has to be this way. Others are responsible for philosophical treatises on topics that nobody is interested in.

One can say that “Diabolical Death Mass”  reflects a lack of courage on the part of its spiritual fathers. I agree, because the band does not dare a single step out of its comfort zone. Yet as long as they act in a competent manner, I don’t want to overestimate their despondency. Although this comeback work is another safety-first album, it serves its purpose and delivers the typical melodic Swedish elegance in its most sordid form as well as a certain degree of natural malice. So if you like albums like “Fields Of Rot” (Nocturnal Breed) or “In Satan We Trust” (Baphomet’s Blood) as much as I do, you will have a good time with Bewitched’s sixth full-length.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Review by Michael on April 27, 2026.

I actually knew that Swedish black-thrash legends Bewitched were in the studio lately to record some new stuff because the guys told me so at the last "Under The Black Sun" festival but this was quite surprising anyway. Titled "Diabolical Death Mass", their new album was released on April 24th via Osmose Productions.

So what to say now about this one? The promo told us that this album is no resurrection because Bewitched were never dead. "BEWITCHED deliver 11 tracks true to the traditional old-school black-thrash sound that made them known: savage riffs, anthemic power, and pure blackened fury. An uncompromising Hellcult attack, nothing more and nothing less. […] Let the ritual begin."

Wow, okay, those are some grandiloquent words and what can I say to this? Fuck yeah!!! Forget the half-baked "Rise Of The Antichrist" from 2002 which still had some cool riffs on board and REALLY forget the not even luke-warm "Spiritual Warfare" which was more or less a super uninspired accumulation of lame riffs and turned out one of the biggest disappointments in the history of black-thrash metal when it comes to my personal opinion.

But "Diabolical Death Mass" is totally different from these two previous ones. This is a quasi direct continuation of the first two albums "Diabolical Desecration" and "Pentagram Prayer" which let the night burn back in the 90s.

Fast aggressive riffing, cool Celtic Frost urgh-screams and thunderous drums make out the ten songs plus the mandatory "a baby is screaming, let's sacrifice it to Lucifer"-intro. On this album there are really no flaws, each one kicks ass and is a joy to listen to. All the songs breathe the spirit of the first two albums (if you are a little bit critical, you could even say that some of the songs sound pretty much the same as the first two albums) and out comes a furious black-thrash inferno.

With "(Fear The) Revenge Of The Ripper" they weave the story of "Blade Of The Ripper" a little bit furthermore and here you can clearly hear out that Bewitched wanted to step back in their career and don't need any evolution. Fantastic. The riffs are much the same like in the other Ripper song and this makes you feel quite comfortable.

Okay, no evolution is a little bit exaggerated though. Sometimes you hear some classic heavy metal riffs here and there which they didn't dare to play (or weren't able to) but this makes this album even more enjoyable.

What I first did not like too much was the slightly thinned out vocals by Vargher but I don't know if I got used to it now or if the vocals are getting more powerful with the ongoing running time of the album. And let's be honest, time even doesn't stop for our black-thrash heroes, does it?

So there is just one question remaining – will this one be the best black-thrash record in 2026 or will it be the new Cruel Force? Or will it turn out to be a draw?

Rating: 9.5 out of 10