Brazil is a country that, much like Greece, has a metal scene that is still maturing but consistently pumps out quality metal for all of us to enjoy. Sure, it takes digging to find some of the treasures of the Brazilian scene, but treasure is rarely found easily. With that being said and having heard Bewitchment’s debut album, it’s quite far from what I would call a treasure. But there’s a definite glimmer to this album that shows this band has clear quality in its reach.

It’s not exactly a hard task for someone to come up with a half-decent idea for a death/thrash metal album as really all you need to do is take death metal and then speed it up. That’s an atrociously dumbed down version of it, but many bands make it seem like such simplicity when too often we get bands throwing a death/thrash record together and calling it music to enjoy, but then we’re given bands that actually put effort into their craft even if it’s the first step to making something with immense quality. Bewitchment is one of those bands that fall into the latter category simply because the new effort of “Towards Desolation” doesn’t sound like a lazy jumble off riffs or horrendous vocals or an absolute mess when it came to post-production. The whole of “Towards Desolation” is a very reasonable take on death/thrash that allows Bewitchment to take their first, cautious steps onto the scene. That leads to these nine tracks (including two covers) resulting in being not the best that I’ve heard of the genre, but far from anything that I’d sneer at. Everything is well done from the riffs to the mixing of most everything outside the vocals which could use a little tweaking in my opinion, but overall there’s no reason to call “Towards Desolation” a bad time. Bewitchment has clearly had experience around or in the world of death/thrash and has managed to put that into this album very well. It’s not the applaud either as it could definitely be improved upon, but this is an important step that definitely has its moments.

Bewitchment is far from the most experienced as well as the most talented act that the Brazilian metal scene has seen pop up on its radar, but I’m positive that there’s more to this act. The band didn’t take the easy route with this record and decided to not rely on generic riffs or easily executed passages that many death/thrash bands lean on, and even then the ensuing music is entertaining. Such a thing as that earns my utmost respect, and I’m sure that if given time “Bewitchment” will come up with a new album that will go perfectly right alongside “Towards Desolation”.

LISTEN to “Towards Desolation” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Bewitchment on Facebook here.