Sonum release Bewitched by Evil on 27 November through Dusktone, and the shape of it is the news. Twenty eight minutes, written as one continuous piece and divided into five movements rather than five songs.
The parts are labelled like the sections of a classical work: Exordio, Furor, Aethereum, Anathema, Conclusio, each with a subtitle of its own. The fourth, The Triumph of the Essence, is the one the label has put out ahead of the release.
Writing a record as one arc is a decision with a cost attached. Nothing on it will be played alone, nothing can be lifted out for a playlist, and a listener who stops halfway has heard an unfinished thing rather than three good songs. Bands that take that route generally do it because the material will not survive being cut up.
Luca Dal Lago mixed and mastered it. The band formed in Vicenza in 2018 and have two full lengths behind them, Visceral Void Entropy in 2022 and The Obscure Light Awaits last year, which puts this third release barely a year after the second.