UMUR "Nightmare Frontier" is an EP release by US, Los Angeles, California based death metal act Abysmal Dawn. The EP was released through Season of Mist in February 2022. It´s the successor to the band´s fifth full-length studio album "Phylogenesis" from April 2020. The quartet lineup who recorded "Phylogenesis" (2020) is intact on "Nightmare Frontier".

"Nightmare Frontier" features four tracks and a total playing time of 19:18 minutes. "A Nightmare Slain" is a new original composition, "Blacken the Sky" is a re-recording of the track which initially appeared on the band´s 2004 demo and subsequently on their 2006 debut full-length studio album "From Ashes". The two remaining tracks are cover songs of In Flames and Candlemass. The two original compositions are in the trademark Abysmal Dawn technically well played US death metal style, so there´s little new there. "Behind Space" (the In Flames cover) is decent but nothing special, but "Bewitched" (the Candlemass cover) is a bit more remarkable. Not that it gives the original a run for the money...but because lead vocalist/guitarist Charles Elliott, who normally only performs death metal growling, has suddenly turned into Messiah Marcolin, and sings clean vocals which is an almost one to one imitation of the Swedish singer. Abysmal Dawn´s cover of "Bewitched" was previously released as a flexi disc single in June 2020 and came free with the New Noise Issue 52 magazine.

So upon conclusion "Nightmare Frontier" features two familiar sounding death metal tracks, one decent but not remarkable In Flames cover, and an interesting but not exceptional Candlemass cover. The whole thing is packed in a powerful, detailed and well sounding production, so a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.