Them - Psychedelic Enigma (Bonus Tracks, Gatefold LP Jacket)

The subtle arc of suspense on the new Them concept album, 'Psychedelic Enigma', brings to mind legendary horror movie classics: The power metal recording kicks off with extremely tough, brutal and fast-paced numbers, spinning an enigmatic storyline around it's mysterious protagonist and only revealing his secret - similar to the blockbusters 'The Others' (featuring Nicole Kidman) or 'The Sixth Sense' (featuring Bruce Willis) - at the very end, in an epic-progressive grand finale. The content of the disc takes up where it's four predecessors 'Sweet Hollow' (2016), 'Manor Of The Se7en Gables' (2018), 'Return To Hemmersmoor' (2020), and 'Fear City' (2022) left off, but is even more powerful musically. "'Psychedelic Enigma' not only includes some of the rawest and most fast-paced tracks of our career to date, but also a number of sound experiments and technical masterpieces," guitarist Markus Ullrich describes the current album and goes on to talk about legendary sound engineer Randy Burns (Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies): "Randy has given our new material that ultra-aggressive sound, and when an icon like him does that kind of thing, he of course has good reasons for it."