UMUR
"Sweet Hollow" is the debut full-length studio album by international heavy metal act Them. The album was released through Empire Records in September 2016. Them was formed in 2008 by lead vocalist Troy Norr (Coldsteel) as a King Diamond tribute band (hence the band monicker which is the title of King Diamond´s 1988 third full-length studio album). Them played many shows in the next 3 years, before entering a hiatus until 2014, when Norr started working on a band and album concept.
Stylistically the material on "Sweet Hollow" is a powerful, theatrical/horror themed, and melodic type of heavy metal greatly influenced by King Diamond. So in many ways Them is still a tribute band, although they now play their own King Diamond influenced material. Norr is a skilled vocalist with a wide varity of vocal styles and he delivers both high pitched, mid-range, and lower gruff type vocals. He has a voice and vocal style not terribly far from King Diamond. Norr has enlisted a crew of skilled musicians for the project and they all deliver strong and professional performances. Some of the involved musicians are relatively prolific like drummer Kevin Talley (Dååth, Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Suffocation, Six Feet Under...etc.) and bassist Mike LePond (Symphony X, Death Dealer, Mike LePond's Silent Assassins...etc.), so "Sweet Hollow" is definitely a high level musicianship album.
The material is well written, catchy, and powerful (featuring elements of both heavy metal, US power metal, and occasionally thrash metal). The concept horror story works relatively well with themes like demonic possession, a woman burned at the stake by a priest, and a haunted house. If that sounds familiar to you, it´s not that strange as all those elements have also been featured on various King Diamond albums. So the King Diamond connection is impossible to ignore and to my ears "Sweet Hollow" have a lot in common with the post-2000 King Diamond releases, although "Sweet Hollow" features a better sounding production than anything their heroes have released in many years.
So if you´re a fan of the post-2000 King Diamond releases and aren´t bothered by the fact that Them are basically a tribute band playing material which are very similar to the latter day material of King Diamond, "Sweet Hollow" may be the a release for you. To my ears it´s a release predominantly of interest to the all consuming King Diamond fan, who just can´t get enough of music that sounds even remotely like King Diamond. To the rest of us the output of the original band is probably enough. Quality wise there´s however nothing wrong with "Sweet Hollow" and therefore a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.