To best seize the occasion of Halloween, Detroit’s preeminent death-doom creeps Acid Witch return, after seven long years, with their brand new album, Evil Sound Screamers. CD and vinyl formats of Evil Sound Screamers are coming in early 2018, but today you can own the digital version of Acid Witch’s third and most psychedelic album yet.

Like getting lost on a haunted house tour while high on PCP, surprises await around every corner and lurk in every shadow of Evil Sound Screamers. You’ll forgive us for holding off on spoilers then. Except to say that ESS is Acid Witch having fun and reveling in their ability to make you wet your pants. With Mike Tuff (Temple of Void, Nuke, ex-Borrowed Time, etc.) on guitars, Phil Warren on drums, and, of course, Shagrat on bass, and the one and only Slasher Dave killing it on vocals and synth, this is Acid Witch at their most dialed-in, yet also their strangest.

We asked the band for the meaning behind the new album title. They had this to say:

“An Evil Sound Screamer is a classic Halloween toy that shrieks and screams when you squeeze it, or sometimes when you walk past it. They can be little ghouls, skulls, ghosts or devils . . . spooky things. They’re meant to get a little jump scare out of you. We thought the name fit perfectly for this collection of tunes. The songs are kind of like the heavy metal audio equivalent of walking past an Evil Sound Screamer in the dark and its eyes light up and it starts howling at you.”