01. Kholat
02. Abyss Of Pain And Fear
03. Grief
04. Those Who Resist
05. One Way Ticket To Die
06. Pile Of Shame
07. Tunguska
08. Fragrance Of Violence
09. Mysterium
10. The Demon God
11. Within The Realms Of Gray [bonus]

A true paradox indeed.

Having long been filed as a band for those in the know, Germany's Paradox may not be the first name you come across when looking into thrash metal; however, those who have dug deep enough know that when you finally discover them, you'll only wish you had found them sooner. Having a similar story to many of their peers (classic 80s period, broke up in the 90s before reuniting in the 00s), Paradox stand apart due to their consistency and quality of their post-reunion output.

Mysterium largely learns from the shortcomings Heresy II - End Of A Legend faced, namely that keeping things (relatively) shorter can be a good thing. With the songs being more focused as a result of not throwing every idea at the wall, Mysterium is an enjoyable album full of tracks that many a band in their fourth decade would be proud to put their name on.

It's all the more impressive when you consider that Steinhauer decided to do away with bandmates and producers and decided to play all instruments himself (minus the drums, which he instead programmed, though this is a result of the unfortunate passing of Blaha) and self-produced the album. Thus, Paradox have finally lived up to their name as a band, for is it a band if there is only one person in it?

Steinhauer does an impressive job (or jobs) on Mysterium, with the album full of strong tracks and moments from start to finish, be it the groove of "Pile Of Shame", the all-out rage of "One Way Ticket To Die" or the epic "The Demon God" (that Steinhauer manages to restrain himself from overdoing it on as he may have done back with Heresy II). While vocally Steinhauer's performance is merely OK, he comes into his own on the guitar, with some of the riffs and solos found across the album of the quality you would expect of a hungry young metalhead; in contrast, many of Paradox's peers at this stage in their career struggle to pull out just one riff out of their hat to fill one song, let alone a whole album's worth.

Sonically, Mysterium could do with a tighter production, as tracks like "Fragrance Of Violence" have plenty of empty space that isn't utilised, and in turn blunts the impact of the music. While A.I. is doing away with many jobs, one thing it hasn't quite mastered is organic-sounding drums, as the drum sound on the likes of "Abyss Of Pain And Fear" attests to.

Paradox are well and truly back, in terms of quality if not physical composition; Mysterium ranks among the band's best works to date. Now, is it a band if it's a one-man project, or a solo act under a moniker?

Performance:	8
Songwriting:	7
Originality:	7
Production:	6