THE HAUNTED -

THE HAUNTED - THE HAUNTED ME DO IT - EARACHE
This could be a Slayer tribute album, a new Living Sacrifice or Grip Inc. album or hell even the new Slayer a little ahead of schedule. Patented Slayerisms abound with no shame. At least, and you know what they say, if you are going to imitate you might as well copy the best! There is some variety here to be honest though and the band does experiment vocally as well. Unfortunately my feelings are exacerbated by the fact that for me personally both of The Haunted's predecessors (At The Gates and Seance) were superior outfits to the current incarnation, but this reviewer can not detract from the fact that Made Me Do It is a fun thrash metal album designed to be blasted aloud and with maximum ferocity. New singer (ex-Face Down), new drummer (ex- Konkhra/ Invocator), new heights to attain all within the context of a band that, if not original, has its heart in the right place and knows exactly what heavy metal is about. - Ali "The Metallian"

THE HAUNTED - ONE KILL WONDER - EARACHE
Earache has gone to some length to position The Haunted as the successor and follow-up band to At The Gates which is fair enough given how the band features former ATG members. The sound too is reminiscent of the Gothenburg thrashers. Having said that, this is all true because The Haunted always has cloned Slayer. Here is the kicker though, they do it far more blatantly than At The Gates. Drummer Adrian Erlandsson may have abandoned the band and guitarist Anders Bjorler has reconsidered and returned to the fold, but little has changed for album number three. The album kicks off with an intro sharply reminiscent of the one on At The Gates' Slaughter Of The Soul, from there it's on to some Seasons In The Abyss-like riffing and so the songs go. Admittedly, one should not be so 'intellectual' about music. On a primal level One Kill Wonder (a clever if not worryingly portentous title) is a kick ass fast and heavy thrasher with great arrangements and sounds. The songs are tighter than Mary Lou and Marco Aro sings his guts out. It's just that a reviewer has to point out the obvious. - Ali "The Metallian"

THE HAUNTED - REVOLVER - CENTURY MEDIA
The Haunted's new album is called rEVOLVEr, a design presumably meant to represent the return of original singer Peter Dolving to the fold and possibly also indicate the 'evolved' sound of the record. Those who already know The Haunted can rest assured that the Slayer-isms still abound and the band is still by and large a Slayer replica one. Then again, as indicated by the album's title which incidentally smacks of the band's label-mates Skinlab which had an album called reVoltingRoom a couple of year's ago, the quintet has branched out here and there and introduced clean vocals, slower down-tempo parts, a song called Burnt To A Shell that for my money is a cross between Pantera and grunge and a song called My Shadow that waxes poetic in a slow, self-assured and gloomy fashion.
The Haunted is still a thrash metal band that, for what it's worth, features outstanding musicians from bands like Seance and At The Gates. The Slayer influences are there and the intensity is hardly diminished on the fast and thrashy songs. Having said that, the band has deliberately mixed other elements into the songs in order to command a wider array of options both here and going forward. - Ali "The Metallian"

THE HAUNTED - THE DEAD EYE - CENTURY MEDIA  
After the opening intro, The Premonition, The Flood is a rather disappointing song seemingly trying its best to throw away the band’s Swedish sound and be more 'diverse.' The Medication retains some of the aggression, in vocals and music, of the old sounds but is not overly convincing. The Drowning features Peter Dolving trying to sound like Dave Mustaine in Sweating Bullets as the song devolves into a slow and maybe even commercially viable four-minute mix of different styles. The Reflection is a perfect continuation to the song that preceded it. The Prosecution sounds a bit more like one expects from the quintet but that doesn’t hold true throughout. The Fallout is another song tailor made for success alongside the many American bands currently borrowing the riffs pioneered by two members of the band in years gone by. The Medusa doesn’t add much more to this release and by now the direction of The Dead Eye is crystal clear. The Shifter, The Cynic, The Failure, The Stain and the rather pointless and 10 minute long The Guilt Trap round off the album with a little bit of thrash, a bit of pseudo-Metallica and quite a bit of a direction-less attempt at being diverse. At least one can readily admit that the bio’s declaration that The Dead Eye 'is sure to surprise' does hold true...or maybe it shouldn’t. - Anna Tergel