Kripes

The Haunted

October, 19th, 2004
Century Media

Tracklist:
No Copromise
99
Abysmal
Sabotage
All Against All
Sweet Relief
Burnt To A Shell
Who Will Decide
Nothing Right
Liquid Burns
My Shadow


Metalcore is a nasty, nasty term I find lately. Most bands that fit within the genre are normally dreadful; they have no true technicality to them, and are painfully boring. I would love to tell all of you that I’ve found a band that isn’t like this, but I can’t. The Haunted are a Swedish Metalcore band that, “surprisingly”, are like most other metalcore bands you find these days. You know the saying, “time flies when you’re having fun”? Well, with the bands latest release, rEVOLVEr, this old saying is obliterated. The songs save a few, fail to truly grab the listeners’ ear, but thankfully, each go by rather quickly. The opening song, "No Compromise", is three-and-three-fourths a minute long, but it seems to only last for one. This is how it is with almost every other song. The guitar on the whole album is okay, but fails to show itself as something you can’t already find in a dozen other bands. It isn’t even melodic whatsoever; it’s just…there. Of course just because something isn’t new, and unique doesn’t mean it’s bad. However, with The Haunted it’s so damn generic. In the same song, "No Compromise", the same basic root riff is used so many times, and when it’s not played you’re treated to slow pathetic double bass accompanied by screaming from Peter Dolving. His scream is uncomfortable, the sort of sitting there, eating dinner with your grandparents uncomfortable. This is how it is basically for the rest of the album.


A little less than halfway through this trip, we come to the single, "All Against All". There’s not too much to the song, simple drumming, and straightforward vocals. However, the guitar’s heavy melody in the background, interjecting with the linear vocals works quite well for itself, showing that it was the obvious choice for a single. The guitar solo, which lasts twenty-seconds, is put together well, feels in place, and is actually entertaining. There are more solos in places, but they can’t make up for the rest of the rEVOLVEr; especially since most of them pale in comparison to the alright solo from the single anyways. Thankfully, the guitar playing gets better as the album goes along, but everything else remains the poorly written material it started out as. If this were the bands debut album, then I would say that they show promise, and will most likely advance with time, but this is the bands fourth album. Perhaps some slack could be cut however; after all, the band might have felt hectic when writing the album, front man Peter had been on the first album they wrote, then left abruptly due to a financial situation, with this fourth album he came back. Maybe The Haunted are getting back into a comfortable position, maybe this is how they will continue to be, only time can tell, but for now, they can’t compare with most other metal bands of today.

1.5/5 Very Poor