THE HAUNTED: rEVOLVEr

Produced by Frederik Nordström, Patrik J Sten and The Haunted
Released: 2004

A lot was riding on The Haunted's fourth album. The previous release, One Kill Wonder, was a polarising one in that critics seemed to love it but fans’ opinions seem to suggest that it was everything from below par to just plain sucky. Marco Aro’s lifeless vocal performance is often considered to be to blame for this but in reality there’s only so many times you can record the same song on the one album before it sounds like you’re repeating the same ideas over and over again and it was hard to believe that the geniuses behind bands like At the Gates and Witchery could have thought that an album like One Kill Wonder was actually worthy of release.

The Haunted have emphasised the ‘evolve’ part of this album’s title possibly to acknowledge the fact that evolving is what they had to do to stay relevant. Part of this process was to switch labels to Century Media, who gave this release a groovy cardboard slipcase and plenty of support. Another was to get in the studio with the proven wizard pairing of Frederick Nordström and Patrik Sten. There was also the very smart move of bringing back original vocalist Peter Dolving, whose range and abilities provide many a highlight here. Yet another part was to show that they don’t need to play at breakneck speed the whole time to make a solid and solidly enjoyable thrash metal album. That’s not to say that this is a slow album by any means, as blitzkriegs like ‘Who Will Decide’, ‘Liquid Burns’ and ‘Sweet Relief’ prove beyond doubt, but it is considerably more diverse than previous efforts. ‘All Against All’ shows a decidedly more melodic side and ‘Burnt to a Shell’ and ‘Abysmal’ are slower paced but lack none of The Haunted’s typical menace.

rEVOLVEr is a monster, precisely the album this band needed to make to atone for the sin of the album before and one that probably saved them from disintegration.

1. No Compromise
2. 99
3. Abysmal
4. Sabotage
5. All Against All
6. Sweet Relief
7. Burnt to a Shell
8. Who Will Decide
9. Nothing Right
10. Liquid Burns
11. My Shadow

Rating: 85%