The Haunted - The Dead Eye
Rating
RIYL
SoilworkNightrage
Darkest Hour
Label
Century MediaTracklist
01. The Premonition02. The Flood
03. The Medication
04. The Drowning
05. The Reflection
06. The Prosecution
07. The Fallout
08. The Medusa
09. The Shifter
10. The Cynic
11. The Failure
12. The Stain
13. The Guilt Trip
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Holy Toledo! This is bad. I think that if I was presented with the option of dropping a car battery directly on my sack in lieu of listening to this CD again, I would enthusiastically proclaim “let the sack beating begin.” The Haunted were never the most innovative band flying the Swedish metal flag, but One Kill Wonder and Revolver both had some serious bowel-loosening riffage. You kids can forget all that, because it is blatantly obvious that instead of hanging out in Valhalla looking for inspiration from the Metal Gods (yes, the same ones that Manowar cite in their mega metal ballad "The Gods Made Heavy Metal") they were elsewhere, perhaps in some sort of enchanted forest or maybe they just played a ton of Candyland in the past year.
If this record was The Haunted’s attempt at creating some mainstream attention they failed miserably, because if any of these songs surfaced on the radio, somebody would be fired for sure. The album see-saw’s between vocalist Peter Dolving’s agonizing shrieks and garbled melodic vocals that stumble harder than Gerald Ford falling out of Air Force One. Half the time it’s impossible to tell if Peter Dolving is legitimately pissed off, or if he is paying homage to chode rock bands like Stone Sour. He must have lost a bet, because it is the only scenario imaginable that could have led up to the incredible amount of bad singing on this record.
In addition to the vocals being stripped down, the overall production quality and The Haunted’s technical prowess also suffered that same fate. Their previous records sounded very disconcerting and evil, like the kind of music John Wayne Gacey probably blasted in his basement as he hacked up little children. Much of that had to do with the way their records were recorded and that was honestly half the fun of listening to this band. The Dead Eye’s production is so warm and non-threatening, that there is no way this album would even scare my 85 year old grandmother, let alone provide a proper soundtrack to the slaughtering of a human being.
The musical aspect of this record is the most frustrating, though. The Dead Eye drifts from one abomination to the other with The Haunted resorting to rudimentary guitar tracks that they probably practiced as pre-pubescent metal enthusiasts. It’s safe to say that there isn’t a single song on this entire record that yields any sort of face melting guitar shreddery.
There was absolutely no excuse for this record to come out the way it did, especially with the pedigree this band has been brandishing for so long. Ex members of At The Gates? If I didn’t know any better I would assume this record contained ex members of It Dies Today. Talk to me when you get your balls back guys.
--Barry Scatton
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Cleveland, OH
Scene Point Blank / Escapist Records
Minnesota
Totally a let down.
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