Artist: Haunted, The
Label: Century Media
Release: 2010
Running time: 73.13
Rating: 4.5/5
The Haunted, the Swedish metallers who showed in the second half of the nineties that metal could still be played differently, since they refused to become yet another clone of the Gothenburg sound (good morning, fathers At The Gates!), are a hugely popular and respected band today. What draws people in is their raw, authentic energy, radiating from their one-of-a-kind body of work. And that, along with the outstanding riffs the guys so convincingly slot into their metal creed, is enough!
After the sixth studio album “Versus” and roughly 750 gigs played, counting from the humble beginnings in the second half of the nineties, we’ve ended up with a proper gift for every fan of the band. It’s the first real live album (technically their second overall) and, through a cross-section of the discography, it also offers a great look at what The Haunted are all about. Every band should put out a live album like this, every four or five studio albums, instead of us getting compilation-style, preferably soul-crushingly dull best-of releases that only eat up space where the essence should be.
“Road Kill” takes the listener straight through the umbilical cord into the primordial core of the band. It fairly represents every studio release. Through the differences in the songs of the set, it also conjures up the evolution between the albums. At the same time, it’s clear the band keeps a bright red thread running through the unique stamp of its own identity. The songs are everything we understand under the banner of The Haunted, and they differ only in how much melody they contain. The sound is incinerating, utterly destructive, and the aggression metal is capable of conjuring is turned up to the max. The contrasts are accentuated and thickened in the mix as much as possible (splendidly backed by the metallic grinding of the bass guitar). Tue Madsen is a great master, and with his magic touch he confirms that there simply isn’t a handier man to understand the authentic heart of The Haunted’s whole point. The sound has kept all the hellish liveliness, creepiness and doom of The Haunted atmosphere, which will have you bleeding out through your ear canals without any trouble.
The vocals bite relentlessly. They tease and terrorize with confidence, with a more than fitting core scream. Occasionally it’s dosed with a clean tone of voice (e.g. on “The Dead Eye”). With authority, it holds the reins on all the cosmic fury of the brutal riffing from both guitars. A song like Trespass is the perfect leveler between the melodic and the extreme in unleashing sacred fury. It embodies the middle road of the modern approach in the search for a penetrating groove volume (the riffs – rhythm section relationship), combined with the basics of the Gothenburg death metal sound and old-school thrash metal elements.
The hour-long document that embodies The Haunted’s live pulse in 2009 was recorded at the Melkweg hall (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) on 13.02.2009. The Haunted were on a European promo tour for the album “Versus” (2008). It was a co-headlining tour, together with All That Remains. The release is also available as a DVD, with a 65-minute documentary. You can get the version that bundles the CD and DVD together, or buy both as separate releases.
Five rarities have been added to the album, dating from the “Versus” recording sessions. Among them, the song Sacrifice came out with the album “Versus” as a bonus track, on the Japanese version only. The other four original tracks haven’t had an official release until now. While Sacrifice is quite atypical for The Haunted, experimental but tasteful throughout and still recognizable as the band, the remaining three songs (Internal Mundi is just an exit from the album lasting less than a minute) are more familiar territory for the band’s ID card.
The Haunted thought of absolutely everything on this live CD. The booklet comes with a rich foreword that takes us through the writings of all five members of the crew and presents each one’s feelings. The feeling of being part of this band, and the feeling of looking back at the road traveled with it. The retrospective story also serves up plenty of anecdotes and, in juicy, relived descriptions, lifts some veils on the phenomenon of The Haunted that you definitely didn’t know about until now. As such, it’s an essential companion to the live material on the disc, and it’s worth reading while banging along to the “Road Kill” material. It’ll help you absorb the authentic nature of this band’s character even more intensely. Their willpower and faith in the cause, which through defiance and perseverance finally brought The Haunted into the elite of the strongest and most visible modern metal acts on the planet.
“Road Kill” is a must for every fan of this band. It offers a look at The Haunted as they turned out that night in Amsterdam, like a perfectly tuned Swiss watch. Where there’s a one-of-a-kind cohesive bond between all the building blocks of their presence. The sense between the members works on stage almost beyond the conscious, and the band surely squeezes out its maximum. These days it’s hard to find a live document as authentically alive and honest as what is, in fact, the first truly proper live record by The Haunted. It’s also a warm recommendation for all of you who don’t know the band yet and are trying to gather as much information as possible about The Haunted in one pile, in the shortest possible time.
Line-up
Peter Dolving – vocals
Anders Björler – guitar
Patrik Jensen – guitar
Jonas Björler – bass guitar
Per Möller Jensen – drums
Production
Fabchannel
Track list
1. Little Cage
2. The Drowning
3. Trespass
4. The Premonition
5. The Flood
6. The Medication
7. Moronic Colossus
8. D.O.A.
9. All Against All
10. In Vein
11. Trenches
12. Dark Intentions
13. Bury Your Dead
14. Faultline
15. 99
16. Hate Song
17. Sacrifice
18. Meat Wagon
19. Walk On Water
20. Seize The Day
21. Infernalis Mundi
