UMUR
"The Haunted" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by Swedish thrash metal act The Haunted. The album was released in June 1998 by Earache Records. Fresh out of At The Gates the Björler Brothers (Jonas on bass and Anders on guitar) and drummer Adrian Erlandsson teamed up with lead vocalist Peter Dolving (Mary Beats Jane) and guitarist Patrik Jensen (who had played with Seance and Satanic Slaughter in the early- to mid nineties) to form "The Haunted". The ambition was to write and play some really kick ass thrash metal. Most of the output by At The Gates was of an experimental death metal nature but the last album before the band split-up "Slaughter of the Soul (1995)" actually hinted at a more direct thrashy direction.
So while The Haunted is not a continuation of At The Gates under a different monicker, there are definitely stylistic elements from the latter part of At The Gates discopgraphy that became part of the sound of The Haunted.
The music on the album is aggressive thrash metal. The vocals are raw and shouting. The pace is mostly fast and the riffing ditto. I think there is a pretty obvious influence from Slayer in the music, but The Haunted do have their own sound. There is not much melody to be found on the album but the tracks are still relatively memorable and at times even hook laden (I think most people can shout along to the chorus in a track like "Hate Song"). The 12 tracks on the 41 minutes long album are all pretty equal in quality and "The Haunted" comes off as a very consistent album. There are not many highlights on the album though and honestly I´m not able to remember each track when the album is over. I think the sound production is partially to blame for that. It´s not a very dynamic production and the songs have a tendency to flow together.
Besides the above mentioned issues "The Haunted" is still a very strong thrash metal album and if you like your thrash metal raw, fast and aggressive, the album is recommended. The Haunted would release much better albums later on in their career, but for a debut album this one is solid and a 3.5 star rating is deserved.