The Haunted - The Dead Eye: Limited Edition Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 11.20.2006
One of the most exciting bands with one of the most confusing releases...
The Haunted has seemed, in many ways, to be a band constantly in search of an identity. This started during the Grotesque years before they formed into At The Gates. Just when they were hitting their stride there, the band dissolved. Most of it formed into The Haunted and their first album hinted at huge potential to come, which meant another change, this time to vocalist Marco Aro. Aro, while a somewhat limited vocalist, did one thing very well, which was attach an image to the band, that being one of danger and/or composed of serial killers. The band went into the realm of the riff fests and stayed there until Aro left because he was tired of touring. Re-enter the first vocalist Peter Dolving and the return of the creep, as opposed to the maniacally slaughtering serial killer, emerged on their last album. Unfortunately, this took many of the riffs with it.
On this album, Dolving seems to have channeled Philip Anselmo's vocal style and refuses to let go of it. The band, meanwhile, seems once again to be seeking an identity musically. Patrik Jensen, perhaps because of personal issues relating to his father, did not seem to participate in the songwriting for this disc, which suffers accordingly for it. I'll be honest, given Dolving's penchant for engaging in online pissing contests with fans of MySpace and Blabbermouth and his increasingly demented and nonsensical lyrics, I think the guy is truly losing it and going all the way over into batty. Vocally, he sounds more possessed than ever and definitely is well engaged in this project, but mentally, there seems to be a great deal of slide and skids, which perhaps adds insanity to The Haunted equation. Here we have what is ostensibly a concept album with no concept. Very experimental, very avant garde and very much doomed to failure. The riffworks are mostly gone and the music meanders from place to place with no discernible reason for doing so. The drumming, from the cannonfire Hellblast of earlier efforts, has gone almost mainstream in spots and the guitar lines are near-pedestrian now.
The booklet is a work of pure artistry. The front cover x-ray picture does not make any sense, but that's par for the course here. Who needs cohesion? The inside booklet clearly reads as a case study of a very disturbed individual, so perhaps the storyline here is that of someone who is losing their very fragile and frail grip on sanity. The lyrics are followed by commentary from the band, as if written by a doctoral observer, but there are random scribblings throughout as well. Credits also appear, but again, not very much of a contribution from Jensen, who apparently just played on this album and that's it.
The bonus DVD, featuring the handicam work of Anders Bjorler, is a near-complete waste. Ostensibly it is supposed to function as a "making of" video, but aside from a rather in-depth discussion of the microphone set-up and the drum heads and cymbals, there is little else, aside from hearing Tue Madsen dissertate on digital recording vs. analog recording. Not sure what language he's speaking (Swedish, I guess), but reading his commentary and watching this increasingly bizarre video, shot in black and white, at times the work of genius, but mostly not, called forth to mind the title of a QOTSA song. That song? Quick And To The Pointless. The inclusion of a couple videos for the last album and a few live songs (one incorrectly credited to rEVOLVEr) redeem somewhat this DVD, which otherwise would have been a rather tremendous waste.
The 411: I begin to wonder if Peter Dolving should be replaced in favor of Jonas Kjellgren, who at least was able to keep the band he fronted on track. This album is all over the place, in terms of quality, songwriting and pacing and is not always particularly enjoyable to hear. In fact, it is often frustrating, as the band will settle into a good groove and then abandon it for either clean vocals or an instrumental break which doesn't really belong. These guys know how to write songs and I really wish they would quick dicking around and get back to it. I mean, FUCK.
