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The Haunted - REVOLVEr review




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Reviewer:
9.0

247 users:
8.05
Band: The Haunted
Album: REVOLVEr
Release date: October 2004


01. No Compromise
02. 99
03. Abysmal
04. Sabotage
05. All Against All
06. Sweet Relief
07. Burnt To A Shell
08. Who Will Decide [feat. Lou Koller]
09. Nothing Right
10. Liquid Burns
11. My Shadow

As you all can hear, the return of Peter Dolving as the chief microphone tormentor for The Haunted is not ineffective? He screams like a hardcore singer, and the rest of the band trails on this path. Yes people, The Haunted are, on this new album, sometimes almost hardcore. Don't worry, they are still firmly rooted in their good old thrash foundations, but this basis becomes more and more violent with time. It's not just the fact that Dolving sounds on the edge of breaking his vocal chords, even if it has an influence on the final result. Actually, the production itself makes this album sound hardcore, almost underground: the sound is raw, dirty and without compromise. Even the calm passages with clean vocals are violent in a sense. They attack your mental sanity with disturbing and unwholesome melodies? I feel extremely uneasy when I listen to 'Abysmal' and above all the desperate 'My Shadow', a closing track that makes you think about the virtues of putting an end to this wretched and useless existence.

Revolver oozes desperation, hatred, uneasiness, some feelings we've not been used to encountering with our Swedish thrashers. Songs like 'All Against All', 'Burnt To A Shell' and 'Sweet Relief' have some almost stoner tunes to them that develop a deeper feeling of sadness. Even if their previous albums were not really 'happy', there was not this overdose of disenchantment. I can imagine some fans ranting around about the non-trueness of bands who change their directing line. Well, let me appease your fears: The Haunted has not changed thoroughly: there are still some thrash anthems that remind of One Kill Wonder, for example the two opening tracks 'No Compromise' and '99', and the mind-blaster 'All Against All'. On the other hand, if you hate everything that has '-core' in it, don't even bother listening to 'Who Will Decide' and 'Smut King' (only if you got the limited edition). The first one has a thrash basis but the method of singing and the combined vocals of Dolving and Lou Koller of Sick Of It All make it sound as hardcore as it can be. The second one is a hardcore song, and the only weak song of Revolver in my opinion (but it's only a bonus track, so no harm done).

Again I would like to come back on the performance of Peter Dolving: this guy screams as if his life depended on it, he also has a really cool clean voice, and I dare say he adds a lot to the quality of this album (his greatest performances are 'My Shadow', 'All Against All' and 'Abysmal'). Of course some will regret Marco Aro, some will criticize the new thrashcore sounding, but seriously, try to find a flaw here? I bet you can't. Revolver is the sequel to their first album, and in addition it's powerful, furious, thundering, brutal, aggressive. It's also another really great album for this year, the milestone of a group of honest guys who have no commercial plan, are not afraid to take risks and do whatever they like. I can't decide if it is better than One Kill Wonder, but anyway it's not a disappointment. The Haunted are angry and catchy, and I wouldn't like them any other way.

Highlights: No Compromise, 99, Abysmal, All Against All, Who Will Decide, My Shadow. You got the idea, every single one is great!!

Written by Deadsoulman | 08.11.2004




Comments

Comments: 11   Visited by: 102 users
21.05.2006 - 20:43
Legacy_Of_Kings
Account deleted
Nice album! Surprising good ALL AGAINST ALL!
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21.05.2006 - 21:07
__Az__

Yeh, This is a great album... A tad over-rated though as IMO.. One Kill Wonder and '....Made Me Do It' are better albums...
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21.05.2006 - 21:42
Rating: 3
Stigmatized
..........
Extremely overrated I'm afraid. This was a boring album and quite frankly one of my least favorite albums ever....
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22.06.2006 - 05:23
SepulchralOath
Account deleted
I heard some tracks off this cd prior to buying it and i loved them...and then i bought it and realized that the tracks i had heard were the ONLY good ones on the album. All the other ones were pretty bad. Eh...i only paid 7.99 for it so i jsut dealt with it.
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23.06.2006 - 02:57
Rating: 8
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
The only reason why I bought the album was because I liked the song 99. I wasn't too disappointed with it though. I bought the expensive special edition because it came with more songs and yeah, there were some shitty songs but there were some good ones also. I hate the song All Against All though.
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23.06.2006 - 06:53
Sepulchral Oath
Account deleted
^ Definitely....99 is easily the best song on the album.
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01.11.2006 - 01:27
A5tillotson
Account deleted
This album is amazing. It actually took me a long while to get used to it for some reason. It certainly was worth a second shot. This album is one of the most violent in my whole collection. Don't listen to the naysayers of this album and absolutely do not bring in any expectations due to ATG or other haunted albums. This is a completely different band.

Def 9/10 period.
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07.10.2008 - 14:38
Rating: 10
ioannisk

killer album. nothing more nothing less. typical thrash usually bores me easily but the haunted and especially this album teaches lessons in thrash!!!
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06.07.2009 - 17:59
Rating: 7
lord artan

Very good album
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01.02.2010 - 18:19
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
Looks good... adding it to my list of music to try ou
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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13.03.2010 - 06:20
Rating: 8
Builtforsin88

This whole album is disturbing and strange. But very badass.
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