When thrash act The Haunted announced the return of vocalist
Peter Dolving back into the fold after a five-year absence (replacing
Marco Aro), fans were taken by surprise. But the real surprise for most
was the different musical approach the Swedes decided to take with their
fifth full length album 'rEVOLVEr', one which saw the band (vocalist
Peter Dolving, guitarists Patrik Jensen and Anders Björler, bassist
Jonas Björler and drummer Per Möller Jensen) explore beyond
their confines of thrash of the past to include a greater melodic stance
and clean vocals, which added more depth and diversity to their sound.
Two years on, and The Haunted have once again chosen to
push beyond the lead set down with 'rEVOLVEr' and reinvent themselves
once again, with their sixth album 'The Dead Eye' - easily the band's
most experimental, progressive and daring release to date, and one that's
sure to become their most controversial release amongst both old and
new fans alike.
In the lead up to the release of 'The Dead Eye', I caught
up with vocalist Peter Dolving at home to discuss the personal nature
of the album's lyrical content, the band's plan to reinforce their presence
on the world's stages over the next eighteen months and the split opinions
voiced over their latest effort.
"I think to fully understand 'The Dead Eye'; you
have to give the album some time to really sink in. A lot of people
think this is our fifth album, but that's not really true. Before The
Haunted, the Björler brothers recorded albums with At The Gates
(who managed to produced four highly influential studio albums between
1990 to 1996), myself with Mary Beats Jane (who have released two albums
to date with plans for more) and Jensen with Invocator (the three albums
the band recorded through the '90s). So for us to finally want to change
direction was a very natural decision for us. We've been talking about
these ideas and directional changes for some time. I think the more
you listen to 'The Dead Eye', the more you realise how linear it is
with everything else we've done in the past. I think there's an initial
shock because we have made an album that's very easy to listen to, but
there's more to this album than a simple change of vocals. We know the
way it sounds, and the initial impact of how we mixed it will shock
some people."
While many have levelled the change of sound upon the
return of Dolving to the fold, Dolving himself insists that the decision
to create something more than just another thrash album.
"It was absolutely a group decision. It was pretty
early on that we knew that we weren't going to do an album that was
so heavily compressed and mastered that you could barely listen to it
for more than one or two songs. We wanted to make something that had
room for more dynamics. We wanted a certain reality for the ears. We
wanted to explore other musical avenues. Of course, that's something
that we've always tried to do. We're always checking the scope of what
we are capable of. But this time, I think this is the first time that
we've actually felt really comfortable about making these changes and
found that confidence in our own skills. I mean we're not going to tread
deep water unless we're able to deliver this live. We're pretty conservative
when it comes to that. We think people pay a lot of money to come out
and see our shows, and it's that relationship with the band and our
fans that is something very important to us. So I think this was the
first time that we were ready to do something like this."
While opinions towards 'The Dead Eye' have seen fans/critics
either laud praise or damn the album (with very few sitting on the fence
so to speak), Dolving is confident that the album will be received positively
in the long run.
"Well, I think some people of course are going to
really dislike 'The Dead Eye' because they're not going to give the
album the time it deserves. I mean they might not listen to music for
the same reasons that we listen to music. But I think for a music fan,
which would be the basic fan of The Haunted, I think it's going to go
down well. The initial response has been strong, both on the positive
and negative. But the good thing, and it's really great to see this,
is that for every negative call out that somebody posts on a web forum,
there's someone there to follow up with a positive piece from a fan
giving their perspective on the album. So I think at the moment, we
feel really good about the way it's being embraced by the fans, and
how it will be viewed over time."
Apart from the music, the other big change for The Haunted
on 'The Dead Eye' from previous releases is the lyrical content, with
Dolving taking a more personal direction with his words.
"In the song writing sense, I think they're the most
straightforward, honest and personal songs I have written. It was kind
of scary to do something like that because you tend to go out on a limb
and throw yourself out there. But once I got past that fear and I started
to work on stuff and present it to the rest of the band, I realised
that the more personal the lyrics got, the more the other guys in the
band began to identify with those words. I don't know just how that
all worked out, because they are my thoughts after all, but it worked
out for some strange reason. That was cool. They could easily identify
with these songs, and reinterpret their meanings into whatever that
saw it to be. That was one of the really cool aspects of this album.
As for my own point of view, some of the subjects I address are a little
cryptic. But again, that's speaking from a very subjective perspective.
Very rarely do the lyrics speak in exact terms on this album. I'm just
speaking from my emotions. So things are just a little too close to
go into details about for my comfort, so I'll let you make up your own
mind about what they mean! (Laughs)"
An interesting aspect to The Haunted's latest album is
the origin of the title.
"The title 'The Dead Eye' does kind of tie the whole
album's theme together. The expression itself comes from Kurt Vonnegut's
1982 novel 'Deadeye Dick'. The dead eye is essentially the bullseye
or the middle of the board. Every song on this album is a dead eye.
It's very much an album based about dysfunction on an individual and
a social level between interpersonal communications and how people interact
with friends, families. I think that's as close as I'm going to get
in regards to explaining anything in detail. But the title refers to
hitting the subjects square on, and also every song hitting that dead
eye."
One aspect of The Haunted that has remained consistent
through all their albums is the artwork.
"That cover looks painful! (Laughs) One of my best
friends at Swedish Arms made the cover. The whole cover is kind of based
around crime scene/autopsy/coroner's journals case files with the x-rays
and the notebook sleeves. In a very simplifying manner, it's very much
about consequences and trying to understand the consequences of actions
taken, where as the others have been from more direct approaches of
action, without understanding to some extent. It's a reversal of past
themes, but tied in some how."
With 'The Dead Eye' now released, The Haunted are once
again ready to move forward onto the touring phase of the process. But
as far as Dolving is concerned, the band has no particular goals with
the release of the new album, apart from enjoying the experience.
"Honestly, our goal is just to make music that we
enjoy, and that other people can enjoy too. It's as simple as that.
We put a lot of energy into 'The Dead Eye', and for us, it's more important
that people listen to the music. We just hope that it does something
for them, just like it does for us."
When asked as to whether they hope to break free of the
thrash tag that has been pegged onto The Haunted with 'The Dead Eye',
Dolving doesn't see this album making any great change of opinion, primarily
because he's never seen The Haunted as just a thrash based act in the
first place.
"I can't say that I've really considered that point
of view because we've never considered ourselves to be just a thrash
band! (Laughs) To us, we've always created music that we've liked. On
the first couple of albums, The Haunted definitely had their heavy thrash
influences out on show. Since then, I think it was pretty obvious that
the band have pushed to see what they were capable of beyond that, and
see how far they could experiment in different kinds of songs. I understand
from a journalist's point of view where you would see us as a thrash
band, but from our point of view, it's not a genre tag we would put
ourselves into. People tend to put a lot more things in there that aren't
really there. Sometimes a turd is just a turd! (Laughs) We are who we
are. We're just five dudes who rock out and love what we're doing. We
just try to make music that we love, and it has always kind of taken
us wherever it has."
Where 'The Dead Eye' will be taking The Haunted over the
next year and a half is around the world, with plenty of live dates
already booked, along with tentative plans to return to Australia.
"We want to stay out on the road as long as possible
with this album. First off, we're going to do a handful of shows in
Europe supporting Mercenary, and then we head over to the US for two
weeks on the 'Blackest Of The Black' tour with Danzig, Lacuna Coil and
Belphegor. After that, we head back to Europe for two months straight,
followed by a headlining tour of the US. We'll then do the European
festivals for about two and a half months before heading back to the
US again! (Laughs) So we'll be busy for the next year and a half I think.
Somewhere in amongst all that, we hope to be doing some shows in Australia.
Hopefully that will happen by the end of next year. It all kind of depends
on the promoters down there. We're not magicians. We're just the musicians
making the music. So it really depends on the promoters to ask us to
come down again. We last played there back in March (2006) and it was
just amazing. We really, really loved it. We really had no idea how
rabid our fans were! (Laughs) It was amazing so we're hoping and looking
forward to coming back down there with 'The Dead Eye'."
I would personally like to thank Peter Dolving for
his generous time and Andrew Haug at Century Media Records for making
the interview possible.
For more information on The Haunted, check out - http://www.the-haunted.com
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
