What quickly starts off as vintage The Haunted on their brand new release The Dead Eye, then begins to get a little interesting. The Haunted, long one of Sweden's best loved bands, consistently have created brutal thrash, as they have stayed away from the melodic death metal sound of the Gothenburg scene compared to many of their peers. While the first couple of tracks on The Dead Eye thrash pretty hard, halfway through "The Medication" you start to hear a little US metalcore start to creep into the music. The trend continues on "The Crowning", which, despite the use of clean singing mixed with the growls (courtesy of Peter Dolving), the song actually contains some pretty cool & intense guitar riffs, and listen up for some surprising Tool-like moments towards the end of the piece. It's a presence you'll hear many times throughout this CD, as The Haunting appear to be trying something new, and that is injecting US metal influences into their style. "The Reflection" is sort of like a strange mix of Tool, Staind, and Linkin Park (yep, you heard that right), while the pummeling "The Prosecution" again sees a Metalcore type vocal delivery from Dolving mesh with kick-ass guitar riffs from the axe-duo of Jensen and Anders Bjorler. On the multi-layered "The Fallout", another moody piece (and a real departure), the band mixes atmospheric sections with clean, depressed vocals, with more brutal sections of metal mayhem. Fans of Burst might get into this more textured approach from The Haunted, but I'm not sure how hardcore fans will feel about it. "The Medusa" is vintage stuff, with thick, doomy guitars, intricate drum work from Per Moller Jensen-just evil sounding stuff, with an aggressive vocal from Dolving that is part clean, part gruff. Full speed ahead thrash is all the rage on "The Shifter", and "The Cynic" again sees a strange hybrid of Tool and Linkin Park styles coming to the forefront, but it sort of works. Pummeling riffs and raging drum blasts speed along with Dolvers' venemous vocals on "The Stain", and the epic closer "The Guilt Trip" contains plenty of bone-crunching guitar work and progressive elements ala Opeth or Burst.
Yep, The Dead Eye is a departure for The Haunted, a real departure at that. Give them credit for trying something new, as after a few spins many of these songs actually are pretty adventurous and heavy. For longtime listeners of the band though, there might be too much noodling, too much atmosphere, and too many clean vocals here, epecially after the triumphant return that was Revolver.
Track Listing
1. The Premonition 0:58
2. The Flood 4:07
3. The Medication 3:10
4. The Drowning 4:13
5. The Reflection 3:47
6. The Prosecution 3:50
7. The Fallout 4:22
8. The Medusa 4:05
9. The Shifter 2:55
10. The Cynic 3:48
11. The Failure 5:10
12. The Stain 4:14
13. The Guilt Trip 10:17
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