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THE HAUNTED ‘One Kill Wonder’ (Earache Records) (2003)
I have to admit that I’m really happy with the way things progressed for The Haunted. The band has been at the centre of attention for quite a while now, receiving one award after the other and making sold-out gigs, from small venues to huge arenas. I can still remember the day I first laid my hands on the band’s debut album "The Haunted": Fast heavy guitar riffs as originally introduced to us by Slayer, Marco Ano’s passionate heavy vocals and the typical Swedish Death Metal sound I got to love while listening to Entombed, Hypocrisy and the rest of the Scandinavian extreme Metal legends - all made me realise that this Swedish quintet was destined to become one of the most important Metal acts of our times.
The band’s second studio album, "The Haunted Made Me Do It", not only managed to strengthen their position in the international Metal scene, but also to convince all those who thought they were a cheap commercial imitation of "At The Gates", that the band had serious goals, which were nothing else other than world domination. The Haunted became the lifeboat for all the Slayer fans who were disappointed by the band’s course, and also the proof that quality and extreme music can become related.
"One Kill Wonder" is the band’s latest release which worthily carries on the heavy tradition set by the previous two releases. The album was recorded at studio Fredman (Gothenburg) with Fredrik Nordstrom sitting in the producer’s seat. Fredrik and the band managed to create an ideal sound for the album, so the rest was up to the band to achieve. There is no question as to whether The Haunted changed their musical direction. You still have songs based on fast and furious Thrash riffs, able to unleash the band’s deadly attack, like the "Godpuppet", "Everlasting", "Urban Predator", "Downward Spiral" and "One Kill Wonder". The amazing instrumental composition "Demon Eyes", the quite melodic and very heavy "Shadow World" and the clever melodic guitar work in"D.O.A", proved that the band has evolved through they years without losing any of the basic ingredients that made The Haunted who they are.
I would recommend that you to get the album’s latest version though, as this has three bonus tracks. The reason being that, apart from a typical The Haunted composition called "Creed", there is a second very important song called "Ritual" that I cannot understand why they haven’t included in the first copy of the album, and a very impressive cover of the "Well Of Souls" from the Swedish masters of Doom, Candlemass.
"One Kill Wonder" is another great album which will proudly take it’s place in my music collection – a must have for all of you who grew up listening to the amazing albums of Slayer, and worship the hyper-speed riffs of the Swedish legends At The Gates.
****
Review by John Stefanis
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