The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort
The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort
Century Media
Release Date: 30/05/2025
Review by Victor Augusto
9/10
I confess I don’t know if you enjoy reading my empty histories of my poor teenage years in the early years of the 2000’s, when I was living in a bad place in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Music was always on my side to overcome all the suffering from that time and Swedish Metal firstly appeared, I don’t know how, with The Crown and their incredible well played Death Metal back in 2001 (I guess). Among all the scarce and poor information I had, due to my lack of money to buy Heavy Metal magazines or to have access to the internet, I remember a few people talking about the importance of Swedish Melodic Death Metal from the nineties.
A few years later, I believe in 2004, I could hear more of these bands, such as Dark Tranquility and one of those bands that are always mentioned, with a feeling of grief, was At The Gates. Probably 99,9% of the Metalheads in Brazil remember them as that mainstream band that should never had a brief career as they had and. Back then, no-one could never imagine they would return later. I clearly remember that The Haunted was frequently mentioned as the Thrash band from former At The Gates members, that carries the band’s spirit, but in a different style.
Well, they were not wrong, although it sounds quite unfair to define such an incredible as The Haunted this way. Here we have something that maybe could be called Swedish Thrash/Death Metal, because it’s like to get the best of technical riffs from the Death Metal bands from this country, but more oriented to Thrash. It is something very unique, I must say, and don’t let me forget about the perfection of the recording sound, which always lets all the heaviness sound perfectly clear.Maybe this last one detail is their biggest trademark.
One example of what I’m trying to say is ‘To Bleed Out’, which carries more melodies and samplers that kind of could remember what Dark Tranquillity plays. ‘Death to the Crown’ is like hearing one perfect song from The Crown. There are probably more references to the Swedish Musical scene here that I’m too stupid to get, but what I do get is how hard The Haunted worked to do it and keeping their own identity, as well.
Now, it is time for Victor’s spiritual feelings to speak about my impressions. I felt like the incredible synergy among Jensen and Ola Englund just worked highly well because they are completing each other and not competing with each other. Marco Aro also is a good point here with his vocal’s lines going straight to the point. The At The Gates members Jonas Björler on bass and Adrian Erlandsson on drums are here as the captains of this nuclear rocket!
It looks like a professional team, full of stars in their line-up, but everyone focused to work together to reach their goals. Again, I’m feeling blessed to be able to review albums that easily will perform as the best of the years. It was enough to hear “Songs Of Last Resort” just once to be 100% sure of it!
THE HAUNTED – Warhead (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmNIR-akwk
TRACKLISTING:
01. Warhead
02. Reborn
03. Death to the Crown
04. To Bleed Out 05.Unbound
06. Hell is Wasted on the Dead
07. Through the Fire
08. Collateral Carnage
09. Blood Clots 10.Salvation Recalled
11. Labyrinth of Lies
12. Letters of Last Resort
LINKS:
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