{"id":2017,"date":"2011-03-22T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T00:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2012-02-18T02:36:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T02:36:55","slug":"feature-the-haunted-03-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-the-haunted-03-11\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HAUNTED – Never Better? (March 2011) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HAUNTED – Never Better?<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMarch 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Haunted (l-r): Patrik Jensen, Anders Bj\u00f6rler, Peter Dolving, Jonas Bj\u00f6rler
and Per M\u00f6ller Jensen<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Swedish death metal outfit The Haunted entered Antfarm Studio in \u00c5rhus, Denmark on October 18th, 2010 to cut their seventh studio full-length with longtime producer Tue Madsen (Moonspell \/ Dark Tranquillity \/ Gorefest \/ Sick Of It All). By early November recording sessions had concluded, vocalist Peter Dolving feeling the resulting album \u2013 Unseen<\/em> \u2013 to be a continuation of what The Haunted began experimenting with on rEVOLVEr<\/em> (October 2004) and The Dead Eye<\/em> (October 2006). The first album to be issued under The Haunted\u2019s new contract agreement with Century Media Records \u2013 inked in December 2009 \u2013 Unseen<\/em> was recorded with motive and intent. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, with the initial talks we had before we started passing ideas around, we agreed we wanted to make an album with only memorable songs – no in-betweens, no fillers, nothing like that,\u201d explains Per M\u00f6ller Jensen, drummer for The Haunted since 1999. \u201cWe wanted to write enough material for us to pick out the songs that would fit together as a unit and would make a good album, but first of all, we wanted to write songs that could actually be played on an acoustic guitar or a piano or whatever, with a melody line along with a good chorus and all that stuff. We pretty much approached the writing a little different this time around; we just went from the initial vocal ideas and the melody of the vocals, pretty much made the song, and then from thereon we would start writing the riffs that would fit the chords for the initial vocal ideas. Instead of coming up with a riff and putting some drums on there and all that stuff and then end up trying to fit the vocals in there, we approached it completely the other way around. We started with melody lines and hook lines and lyrics and just chords, chords for the vocal lines. Then we would move onto the riffs, writing the riffs based on what the vocals were already doing, so we pretty much just approached it the other way around than we would\u2019ve done previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frontman Peter Dolving\u2019s vocals arguably boast flexibility, a flexibility perhaps absent on previous records. \u201cI think mostly it\u2019s not a case of him having grown, because most of it has been there all the time,\u201d the sticksman surmises. \u201cIt\u2019s more a matter of maybe Peter being comfortable enough to let it all out and put it all into this band, and having the belief to take it into this band. He is a great vocalist and he was before; he was before he got into the band the second time, and he was before he got into the band the first time. As far as writing melodic music, he\u2019s been there before, I\u2019ve been there before and The Haunted has been there. There\u2019s been melodies all along ever since the first record \u2013 some people maybe failed to notice it, but it\u2019s always been there. The only difference is that this time around we based the album on the vocal, which is like how you\u2019d write a regular pop song. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s technically the same approach to writing a song by letting the song decide what the musicians are gonna do instead of musicians coming in there with all types of things, saying things like \u2018I really need this riff in there,\u2019 \u2018I really need this drum fill to be played on the record\u2019 and all these egocentric things that aren\u2019t gonna be creative, that would just ruin the creative part of it. It was more where the song called for this; this on the drums, this on the bass. That\u2019s what we did because that\u2019s what worked and that\u2019s what music is all about \u2013 using your ears. That\u2019s why maybe some people are gonna be bewildered by why we\u2019re not playing as much as on previous records. \u2018Why? Where are the riffs? Where are all the fast drums?\u2019 The reason why they\u2019re not there is because the music didn\u2019t call for it \u2013 you don\u2019t put ketchup on your cereals either. It\u2019s just that; it wasn\u2019t called for, it wasn\u2019t on the menu. Basically, that\u2019s why we kept the beat strong and simple and wrote memorable vocal lines. Like I said, it was like how a pop band would approach writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the term \u2018pop\u2019 springs to mind, its use could be greatly misleading. \u201cIt could make people misunderstand me, misinterpret what I\u2019m trying to say, because I\u2019m not trying to say that we wrote a pop record or we were trying to sound like some random pop band on the radio,\u201d Per stresses. \u201cI\u2019m only talking about the way we approached writing the songs, because that\u2019s basically the way you\u2019d write a pop song; you\u2019d have the vocal line, you\u2019d have the chorus and then you\u2019d add the chords to the vocal line, and that\u2019s pretty much what we did. We had the vocal lines, and then we added riffs that would fit the vocal lines. 60% of the record was done that way. Some of the parts were done the other way around where the riffs came first but generally we tried to approach it the way I just described, coming up with the key elements of the song first \u2013 the vocal lines. The organ that speaks out to you in music when you hear it is the vocals; that\u2019s what is gonna make it or break it for you and that\u2019s what delivers the emotion, so I think we just pretty much fired from all cylinders this time. We used the whole spectrum this time; instead of just sticking the spade halfway in, we just fucking pounded it all the way in this time and just didn\u2019t put any limits on ourselves. I\u2019m really proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Per M\u00f6ller Jensen<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Unseen<\/em>\u2019s album title could arguably refer to the fact that this is a side of The Haunted that\u2019s possibly hitherto unseen. \u201cThere could be a hint of that, yeah,\u201d the drummer agrees. \u201cI think there has always been and still is much more to this band than people could ever imagine, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re still here. That\u2019s another subject that the album touches; just the way that modern society has become, all the little lies that people live and all the things they fail to see, and all the things they don\u2019t wanna see and don\u2019t wanna know about. I\u2019m thinking about just the way the world is run; the economies, corruption. It doesn\u2019t say much more than that. Just all the dirty little things people don\u2019t wanna know about, don\u2019t wanna see and don\u2019t wanna have anything to do with. If you don\u2019t make a choice, you\u2019re just making the passive choice. The passive choice is the same as saying \u2018Go ahead\u2019; if you don\u2019t make a choice, you\u2019re still making a choice \u2013 you\u2019re saying \u2018Yes.\u2019 That\u2019s one way to look at it. It touches several things, but yeah, one of them could be the side of the band that people haven\u2019t seen before. That isn\u2019t the reason for the title itself though.\u201d<\/p>\n

In writing Unseen<\/em>, The Haunted wanted to write \u201call killer and no filler.\u201d With that being said, moments in the past have taken place where compositions haven\u2019t been as necessarily strong as they needed to be. \u201cI think that would be the case with any long lasting band; if you\u2019ve had a career going for ten-plus years, there\u2019s no way you can look back at a back catalogue and say that every album has the same impact or that every song on every album has the same level of quality,\u201d Per deduces. \u201cThere\u2019s always gonna be dips. There\u2019s always gonna be something that you tried that either failed to work out or just became something different, so I think it\u2019s very natural for a band that has as many releases as us. You just can\u2019t hit the bullseye every time, and I think that\u2019s a very natural part of being a creative person. Sometimes we just didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sticksman feels The Haunted missed that bullseye the most on previous outing, Versus<\/em> (September 2008). \u201cThat\u2019s just my personal opinion, but it doesn\u2019t really matter what I think as far as how other people are gonna perceive it,\u201d he observes. \u201cLooking at the band\u2019s history and all that though, I personally think Versus<\/em> is that one album we should\u2019ve approached differently. We should\u2019ve thought about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think that we followed the path that we set for ourselves with The Dead Eye<\/em> and for some strange, funny reason \u2013 considering that we liked the record and we were really happy with it \u2013 we just didn\u2019t go down that street man. We just turned back, and… I don\u2019t know… Looked back, which brought some elements from the old days that were blended in. The original idea was good enough for what it was, but I just honestly don\u2019t think we really achieved it. I like parts of the album though, and I love the idea that we did one album where we just played everything live right onto tape. It is as raw as you can get a record, Versus<\/em>. It has a few overdubs and that\u2019s it \u2013 there\u2019s no layers of recording drums and then guitars and bass. The whole band were in the same room playing. When the song was done, the whole song was done. For that reason, I\u2019m happy about that, that I\u2019ve at least done one record with the band that was like that. In that respect I like Versus<\/em>, but I think musically we could\u2019ve made better choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Versus<\/em> looked towards the past for influences too much? The Haunted\u2019s earlier, more aggressive sound? \u201cNot so much,\u201d Per corrects. \u201cWe definitely looked back, but we weren\u2019t trying to consciously think \u2018Let\u2019s get the feeling from this record\u2019 or anything like that. I think where Versus<\/em> failed the most though was the idea of pleasing the older fans \u2013 I don\u2019t really think it made them particularly happy either with the record because it still had too much of The Dead Eye<\/em>. It was too close to that and had a lot of that in it as well, so it didn\u2019t really go all balls-out thrash-wise. It didn\u2019t really serve those people at all, and it didn\u2019t really serve the people who liked The Dead Eye<\/em> \u2013 it was a big surprise. In some funny way, that record sold in-between. It didn\u2019t really do much for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unseen<\/em>\u2019s promotional blurb suggests the full-length will surprise longtime The Haunted fans, but is this actually the case? \u201cI think for sure this is the biggest surprise that they\u2019ve had from The Haunted yet, and I enjoy and take great pride in being a member of that band \u2013 I guess it\u2019s just our place in history,\u201d the drummer reckons. \u201cWe have to be that band that releases albums that people get either happy or sad or pissed off about. We have to do this \u2013 this is just where we are. We had to do a different record, otherwise there was no life and there was no point in us being here. That\u2019s what I\u2019m very proud of, the fact that this band has turned into becoming that \u2013 we didn\u2019t used to be that. We played our role in the thrash movement, and we took that as far as we were able to without management, without anything \u2013 without the big machine and all that. We made the records that secured a place in the history of the neo-thrash movement. We were a part of starting up that whole movement again, and I think we outplayed our own role. We did the records, we left an impact on that scene and it was time for us to move on, and that\u2019s what true artists are all about I think. They\u2019re about taking steps and always moving, otherwise they die, and the same thing goes for music.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Haunted (l-r): Patrik Jensen, Jonas Bj\u00f6rler, Peter Dolving, Anders Bj\u00f6rler
and Per M\u00f6ller Jensen<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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The Haunted definitely doesn\u2019t play things safe Per. \u201cNot at all, and if we did we would have no place here, just like any band who does that has no place. They should not do it, because there\u2019s no point. The funniest thing about this which you\u2019ve got to consider is we\u2019ve been accused of selling out. When you don\u2019t play as fast as you used to you\u2019ve sold out, and selling out means what? That you\u2019ve made more money? It\u2019s just a joke, you know? For us, selling out as The Haunted would be to make a fast thrash album. Let\u2019s put that straight once and for all, that selling out as The Haunted would be to make a fast thrash record. That would be the biggest sell-out we could come up with, because that would secure a nine out of ten points review everywhere in the fucking world. Everybody would sit there and clap their hands and say \u2018Oh, what a great album,\u2019 and that would be selling out because we would know that we would get great reviews. That\u2019s the essence of selling out. There is no true artistry anymore. For us that would be the same as being employed in a company, and thank God that we\u2019re not. We\u2019re just musicians; we decide what we wanna do, and that\u2019s great and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have to not even think of the audience Per? Really, The Haunted\u2019s music is for you yourselves. You don\u2019t sit there and think \u2018Oh, the audience will love this.\u2019 \u201cSomething like that has gone on in the past, obviously worries about… and I think that has been the main reason why some of the major steps of this band have come as late as they have, has been because of some of that. Let\u2019s put it like this; maybe during the last five years all that stuff has pretty much been wiped away, and today there\u2019s only one thing left: we\u2019ve gotta make true music. I think after all these years as a band we\u2019re finally reaching our full potential, and I think that\u2019s all you can really worry about as an artist or a musician. If people like it, that\u2019s great. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we write the songs though, we don\u2019t have the audience in mind. We don\u2019t think like that, because to me that is the essence of selling out. Maybe other people look at it differently, but to me that would be like having a burger joint. That is the beauty of music isn\u2019t it? The surprise. New areas, new feelings and new experiences. That is art, that is music \u2013 the opposite has nothing to do with it. You can\u2019t keep on releasing the same thing to please a small group of people that will not tolerate you in any other way than the way you were when they heard you for the first time. It doesn\u2019t work like that in the real world. I\u2019m not trying to sound bitter or anything like that. I\u2019m not bitter at all, because I\u2019m really, really happy and really pleased if a dude out there likes just one of my records. If people don\u2019t like the new record, that\u2019s fine with me. I certainly understand why people that love extreme music and death metal have a hard time getting their head around this music. I respect that and it\u2019s fine with me, but if they like a previous album we did I think that\u2019s great. They should listen to that and appreciate that record for what it is and for what it was in that particular time and place, and just respect the fact that we\u2019re human beings. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re artists and we have to move on, and that\u2019s the only way I can look at it. I\u2019m not trying to sound bitter, but because you bought an album by a band once you\u2019re not a shareholder in a company. It\u2019s as though you\u2019re a part of making the decisions. The band is making the decisions, and then it\u2019s up to people to figure out if they like it or not. There\u2019s just no way you can think like that. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s gonna be any good music coming out of thinking \u2018Are they gonna like this?,\u2019 or \u2018How are they gonna feel about this?,\u2019 or this or that. You can\u2019t think like that, or you\u2019re gonna imprison yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boasting definite radio potential, the Southern rock flavoured composition \u2018No Ghost\u2019 warrants special mention. \u201cI think it was one of the very first ideas we came up with,\u201d Per remembers. \u201cI remember with the whole chorus part of the song, I felt right away that \u2018No Ghost\u2019 was gonna be a great track. It\u2019s got a heavy groove, and great melody hook lines. It\u2019s one of the few songs on the album that is downtuned \u2013 it\u2019s extra heavy-sounding. Yeah, I love that song too. It\u2019s one of my favourites, but I think with the whole record I have a hard time picking out my favourite song. I think it has a lot of songs that really do it for me, but \u2018No Ghost\u2019 is definitely one of my favourites because I think it has a very strong beat, very memorable vocal hook lines, good riffing and it\u2019s got the blues factor to it as well. I love jazz and I love blues, and that\u2019s obviously why I would get into \u2018No Ghost\u2019 \u2013 because it has a blues element.\u201d<\/p>\n

If played \u2018No Ghost\u2019 and not told the artist, it would be impossible to guess the track was recorded by The Haunted. \u201cYeah,\u201d the sticksman concurs. \u201cLike I told you before, it\u2019s not as much a matter of \u2018Oh, this is interesting.\u2019 It\u2019s more a matter of… it\u2019s so normal for… I mean I can talk for myself as a musician. For me the only way to do it is you cannot do the same thing twice. It\u2019s not gonna happen, and it\u2019s just not even in the book. For me, it\u2019s the most natural thing in the world that the record sounds different. If it doesn\u2019t, you\u2019ve gotta stop. That\u2019s how I feel, but I respect other bands that choose not to \u2013 AC\/DC is a perfect example. Some bands make a formula and stick to it; even if 50 years pass, they will stick to it and that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s great, but it\u2019s just not the way I\u2019m set out. I\u2019ve gotta move ahead and I\u2019ve gotta try new stuff. All of a sudden life is a bore, and you\u2019ve done the same thing for fucking forever. It\u2019s not the way I wanna go out, and also the fact that I wouldn\u2019t call us old, dirty bastards, but we\u2019re not young anymore, we\u2019re not teenagers anymore. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to sound like an old fart or anything, but with the years I think you start appreciating, you start accepting different emotions musically and in other art forms \u2013 movies, whatever. It\u2019s like you can hold a little more than you could when you were 18, and for us it\u2019s the same thing. We\u2019re trying to play music that will move people and touch people emotionally, because I feel we can give a little more than just aggression. We\u2019re not just 19-year-old desperate, fucked up kids anymore. We still have all these elements; we\u2019re still fucked up \u2013 well I am \u2013 and we\u2019re still frustrated and all that shit, but we have other emotions too. It doesn\u2019t only come out in aggression, but can come out in melancholy and different sorts of melodies. For me a lot of stuff hasn\u2019t changed, except the presentation. <\/p>\n

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Peter Dolving<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cFunnily enough, Peter and me talk about it in the studio. We would listen back to some of the raw tracks and say \u2018Fuck man, in one sense this is the hardest shit we\u2019ve ever done.\u2019 This is the hardest fucking piece of music we\u2019ve ever done, harder than the first album. It\u2019s just not fast, but it\u2019s more brutal. It grabs you by the fucking balls. It\u2019s hard to explain, but for me it is because of the rawness and the realness. It\u2019s so real, because what you hear is what was being played. It\u2019s not a fucking case of ProTooling and fucking your way around the whole record where you end up listening to the computers\u2019 version of what you were playing. This is the band performing; there\u2019s pure, raw emotions in there, and I think the way it\u2019s being played and the whole attitude it\u2019s being played with actually makes it harder than a lot of records we\u2019ve done in the past. Even though they were as fast as hell and a million notes were being played, I still think the new record is harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to which musical category Unseen<\/em> belongs to, Per is torn. \u201cI think that\u2019s maybe the greatest quality of the record, and maybe the greatest problem the record will have are far as finding commercial success,\u201d he theorises. \u201cPeople need a category, because they will not buy records that don\u2019t fit in the category that they\u2019ve already signed up to, the subculture that they\u2019re already a part of \u2013 I\u2019m talking young kids now. That\u2019s why it can be hard, because it\u2019s not a thrash record, it\u2019s not a sludge album and it\u2019s not this or that so it doesn\u2019t have a specific subgenre of people attached to it. It\u2019s not as commercially sellable as a band with a strong image that has a certain lifestyle, so in that respect it\u2019s really hard to describe the music because it\u2019s still us. I definitely recognise The Haunted; maybe some people out there will claim otherwise, but I sure as hell fucking recognise my own band when I hear that record. Unseen<\/em> is very much The Haunted. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt reaches out man, just getting all the elements in there \u2013 all of them \u2013 for that big dish. It\u2019s like a bowl of food, where you have the ingredients for food. The ingredients are music, and what are they? There are only two ingredients: one is melody and the other is rhythm. If you leave out one of them, it\u2019s gonna be a pretty same-tasting dish. This time around we threw all the fucking melodies and the rhythm and all that shit in there, because we wanted to make a neat album. For the first time in my career, I still feel fucking proud of this record even months after it\u2019s been done. I really think it was good for us to change the time that we took to make the record \u2013 it took us almost 18 months to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unseen<\/em> was released on March 21st, 2011 in Europe and on the 22nd in North America, all through Century Media Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in March 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HAUNTED – Never Better? Anthony Morgan March 2011 The Haunted (l-r): Patrik Jensen, Anders Bj\u00f6rler, Peter Dolving, Jonas Bj\u00f6rler and Per M\u00f6ller Jensen Swedish death metal outfit The Haunted entered Antfarm Studio in \u00c5rhus, Denmark on October 18th, 2010 to cut their seventh studio full-length with longtime producer Tue Madsen (Moonspell \/ Dark Tranquillity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-the-haunted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4301,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions\/4301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}