The Haunted
Exit Wounds

It's been over 16 years since the ashes of At The Gates debuted under the name The Haunted and started to play modern thrash metal, which in a weird way resurrected a whole genre after more than a decade asleep. These sixteen years has given us seven full length albums and all though members has been changed a few times there are only three ex-members of The Haunted out there - all of them has left between the last and this, their eight, studio album.

'Exit Wounds' say hello to Ola Englund, a man with a past in more or less everything that's extreme in metal, and welcome back to Marco Aro and Adrian Erlandsson - both of which with more than ten years absence from The Haunted. With this in mind, it's no surprise to hear that the album has taken a step backwards to the sound of the early albums but as this is the first time Erlandsson and Aro play together it's not a question of going back to a particular album, it's more the sound and style of those early album that has returned with the old new line-up… or new old line-up - I don't know which is most accurate? Anyway, the new team seems to work well together but it's a difficult task to match the both critically acclaimed and well selling 'Unseen' and a brave move to do it by changing direction so much as they've done. At the same time, many fans are very fond of the older albums and that's where 'Exit Wounds' has it's roots so it might be a good move too.

'Exit Wounds' is clearly a heavier album than 'Unseen' and has not kept too much of the melodic focus from that album. This albums is more rooted in thrash metal and all though there are some Gothenburg death present in here, it's not as much as it's been in the last couple of albums and from time to time by the band (perhaps no surprise considering the roots). The guitars are played fast or faster and Mr Aro can sometimes get such a savage voice that he's bordering "the core-genres" of metal. He's also pretty good in varying his voice as he's also getting down to the sound of the German thrash acts of the 80's. Calm moments are few and easy to count. There's one in the opening half minute as the first song is building up to start, there's another in the tracks Time (Will Not Heal) and All I Have somewhere in the middle of the album and there are 13 more calm moments between the tracks. Besides these there's just pedal to the thrash metal that counts but the thing I'm guessing you're wondering now is wether or not it's good…

Well, sure it's good. The Haunted has been around a while and as far as I know they haven't really set any turkeys loose on us? However, I'm personally more fond of the vocals by Peter Dolving so I think the vocal side is a slight turn downwards but I really think Marco Aro's doing a good job! Trend Killer has guest vocals by Chuck Billy and he's definitely not letting anyone down with that - amazing how anyone can sing with audible words in such a high tempo! The frenzy really has no limits on this album, you can bang your head really stupid with some of the songs here - not in an old Bay Area-way where the speed makes circles around space rockets, but still it's damn quick!

In a way, though, I feel 'Exit Wounds' is a step down from 'Unseen' but at the same time it's clearly more thrash metal and it's more of the way they played back in the early days. With the new At The Gates album coming out just two months after this album, it might be logical to move back from the Gothenburg sound a bit and leave that to them… might be why they've done it? Or it might be a mere coincidence. Either way, I'm sure fans will appreciate this album - I did at least!

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