The Haunted
Wywiad przeprowadził Andrzej Papież i Aleksander Krzeczkowski
Brand new The haunted album entitled "rEVOLVEr" is in the stores for some time now. I must admit that this one is my favourite one... Great mixture of aggression and melody. Me and Olo talked with main The haunted composer Anders. It was a great hounour to talk with him since he was At the gates guitarist years ago... The band which Olo and me admired much... Enjoy folks...
First of all... congratulations, "rEVOLVEr" really kicks ass..I was not a huge The haunted fan till now...
Thanks for the kind words about the album. i like it too :)
Why the album is entitled so strange... i mean - the letters...
"Its like a play with words - we were thinking about some sort of statement that Peter is back in the band (like a cyclic mechanism) = revolver, and also a new line up for the future = EVOLVE"
Did you really have troubles with a title for the new album? Was the "title" contest you started in January done just for fun?
"Not just for fun of course. We seriously went thru all the candidates, but felt in the end that no idea really suited what we had in mind. This summer we were down to like 10 ideas in total, so we just met at a local caffee, and just took a vote on the title. Revolver it was."
It´s the most melodic album in your career so far... but still brutal... is it hard to balance between brutality and melody? By the way... "REVOLVEr" seems to be a liitle bit slower album than the previous ones... I mean this is not "high tempo only" album...
"Yes. it is more varied and also more dynamic. i think it's the best we've done so far. I think "One kill wonder" for instance is too linear. This time we tried to make a better "whole" by also making songs like "My Shadow" and "Abysmal".
Peter was The haunted vocalist on the first album only and I wonder if it was hard for him to adopt to the band again? How involved was he in the new material?
"It wasn' very hard for him to re-enter the band. He had played with Jensen, me & Jonas in the past, so we kinda knew eachother musically already. When he joined again he immediately had like 100 ideas for new songs, so I guess we just started rehearsing within an instant. He si very involved in the new material."
When you write new stuff who comes up with most of the material and idead. As I remember you were the main "music maker" in At the gates...
"Well that depends, we are 5 people and we all contribute. I think I did the most of the material this time around, generally we start with a musical idea..."
So.. There is democracy in the band...
"Yeah its a strong democratic process... at least when arranging the songs"
How did it happen that Lou Koller (Sick Of It All vocalist ) did guest vocals on one of your new songs?
"Well, a friend of ours worked at their distribution company in Sweden, and we asked her to ask him if he'd be interested in doing a guest appearcance. We met up with him when they were on tour in Sweden, and found out he not only liked The haunted alot, but also he wanted to do the thing.... so we brought him to the studio and i think he did it in like 2 takes. really cool guy. It turned out great"
The haunted signed with Century media... why didn´t you sign a new deal with Earache? Have you been satisfied with Germans work so far?
"Well, CM presented the best deal for us and also the best plans for the future. Earache didn't even contact us with a new offer. I felt that they kind of sensed that we wouldn't be interested in working with them again. Everything on CM so far has been great..."
Is any European tour planned? I know that you will support Damageplan in Usa... do you have any feedback from the States?
"Well, i think we'll concentrate on Europe early next year it seems. The feedback from the US is great. We attract both hardcore and metal fans which is is very cool."
An interesting thing is that you have signed a management deal with Petri Lundén and Talent Trust. Is he "really into" metal busines?
"Well, we have worked with him before and he's a great guy. He comes from a punk background so he definately know the music. And also he knows alot of people in the music business so that s a good thing."
Why did you release live album "Live Rounds in Tokyo" after two studio albums? By the way, how did you like Japasense grouppies?
"Main reason was that earache wanted to release it. I'm not very much into live albums myself. I think Live is Live and should be experienced LIVE as well. Well, japanese girls are cute :=)"
Did you like sake?
"Of course...and the food is cool as well."
Who´s idea was DOA video scenario? It´s really funny one , are there any new videos planned?
"Well, the DOA video was made by a english director . I think it was really cool and turned out nice. Almost like a LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS type of video. A New video is made for AAA."
Do you miss At the gates era sometimes? Do you get any feedback from At the gates fans to reunite the band?
"The Atg thing is in the past for me. I can see why people still talk about it, I'm stilll very proud of ATG and the influence we had on many bands. About a reunoin = Who knows ? Maybe in the future..."
Why did you decide to leave The haunted in 2001? and get back in 2002? were you welcomed with open arms?It was said you left the band because of your university duties...
"I studied at the university for a while and thought that was I wanted to do, but after a year I kinda regreted ever quitting the band. Of course they welcomed me back since they didnt have a firm replacement at the time."
Anders, you played in band named Terror sometime ago... Can you tell us something more about this band?
"hat was just a session thing we completed thru the course of one week. I did all the music & lyrics, and Jon (Dissection) Helped us out with the vocals. We might do something in the future."
Are you familiar with more brutal swedish scene? I mean bands like spawn of possession, Deranged, Vomitory, Visceral bleeding etc, what do you think about their music?
"I know all the bands, at least from the past (early 1990's) but I kinda have always had problems with grunting style vocals, except for maybe Dave Vincent and Chuck Billy"
Your second guitarist was one of Seance members... I almost worship this band, is there any unreleased material available? Do you have any idea about that?
"Yeah i like them too . I dont think there are any unreleased stuff out there, but the old members have just written a new album (without jensen) should be cool :)"
So, Seance is back??!!
"They never split up. Jensen just left... but they work very slow :)"
Jesus Christ, that´s awesome, do you know when new album will be recorded or released??
"I think its recorded already, but i dont know the label sorry, should be out soon..."
OK! I see that it is time to finish. Thanks man for the interview!
"Thank you, this chat was a weird experience...this german keyboard is all fuxxed up, letters are in the wrong position..."
