The Haunted - Versus (2008)

1. Walk On Water 03:51
2. Final Regression 03:50
3. You 03:15
4. Faultline 03:42
5. Narcotic 03:43
6. Moronic Colossus 02:49
7. Trenches 03:13
8. Ceremony 04:32
9. Pieces 03:41
10. Crusher 03:44
11. Little Cage 02:48
It all started in July 1996 with the demise of seminal Swedish melodic death metal band, At The Gates. At this time, guitarist Patrik Jensen (ex-Seance) was looking for members to start a new project. At The Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson, a good friend of Jensen's, saw the opportunity and seized it. Jensen and Adrian's first rehearsal took place on the 28th of July in ATG´s old rehearsal place, where Jensen and Adrian jammed out on some of Jensen´s material as well as some old ATG classics. Before long, ATG's Anders and Jonas Bjorler joined the fold, on guitar and bass respectively.
The band still lacked a name and a singer when Earache, the label that had released ATG´s last, milestone album, "Slaughter Of The Soul", showed interest in them. Earache offered the band a place on the Earplugged 2 CD compilation, and the band accepted. With the recording only a week and a half away, the guys christened themselves „The Haunted and chose Adrian's friend, Peter Dolving (of Mary Beats Jane) to handle vocals.
A few months after the recording session for Earplugged 2, The Haunted had enough material to complete their debut album, and Peter Dolving had grown to a full-time member of the band. The Haunted's self-titled debut was recorded in the Fredman Studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, where At The Gates had recorded "Slaughter of the Soul". The Haunted's debut earned great praise, and was voted "Album of the Year" and "Newcomer of the Year" in such magazines as Terrorizer. A UK mini-tour with Napalm Death followed in fall of '98.
In the spring of 99, Peter Dolving left The Haunted to pursue other projects, and Face Down frontman Marco Aro was recruited out of a sea of young hopefuls to replace him. The Haunted played all the major European festivals in 1999, with Aro at the helm. During the summer of '99, The Haunted got word that Testament was interested in taking them on as an opening act on their upcoming US tour -- a dream come true for old school thrash fans like The Haunted. However, in the midst of rehearsing and planning for the tour, Adrian left the band to join Cradle of Filth. Danish drummer Per Moeller-Jensen (Invocator, Konkhra) was tracked down and after a few rehearsals he was made a permament member of the band.
The Testament tour lasted thru-out August '99 and exposed a whole new legion of US fans to The Haunted's full-on thrash attack. Back from touring, The Haunted started working on their second studio album. Released in fall 2000, "The Haunted Made Me Do It" was The Haunted's masterpiece to date. Exceeding all expectations, "The Haunted Made Me Do It' played like a ruthless manifesto of hardcore angst, unrelenting thrash, and melodic Gothenburg groove, detonating the boundaries of beauty and aggression. Since its release, "The Haunted Made Me Do It" earned countless accolades, including a Swedish Grammy for Best Hard Rock Album, and a 4-week occupation of the Number One spot on the CMJ Loud Rock Radio Chart in the US. In support of the album, The Haunted returned to America in the spring of 2001, following a re-issue of the album, including a bonus live CD entitled “Live Rounds in Tokyo”. The Haunted toured with Cannibal Corpse, Dimmu Borgir, and Lamb of God and again in November 2001 for their first headlining tour, with openers Catastrophic and Witchery. Founding member Anders Bjorler took a short hiatus from the band during the latter tour, but returned in time to write and record The Haunted's third album, "One Kill Wonder".
Recorded at Studio Fredman and produced by Fredrik Nordstrom (In Flames, Arch Enemy, At the Gates), "One Kill Wonder" was released February 2003. This is considered by many to be The Haunted's strongest album to date, spending 5 weeks at number 1 on CMJ Loud Rock Radio chart and dominating metal charts all over the world. The Haunted embarked on a world tour in support of "One Kill Wonder" in February 03, taking them to countries such as Australia, South Africa and Japan. This was to be a momentous year for the band, as they also received their second Swedish Grammy award. However, following another demanding tour of the USA, UK, Europe and Scandanavia with the likes of bands such as Mastodon, vocalist Marco Arco left the band and was swiftly replaced by original The Haunted vocalist Peter Dolving.
It was clear that with Dolving’s frenetic energy determined that The Haunted would pick themselves up and deliver their rampaging rock to the masses. In Spring 2004 they embarked on a tour of the UK supporting Welsh band Funeral for a Friend, following a stint in the studio recording album “Revolver” with co producers Patrik J. Steen and Fredrik Nordstrom. With Dolving’s aggressive approach, “Revolver” asserted The Haunted’s influential position in the world of thrash metal, entering the Swedish charts at number 18. Following the release of the album The Haunted signed to Century Media Records before setting out on tour with Arch Enemy and Damage Tranquility.
With plenty of critical acclaim and worldwide success, in 2004 The Haunted funneled their introspective music into the release of a special issue of the single ‘Smut King’, with proceeds going to the Tsunami Relief fund. This single was made available at Napalm Death gigs in Bochum and London in January 2005. This was set to be a year of extensive touring for The Haunted and their own brand of belligerent heavy metal. In March 2005 the band toured Europe alongside Moonspell and Cradle of Filth, but suffered set-backs as Jensen was forced to leave due to an illness affecting his father. However, on this occasion the band continued without his efforts, however when he had to pull-out of the US tour in May with Devildriver, Machine Head and It Dies Today the band did not follow on with the remaining dates.
Today, The Haunted continue to deliver their fresh blend of aggressive yet hopeful innovative thrash metal to fans worldwide, showing an established position alongside industry heavyweights such as Black Sabbath and at the 2005 Ozzfest and appearing at ‘Extreme the Dojo Vol 15’ in Japan alongside Nile and Exodus in 2006.