Haunted

Emerging from the dissolution of the influential mid-'90s Swedish death metal outfit At the Gates, The Haunted incorporated alumni from Witchery and Face Down. Extensive personnel turnover defined their late-'90s phase until the 2000 arrival of The Haunted Made Me Do It validated the growing anticipation for the group. Guitarist Anders Björler and bassist Jonas Björler exited At the Gates in 1996 and became founding participants in The Haunted alongside ex-Seance guitarist Jensen and ex-At the Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson. Nearly twelve months passed before they secured a suitable frontman, ultimately selecting Peter Dolving of Mary Beats Jane once Earache recruited the ensemble to appear on the Earplugged 2 compilation. The band then tracked its self-titled debut with that configuration, earning widespread acclaim throughout the metal scene. Erlandsson and Dolving subsequently departed—the former to join Cradle of Filth—yet the remaining members promptly recruited Per Moller Jensen on drums and Marco Aro on vocals. Reconstituted, they entered the studio to cut their second album, The Haunted Made Me Do It, which Earache promoted aggressively and which again elevated the band’s profile. Representing a marked advance over the debut, the record fused the melodic inclinations of late-period At the Gates material with fresh intensity, producing an uncommon synthesis of elegance and ferocity seldom achieved in death metal. Björler stepped away temporarily before rejoining for 2004’s One Kill Wonder, the group’s final Earache release. In 2005 Dolving returned and the band aligned with Century Media. Their inaugural effort for the label, 2005’s rEVOLVEr, demonstrated further sonic maturation and drew near-universal praise for surpassing all prior work. Dead Eye appeared in 2006, after which the group joined Dark Tranquillity, Into Eternity, and Scar Symmetry on the North American Metal for the Masses tour. Following a prolonged hiatus, they reconvened to record Versus, issued in fall 2008. The 2009 compilation Warning Shots collected earlier highlights, while the 2010 live set Road Kill—captured during the preceding year’s Slayer trek—arrived as a CD/DVD package documenting the band’s onstage power. New compositions took shape during the ensuing lull, culminating in the boldly experimental Unseen, released March 2011. A European tour preceded 2014’s Exit Wounds, which introduced guitarist Ola Englund and welcomed back Marco Aro and Adrian Erlandsson after more than a decade’s absence; both critics and audiences responded enthusiastically to the subsequent shows. For 2017’s Strength in Numbers the band opted for producer Russ Russell (Napalm Death, Dimmu Borgir) rather than longtime collaborator Tue Madsen and, for the first time, arrived with completed arrangements and prerecorded elements. The album surfaced in August.