COLOURFUL MEAN HEADBANGERS ROCK FURIOUSLY

Some call it neo-, aggro- or modern thrash. Other, more tentative and reflective sorts describe it as melodic thrash with death metal and hardcore influences. And then there are those who refer to it as a meagre shadow of At The Gates or even ‘utter dog-shit in sonic form’. As for the content of this feature, it will suffice to label The Haunted as a band that have struck an adamant chord on the darker, more hard-line branch of the music scene, as well as carved their initials into the muster roll of kick-ass metal musicians. Back in September 2004, a month before the release of the fourth The Haunted album entitled rEVOLVEr, vocalist and lyricist Peter Dolving made a call to the Evilution hotline for a verbal knuckle tango. Ready – set – fight!

# To what extent is it different to play in The Haunted now compared to when the band wrote and recorded the debut album?

“There are many, many things. The biggest difference is that we’re in a completely different situation as far as the band is standing today. We have a new record company, and that really affects us a lot, you know. The attitude within the band is a lot more positive and laid-back these days, because we feel a lot safer, I guess, knowing that we have a record company that really supports us. They are willing to really go the full mile for us, which feels really good. Also, I think we have grown softer in a way... Or actually, I think we’ve grown harder! [laughs]. But in a good way, you know.”

# In the sense that it’s easier to work together with the songwriting?

“Yeah, I think we’re not as afraid to speak our minds anymore, but in a way where we are willing to listen as well. I’d say that we’re in a really good place.”

# Rumour has it that the unsatisfactory collaboration with Earache was a strong reason for you to leave the band in the first place. How does it feel to rejoin the band on a completely new professional basis; and how are things going so far with Century Media?

“Really well. Century Media understands what running a record company should be like. It should be about having trust in your artists and having trust in yourself. There’s no reason for paranoia, schemes and going behind people’s backs and all that kind of crap, because it’s something that you do together between a record company and a band. Putting out records, marketing them and all that stuff. A record company like ‘the other one’... They don’t have a record company to sell music, put it out and keep a certain musical style alive. They have a record company to fuck with people, make money and go behind their backs: just being assholes. But that’s really not our problem anymore.”

# A kind of rebirth for the band?

“Yeah, it is.”

# How was it to work with Patrick Sten and Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman for the recordings of rEVOLVEr?

“Soft! The way it always is with these guys. We’ve known each other for so many years now that we have a lot of trust in each other. It’s almost like we’re friends more than anything else. These guys are really skilled at what they do. You know, after so many years they have really grown to a high level of expertise. So it’s really cool that you can just tell them what you want, and they will give us the sound that we need. And then from there on we just have to do everything ourselves! [laughs]. It’s like that – which is nice. Patrick is there to kind of hang in and sit there as a sort of moral support more than anything else. If you get tired or if you have a bad day, you know. All in all, I’d say that it’s a very creative environment, because they don’t respect anything [laughs]. They are these very classically Scandinavian kind of assholes! [laughs again]. We love them.”

# Is it somehow difficult to vent all that anger and aggression in a studio environment that is so very comfortable and stress-free?

“No, it’s the other way around. This is how it works for me: the happier I am, the safer I feel to completely just fucking let go. I think, as my life has grown nicer and kinder during these years, I’ve finally started to get my feet on some kind of good, solid ground. I find it easier to express really, really strong dark stuff, and I think that has to do with just feeling safer, I guess, because I have a lot of hell in me. I really do. And I’m really happy that I have the opportunity with music to really let it out. Not only does it turn out as really good music, but it makes me feel good, you know [laughs].”

# Maybe you could tell me a little bit about the somewhat unorthodox choice of artwork for rEVOLVEr. Judging from the comments I’ve read on various forums on the internet, people seem to either love it or hate it...

“Good! That’s a really good way for it to be. Then we’ve made an imprint. That’s our friend Frode Sylthe who’s from Copenhagen and is an incredible artist. He’s one of our really good friends from back to even before the band started, and as far as we knew he was studying to become a dentist. In the meantime, as we were touring and doing all those things, he completely changed his mind as to where he wanted to go, and he started studying at Designskolen [The Art School] in Copenhagen. He came out top of his class this spring, and we had no idea. So we were just kind of sitting there in his house drinking coffee on the day when we played with Entombed at Stengade in Copenhagen before the Sweden Rock Festival; he was just sitting there talking, and we started discussing all this really cool art that he had on his walls. Some of it he had done himself, and some other stuff he had just bought. We said: ‘Wow – that’s some really, really, really cool stuff! Where did you get all that from?’ And he answered: ‘Well, I started on this art school, and it’s going really well.’ [laughs]. We were just shocked, you know, and said to him: ‘Man, please, come on! You have to try and see if you can come up with something for us and for this album.’ And his answer was: ‘Uh, are you sure? Do you really want me to?’ And of course we wanted him to do the artwork. I mean, he’s one of our best friends, and he’s an incredible artist. So we asked him to do it, and he came up with these two incredible covers. It just blew our minds. Fantastic stuff, it couldn’t be better. Both covers kind of give you this sick feeling in your gut. When you see the finished covers as you’re holding the album in your hands, you will know what I’m talking about. They are scary [laughs]. And that’s really what it should be like. They really complement the music and give the records that extra thing. He’s really worked it out of the lyrics as well, you know. I’m really proud that he’s done the artwork. Yeah, I have to say this once again: I am so impressed and proud that he even wanted to do this, because it’s an amazing artwork.”

# You recently filmed a video for the song “All Against All”. Why was this particular track chosen as the first single, and how did the recordings of the video turn out?

“Well, the video turned out really good. It was a very simple, straightforward approach. It’s basically just a bunch of hard-rockers having a good time, bashing it out, jumping around and headbanging, really [laughs]. We chose this song because it’s got this cool duality – sort of – to it. On the one hand it’s very catchy, and it’s got this kind of At The Gates-vibe to the riffs. The vocals are more kind of rock-influenced, but at the same time they are just furious. They’re really, really angry, and the lyrics are just verging on disgusting [laughs]. It’s a song about how, I guess, we turn blind because we place so much trust in what different media and our surroundings in general tell us we should be like. How we ought to walk, talk, scheme and go behind each other’s backs: basically all the crap that surrounds the everyday life of everyone. Which is all complete nonsense. And when it goes as far as even affecting how we have sex, then it’s just twisted. You will have people doing poses and stuff [laughs]. Well, we know that people act in this way and talk to each other about it, and it’s really strange that we’re so affected by what we see. Instead of being humans we act out what we think is human. Obviously, we really don’t have a clue. Do we really think the media can tell us what it’s about? All they do is put out this extreme example, so to speak, and it’s really bizarre.”

# On the surface it seems that the lyrical content on rEVOLVEr revolves less around these concept-oriented serial killer themes, and that it rather deals with more broad-spectrum societal issues. What are your comments on that observation?

“Actually, to be perfectly honest, I don’t agree with that [laughs]. But I understand why you say that. I think the imagery surrounding the previous albums has been of the sort that has led the mind to that very much. But if you sit down and read through the lyrics on those albums, you will find that there are only a few of the songs that have that actual subject. Songs like “Urban Predator” [off One Kill Wonder] or “Trespass” [off Made Me Do It]... No sorry, not that song. “Trespass” is actually not about that. But “Choke Hold” [off the eponymous debut], for example, is very obviously concerned with that theme. If you listen to songs like “Bury Your Dead” [off Made Me Do It], which is almost like a straight-edge hymn, or “Shadow World” [off One Kill Wonder], which is very much about losing yourself in this fucking wretched society, or “Hollow Ground” [off Made Me Do It], which is almost like a really dark scream of despair in a way... Really, our one basic thing that comes back, and which is the same on all four albums, is basically concerned with the human condition, although it in a variety of ways deals with the extremes of this human condition. Feeling extreme rage, despair, sadness – or just looking at different kinds of extremities and not kind of understanding them. I guess, in many ways, we are a bunch of fucking alienated people [laughs]. We speak our minds through that and try to put words to all that and verbalise it. Actually, there are not that many songs that deal with the traditional serial-killer themes. I think, in choosing what we have as far as artwork and themes are concerned, people have kind of angled what they think and perceive the songs to be about. If you sit down with the lyrics only and read them, I think you will come to new conclusions. I’ll recommend that you do that! All the lyrics on all the albums really add so much to the music, and a lot of times lyrics are not really taken for what they are. Read the lyrics on the previous albums and you will find a completely new dimension of The Haunted, a really amazing dimension.”

# Obviously, the title of the album is meant to contain two meanings. Is it also supposed to describe a kind of conflict or dichotomy between the two words ‘revolver’ and ‘evolve’?

“Absolutely.”

# No further comments on that?

“You got it [laughs].”

# Right, we will avoid a deeper analysis then and move on to an earlier-mentioned subject: the Stengade show with Entombed. How was it to perform at what could be described as a sort of exclusive trial run before the Sweden Rock Festival?

“It was fun. It was really fun.”

# In a more symbolic sense: a concert synthesis between the old-school represented by Entombed and the new-school represented by The Haunted?

“Well, I think the two bands represent the same kind of world. Maybe it’s because we’ve known each other for so long. We played and toured together in different constellations back when I was in Mary Beats Jane, and Entombed have played together with At The Gates so many times. It was just a great thing to do, because we’re good friends and we really like each other.”

# Earlier this year you laid down some guest vocals on a MCD by the Canadian band Preacher, which almost begs the question: What have you been working with musically in the time before you rejoined The Haunted, and are you currently working on other musical projects?

“Yeah, I do. We have Bring The War Home, which was previously known as The Peter Dolving Band, because we never really could figure out what to call it [laughs]. As far as that goes, we’re doing a new record with Bring The War Home right now. I’m going to put down the vocals when I return back home. As far as time will allow it, Jensen is involved with Witchery, and they just recorded a new album. We do a lot of other things, actually. Anders does some commercial-music work. We try to do different kinds of stuff.”

# To stay active?

“Stay active – and it’s enjoyable as well because we get to explore different ways of expressing yourself through music. That way we will have more to kind of bring back home into The Haunted.”

# Incidentally, you have been quite active on the live front with the rest of the guys throughout the first half of 2004. What is it like performing songs from Made Me Do It and One Kill Wonder live; do you consciously seek to execute these songs in line with your personal vocal style rather than emulating Marco Aro?

“You know, I naturally make them my own. I don’t think I could play these songs if I couldn’t make them my own or relate to them. They’re really good songs so that’s not a problem. If they weren’t I don’t think it would be easy for me at all. But they are incredibly good songs; I’ve got some favourites among them.”

# The Haunted won their second Swedish Grammy in February this year. What does it feel like to receive that sort of mainstream recognition, if you will?

“Yeah, it’s bizarre, isn’t it? [laughs]. It feels good and bizarre at the same time. It’s so strange because we don’t really have anything in common with that world and the people involved, who have decided that we should be the ones to earn their respect or their prize or whatever. So it’s fun! [laughs]. And it’s very, very, very flattering that... Well, I don’t know. It’s just weird! [laughs again]. Why the hell are they doing it? But thanks – I guess.”

# Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to be hailed and recognised as one of the most notable outfits from the Gothenburg scene?

“Uh, I don’t know. We don’t really think about it. In a way we are this band from Gothenburg; it’s always been like that. We live there and, I suppose, we all played a part in defining this so-called Gothenburg sound. If that has any kind of effect on things I suppose that’s good. We really don’t give it much thought. It’s more something that just is.”

# Is the Gothenburg scene in truth as healthy and dynamic as it is commonly presented, or is it rather the case that many new bands from the area have the benefit of receiving an unfailing and undue amount of attention and recognition from the record-buying masses, purely by virtue of where they come from?

“Right now, I think, there’s a good scene again, but it’s not a traditional metal-scene anymore. For a while it was, but it all kind of dwindled away. Right now there’s a big alternative music-scene going on. Really bizarre kinds of music: electronica, experimental noise and so on. There are some really, really strange bands coming out right now, like Kid Commando, who have got some really cool stuff, or a band like The Virgins, who are having an incredible impact. So who fucking knows what kind of music these guys play? I think they’re really cool, but they’re not your traditional rock-music or anything. They have influences from so many sides. As I said no one really knows what’s going to happen. Who knows? There’s a really strong hardcore scene growing again in Gothenburg. All the kids that were around when At The Gates, Mary Beats Jane, Dissection and Dark Tranquillity were starting out are now in their twenties, and they are starting straight-edge bands and stuff. They kind of latched on to what we were doing back then, and it’s been a great influence on them, but they don’t sound anything like that. In certain areas they’ve even kind of surpassed us. They sort of mix a really hard edge with pop. It’s really twisted – and really cool. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what a band like Set My Path or The Virgins can do with the really twisted stuff they’re working with.”

Conducted and written by Misereion.