The Haunted - "The Dead Eye" (Century Media, 2006) [key tracks: The Medusa, The Shifter, The Flood]
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"High on fire and solid confidence; truthful rantings, but no one is listening. Check collateral, sweep the corners... the fear of words in a fu**ed-up reality. Steal my freedom of speech, my liberty, fail my rights to express myself... All this Half-Life semper-fi stone-faced bullsh** infecting me to deplete my design. I'm drowning in the fear of gods; the more I see the less I want. I was not raised to shut my mouth, but as long as it holds me I'll fight it and scold it, all my life!"
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Next week is going to full of fun posts for me. As I mentioned, in the last month I scored 4 of my top 5 most wanted LPs, and even scored 2 of my favorite LPs ever which I was not even aware existed on vinyl. Happy month for me! Back to the metal today as we look at a modern classic...
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Carl's Favorite Songs - #33 - Cure for Pain by Morphine
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The Haunted. How did I ever miss these guys' existence? Oh wait, I know, because their earlier albums were above average modern Euro-metal. That isn't to say they weren't good, there were just so many others like them. Hailing from Sweden, you sort of build a pre-conceived notion of what to expect... nihilistic black metal right? Screams and blast beats? Until the LP before this one, yep. "rEVOLVEr" was a watershed moment... you could still hear the old recipe at work, but something in their eyes changed focus... you could tell they were jumping off into a new direction. And which direction is that? Where were they looking to for the future?
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How about brutal, industrial-influenced thrash-and-emo-metal. That maybe undersells how great it is. Let me put it another way... "The Dead Eye" is better produced, heavier, and more thrilling than any Tool album since "Undertow." Stunned? I was too. They resisted the urge to turn sludge metal cum whining (ala Isis), or over dramatic concept driven metal (ala Neurosis) and just unleashed a grind/thrash album with a message and a soul. Thank God thrash music still exists without the horrible Nordic cliches that usually come packaged with it. There is still plenty of screaming and violence, but there are also down tempo pieces; movements that do an unexpectedly good job at evoking true emotion, just to set you up for a tidal wave of fury. It never becomes tiring, repetitive, or self-indulgent. It was as if they were aware at all times to throw out even one solo that smelled of past offerings. The bar for modern thrash has now been set higher.
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My favorite song, "The Medusa," is a must hear for anyone being neglected or rejected by a woman. The macho helplessness-slash-murderous-hate that comes out of lead singer Doving's mouth are sinister in every aspect of the word. "She is a saint, her womb is a place of rejection. She washes her perfect skin quietly, and hates me for being real!"
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I would say that "The Dead Eye" is a sleeper smash, and the most overlooked LP of 2006. If you are looking for something that has some real power behind it, and a hell of a lot of talent, this is a must buy. From art direction to production values, this is a perfect modern metal LP. And in my humble opinion, it ranks up in the pantheon of all time metal classics (somewhere lower than "Number of the Beast" and higher than "Justice for All"). Not since Sepultura's "Chaos AD" have I heard a diversion from form this drastic come out so perfect. I hope they can keep it up!
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Horns up!