I must admit to not being the hugest The Haunted fan in the world: while I did enjoy both rEVOLVER and Versus a fair bit, their other output left me somewhat wanting. However I am a massive Tool fan and I had heard that (rather surprisingly) that the new album has some Tool-esque qualities to it, this intrigued me.
On first listen to opening track Never Better didn’t scream so much Tool at me, but a much heavier Alice in Chains, this, in my opinion, is not a bad thing, given that I happen to love that band too, Peter Dolvig‘s voice sounding better and more melodic than I have ever heard it!
Catch 22 was the next track that caught my attention in a big way, this was a much more Tool sounding number, especially the closing minute or so, with it bubbling bass line and odd time signatured drums- not many bands can pull this change of direction off quite as well as The Haunted have here.
But, don’t worry The Haunted fans!
This album is not all slower paced numbers with clean vocals: after a clean toned and clean vocal intro, The Skull, kicks in with a chugging riff that Pantera would have been proud to have in their catalogue. Admittedly it does mellow out again towards the end of the song and ends with a quite frankly bizarre whistling outro, While it bleeds into the shortest and also mellowest number on the album, Ocean Park, which is a beautiful addition to The Haunted‘s repertoire.
The next two tracks The City and Them are easily the heaviest numbers on the album, both in terms of screamed vocals and guitars; however even then, both have their more melodic moments throughout- not a bad thing, but certainly not expected either.
The excellent Done finishes up this superbly produced album with a corker of a chorus that will be going round in this writer’s head for days, damn you The Haunted!
Overall, I would say that Unseen is an excellent album for melodic metal fans, but do not go into expecting a heavy or solo filled The Haunted album for you will be sorely disappointed (despite the quality of the songs that are present). This writer, however, is happy with the direction the band has taken for this album: it’s quite possibly the best thing they’ve released yet!
