After an eight-year hiatus, the Swedish thrash metal band The Haunted will release their 10th studio album via Century Media Records.
A band that goes back to the late 90s that never gave up their sound motto and essence, in 2024 decided to come up together with a raw and more aggressive album that targets war and the world issues we’re nowadays facing.
The quintet will be touring around Scandinavia and hopefully next year more shows and tours will be added to their list.
M.I. - Hope you are doing well! It’s been a while since Strength in Numbers (2017) came out. How are things with the band these days?
We are doing great. We don’t live in the same city, except me and Ola Englund; we are all spread out. Every time we get together is when we are doing a show.
Every time we do a show, in these eight years, we have been talking about releasing a new album. We were always excited about producing a new album, but unfortunately the idea somewhat dies out. Ola writes down one song, puts it into our Dropbox archive, Jonas does the same and it has been like this for almost eight years.
Last year, we got together in the Sweden Rock Festival and that’s when we took the decision that we couldn’t keep pushing back this. We had eight years worth of songs in the Dropbox, but none of them could be used. We had to write new ones, completely from scratch, and in three months the album was done. When we wrote the album, it seemed that the whole band was on the same page. It was a fantastic experience.
M.I. - With such a long history of working together, leaving and returning members, can you share with us some good memories since 1996?
They were all good! At least my experience or my time in the band we have never had any argument. We are just five friends having the best time of their lives.
It’s really hard to pinpoint one top notch memory, because all of them were good. However, it’s easier to pinpoint one or two which weren’t the best ones, especially when you are traveling. We did one show in the USA, in Omaha (Nebraska), and the promoter was only 16 years old. We couldn’t even buy alcohol; he had to call his father to get some alcohol. When you are on the tour bus and you need to use the toilet, most of them were full of shit and beer cans. It was horrible.
We did our best and we put drum kits and all the gear tuning up to eleven, and did the show as mentioned. I even remember having one guy standing next to us crying, because we were there. We have so many memories, because being in a band with the four of your best friends and traveling around the world you can do sometimes very childish things. Yes, they weren’t always good moments, but the good outweighs the bad.
M.I. - Strength in Numbers (2017) brings us a The Haunted thrash metal sound, a little bit similar to Made Me Do It (2000) and One Kill Wonder (2003). What can we expect about the upcoming one?
It’s The Haunted that used to be, but the aggression turned up to eleven. I got one question from one previous interview which the interviewer asked me if this is the album that should have come after One Kill Wonder? The answer would be probably yes.
It’s the same spirit. The only thing we did talk about this new upcoming album was: let’s make a really aggressive one, nothing fancy just aggression. I guess we succeeded. For instance, the song In Fire Reborn is a traditional old school The Haunted song, really aggressive.
That’s the only thing we know how to do. It would sound pathetic doing something that we are not comfortable with, such as sounding like new bands. That’s not us, that’s not what we do, and they do a lot better than us.
M.I. - “Warhead” video definitely targets the current worldwide issues. Similar to the album cover, could be a message that The Haunted wants to send to the world?
The thing is we were never a political band, nor will we ever be. Yet, when we start to write the lyrics (me, Patrik and Ola) it pretty much got us quickly writing down together about war and the horrors of war itself, and the absolute shit about the world we are forced to live in right now.
We don’t really have a political message behind us. That song it’s even an anti-war song, and In Fire Reborn concerns what war does to a soldier and even to humanity. It’s not like a conscious thought we had, but it’s something that we actually targeted. I believe it’s an important message, hard to ignore, on the news and social media everyday.
M.I. - What can you tell us about the collaboration with the Swedish director, Patric Ullaeus?
He’s a really big heavy metal video producer. He also makes commercials. He’s quite crazy enough to come up with these ideas.
He’s very professional, and if you look at his videos, he’s the guy who manages to pull an idea out of the box. He managed to find an old atomic shelter in Gothenburg to record the video. It’s nowadays a museum, but he managed to get us there to film the video, which adds a lot of momentum to it.
M.I. - Since 2004, you have been with one of the largest music labels, Century Media Records. Such a long history and relationship, can we say they are like family?
Yes, they are. It felt like the two previous albums were ok, but when this one was already finished, they listened to the first couple of songs, and they were really into it.
I guess they also found the old The Haunted as well. We got one more single coming out, and then the album drops. Plus, on this album I decided to work with a different vocal producer. The previous one moved to the upper north, and it’s like a 12-hour drive, and in the beginning, we tried to coordinate things, but it was difficult. Then, I reached out to Bjorn, and he agreed to work on the vocals with me. He didn’t let me get away with stuff.
M.I. - You will be touring around Europe, in a few cities and towns around Sweden. Don’t forget about Portugal!
The thing is we decided to have a few festivals. Let’s start up small, so we’re covering Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Nevertheless, next year we are almost full. We are having a lot of bookings for shows and tours. We are in our fifties, and we’re getting old and comfortable. Fortunately, we can afford today to have the luxury of picking our shows and tours, so next year hopefully.
M.I. - If music wasn’t an option, what would be your dream job?
I probably enjoy my job right now. I’m a blacksmith and it doesn’t get more metal than that! I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years.
When The Haunted was created in the early 2000s, I never quit my job. It helped me to be grounded, and distance myself from a little bit of music. I love this, and I wouldn’t want to work with a lot of people.
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Questions by André Neves
