The Haunted @ Mean Fiddler, London 24 February 2005

This was to be second time in 3 months that I would be seeing the mighty Haunted. After catching them with Arch Enemy last December playing a shorter set, I was much looking forward to seeing them in the headline slot tonight. The Mean Fidder was packed to rafters and simmering with anticipation as the crowd waited for the Swedes to arrive on stage. My first observation here was that judging by the assortment of T-Shirts in the crowd The Haunted have successfully planted a foot in both the traditional thrash and metalcore camps, which finacially must be a very appealling situation for them.

The first surprise once the Bjorler brothers and Co arrived on stage was their choice of "Hate Song" as show opener. Traditionally their closer, playing it at the start ensured that the energy in the venue was instantly fired up to the maximum. Interestingly, the new album "rEVOLVEr" was totally ignored for close to the first half hour, the band instead opting to reward the long-time fans who had attended with gems from albums past including "Tresspass", "God Puppet", "Shadow World" and "In Vein". From rEVOLVEr then the band played "99", "No Compromise", "All Against All" and "My Shadow" among others. Being a longer set, frontman Peter Dolving tried his hand at some more Marco Aro era material, including "Bury Your Dead" and "Hollow Ground". Where this had worked fabulously back in December however, tonight I got the impression that he was straining a bit. Whether this is because of the material itself or because the Haunted have been touring non-stop for a while is unclear, but thankfully the sheer brilliance of the band's playing ensured that these particular songs were enjoyable nonetheless. An off night then for Dolving, but The Haunted proved tonight that they are as slick a machine as ever, and the future looks bright with all bets on them staying at the top of the metal tree.

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