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'The Dead Eye' is hardly dead-on

Date published: 1/4/2007

By SAM KRIEG

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

The Haunted is a band with a lot to live up to.

Two members of this thrash metal band (think "Master of Puppets"-era Metallica) used to make their livings in the much-lauded At the Gates, pioneers of the "Gothenburg" sound, which inspired many of the bands popular today, such as As I Lay Dying and Shadows Fall.

Moreover, The Haunted's last album, "rEVOLVEr," was praised as their finest effort. With all that in mind, their new release, "The Dead Eye," had a lot riding on it.

Right off the bat, the band made a mistake with this album. Instead of simply launching into the first song, they had to include a useless intro track, "The Premonition." Fortunately, though, the following track, "The Flood," has a beginning that really gets the listener's blood up.

All of the songs on "The Dead Eye" have something in common: Their titles all begin with the word "the." From "The Premonition" to "The Guilt Trip," there's not a one without "the." While this isn't really the most crucial observation, it reinforces the feeling that this album is a bit formulaic.

Most of the songs have the same feel to them, and lyrical themes stay firmly in the "distrust everyone" and "reject religion" realms:

"Simplified, cliche rehash/ It's all streamlined, adjusted to match/ Pimped-up junk rides and a minimum life span," screams vocalist Peter Dolving on "The Shifter."

It seems pretty ironic. While this album is hardly "pimped-out," it seldom stands out from the rather large crowd of bands imitating At the Gates.

If one is a fan of Gothenburg-style bands, stay with In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Children of Bodom, all of whom do it better. If one is a fan of thrash, stick with the classics by Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, or with newer material from Municipal Waste and Nevermore.

SAM KRIEG is a student at Germanna Community College.

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Date published: 1/4/2007