THE HAUNTED Frontman Discusses 'Unseen' Album In New Interview

France's Metal Sickness recently conducted an interview with vocalist Peter Dolving of Swedish metallers THE HAUNTED. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Sickness: Is there something to understand regarding the title of the [new THE HAUNTED] album ["Unseen"]? What cannot be seen?

Dolving: Look at us! All of us, going along with the everyday stride, everyone like good little puppets on a string, dancing to the tune of the piper. We keep justifying what we all feel frustrated and unhappy about. At the center of an entire civilization is a deep-rooted dissatisfaction. We claim we don't want to be mere cogs in a machine we claim to dislike. We have a thousand excuses as to why, and a thousand ways to escape our drab gray realities. Yet we all know. We really really know what is wrong, and what keeps us complacent. We just don't have the guts to turn the lights on to look at it.

Metal Sickness: Thanks to [your] Facebook page, we have been updated very frequently regarding the recording process and it seems that this one have been very, very short this time… How long did the process take from the first rehearsals to the final mastering?

Dolving: Bah! Recording processes are supposed to be short. Preparation, on the other hand, must take time. It's like forging the steel to make a sword. Or learning to strike with power and precision. Or making the perfect stroke with a paint brush! This time... we created, learned, rehearsed the music in 18 months. We recorded, mixed and mastered it in five weeks. No big deal.

Metal Sickness: How do you guys works? Do you still jam together in the same room or are you more working with Internet ?

Dolving: These days we find that working deliberately, slowly, each in the quiet surroundings of our homes/workplaces and simply sending musical sketches back and forth to each other until the compositional phase is over. After this, we rehearse. Not so rock and roll in the eyes of fools. However, I claim true greatness comes from disciplined work, not childish spontaneity. The work is necessary to transcend the ego of member, and enter what is the groups higher identity. It's crazy, I know. But that's art!

Metal Sickness: The sound of this record is particulary brillant and clear; the drum sounds very natural while the guitars are — to me — a little bit downmixed. What was your goal regarding the sound of this album? Do you miss the "raw" sound we can hear on "RevolveR", for example?

Dolving: Hahaha, it's funny. None of us can actually listen to "RevolveR" anymore, because we think it's played, sung/screamed and mixed so sloppy. At the time it felt right, but that's the beauty of doing this music-thing. It changes you. Transform the people who do it on such a fundamental level that ten go by and you have become a different person, total disintegration and reformation, and it's continual. In regard of the sound on this album, it's somehow more human. Again, I return to the Zen, it is necessary to scale down somethings for a better balace, a more pure experience. Both for us as musicians and for our audience.

Metal Sickness: One more time, some die-hard fans will say that you are not a thrash metal band anymore… What would you say to them?

Dolving: We became THE HAUNTED. You don't have to love us. You don't have to love our music. We promise we won't chase you, we won't come to your house and shit on your front porch if you find how we keep evolving doesn appeal to you. But we do however suggest that you give the music we make today and have over the years a good listening to, you might find you understand what we are doing. And if not, then just keep enjoying the one or two albums you love, it's all good.

Read the entire interview from Metal Sickness (scroll down for English version).