THE HAUNTED Frontman: I Am Convinced That Lots Of Our Fans Will Hate The New Album

Finnish webzine HardcoreSounds.net conducted an interview with THE HAUNTED vocalist Peter Dolving during the band's visit to Finland last month. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

HardcoreSounds.net: So how did you end up in a thrash band like THE HAUNTED?

Peter Dolving: "I don't have any relation to metal. When I started playing in a band named MARY BEATS JANE in 1992, they asked if I would like to sing in a metal band. My perception of metal was like big frizzy hair and all the stuff so I laughed at them. If you let me sing whatever I want and whenever I want, I'll try it. But it turned out that I liked metal. For me, seeing HELMET in 1992 was a revelation because I thought that they're like people like me but there were people with long hair. Why are they listening to this music? It wasn't traditional metal but still I loved it. So from there I kinda went to THE HAUNTED."

HardcoreSounds.net: What are you expecting from tonight's [August 11, 2006] show in [Helsinki]? Are you going to play us any new songs from your upcoming album?

Peter Dolving: "No, not yet. We are kinda holding up on them. We are going to rehearse the whole new record in September and when we go out on next tour we will play most of the material from the new record. We've never done that before. With this album we feel really good. We want people to hear it live. The songs are fucking heavy. We are really proud of it. I think it's the best album we have produced so far. I am absolutely 100% convinced that lots of our fans will hate it but I think that most of our fans will really, really enjoy it. It's the most 'metal' album we have done. It's more towards old METALLICA so cool stuff."

HardcoreSounds.net: You guys just finished the work of your new record "The Dead Eye" which will be released on October 31 through Century Media Records. Could you please be so nice and tell us something about the recording process. Was it all easy?

Peter Dolving: "It was pretty easy. Very uninteresting. When it comes to those things, we are one of those bands who are uninteresting. Writing songs is the most difficult part of the process. We were lucky this time because we had lot more time to write. We started writing like more than a year ago while on tour. We started collecting riffs and stuff and we had like 500 different riffs. By the time we got into the studio we knew what are kind of result we wanted. Fair and square and done. We hate being in studio because we have to sit there and repeat what you do until you get it right. What's good on this album is that we have done things a bit differently. In the mixing process we had a lot of fun so I am really proud of it.'

HardcoreSounds.net: Now let's get into the sound world of the album. If you compare "The Dead Eyes" to your previous "rEVOLVEr" album, what are the main differences you can find between these two albums?

Peter Dolving: "It is better. I think we play better, I sing better, the songs are better. We like it more. End of story. If the whole world hates it, what can we do? We have written this album purely for our enjoyment."

HardcoreSounds.net: What's your personal favourite track from your new record that you would like to recommend to our readers? Could you tell us a bit about it?

Peter Dolving: "Two songs: 'The Medusa' and 'The Cynic'. Those two songs are my favourite tracks from the new record."

Read the entire interview at www.hardcoresounds.net.