THE HAUNTED's MARCO ARO: 'We've Never, Ever Had An Argument In The Band Where We Shouted At Each Other'

In a new interview with Stefan Nilsson of Roppongi Rocks, vocalist Marco Aro of Swedish thrash metal pioneers THE HAUNTED spoke about his decision to rejoin the band in 2013 after a decade-long absence from the group. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When [THE HAUNTED guitarist Patrik] Jensen [initially] asked me [to come back], I actually told him, 'I know what you're gonna ask. And don't ask it because I'm not interested.' But then we talked about the whole format of THE HAUNTED 2012, '13, moving on, and it was appealing. And it was, actually, like coming home. The first rehearsal we had in Jonas's [Björler, THE HAUNTED bassist] garage… Because when we started playing the old songs and I was standing there, 'Oh, how does this start? How does this start? I can't remember. I can't remember.' And then it was time for vocals, and it just popped in my head. And so it was like coming home."

Regarding what has changed in the way THE HAUNTED operates today compared to how it was in the early days, Marco said: "The partying, I believe, is a lot different now. But also, there's still the core members. It's actually just Ola [Englund, THE HAUNTED guitarist] who doesn't have a previous stint in the band, so... But otherwise, it's just the same core, and we still really, really enjoy each other's company. And it's a blessing to be in your 50s, riding around in the world with your best mates doing very childish stuff. It's a blessing. And the good thing and the funny thing about this band is that we've never, ever had an argument in the band where we actually shouted or anything at each other. So we've always been good friends, and I think that's just because we give each other space a lot. And then in between shows and everything, we don't even speak to each other because we all live split up anyway, so we don't contact each other until it's time for shows. And I think that's what's saved this relationship a lot."

The music for "Songs Of Last Resort" was recorded by Oscar Nilsson at Studio Bohus, while the main vocals were recorded by Björn Strid at The Cellar Studio. The LP was mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (KREATOR, ARCH ENEMY, SEPULTURA). Artwork was once again provided by longtime visual collaborator Andreas "Diaz" Pettersson.

"Songs of Last Resort" was made available as a limited CD mediabook and poster (including the bonus track "Feeding The Furnace"),as a standard CD jewelcase, as a digital album and as a 180g LP and poster.

Earlier this year, Marco told Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show about THE HAUNTED's mindset going into the follow-up to 2017's "Strength In Numbers" album: "The thing is that we tried for eight years to make an album and COVID got in the way. I guess we appreciate it a lot more now because we're in a good place. We're in our 50s now and we still make music like we did in our 20s.

"The amount of success and appreciation this album ['Songs of Last Resort'] has gotten is overwhelming, actually, because we didn't think that [would happen] when we set out to write this and record this album. We just, once again, wrote an album for ourselves more or less. So it's been a interesting ride and we did not expect this, because in our minds, we didn't do anything different except that we decided to take the old HAUNTED sound and turn it up to 11. That's pretty much it, the whole idea behind it."

THE HAUNTED 2026 is (left to right in photo):

Ola Englund – rhythm, lead guitar
Jonas Björler - bass, backing vocals
Marco Aro - lead vocals
Adrian Erlandsson - drums
Patrik Jensen - rhythm guitar

Photo credit: Linda Florin