Made Me Do It

The Haunted’s sophomore album was released around the turn of the millennium, and it also meant a drastic change in style. ‘Made Me Do It’ is not a ferocious, raw thrash album like their debut, but contains more melodic death metal parts. One of the first things you’ll notice, is the difference in sound: the production is a lot cleaner and more open, providing the mix with more width for the melodic arrangements to shine through.

‘The Haunted Made Me Do It’ is certainly a strong release, just not as flawless as the eponymous debut. Still, in terms of song writing, overall the music is more thought-out and mature here. It’s no longer the straight-forward thrash fury of the debut album – with the exception of ‘Revelation’, a superb track which will have you wreck everything around you in a mere 90 seconds. It’s the kind of positively-destructive music you’d blast in your car on maximum volume right after a shitty meeting with your jerk of a boss.

This album contains some of The Haunted’s all-time fan favourites, such as ‘Bury Your Dead’, or the downright fantastic, anthemic ‘Hollow Ground’. One thing is evident, The Haunted sought a wider variation in song character compared to the debut, hence the more melodic guitar work, or the more diverse vocal arrangements, such as the half-whispered, half-growled phrases in ‘The World Burns’. This is also the first album to feature Marco Aro on vocals, replacing frantic loudmouth Peter Dolving. Aro obviously has a different vocal style, and to be honest, makes less of an impact on the listener than Dolving did. Through the use of studio fx, some songs create the illusion of having clean vocals (e.g. ‘Hollow Ground’, ‘Under The Surface’). Somehow it works well, and those are great tracks, but a vocalist that can actually sing might’ve been the better option, if you do decide to produce your album with a clean sound palette. Now you’re using technology to create an effect, that you may have found elsewhere naturally with a better singer?

If I had to pick one album that could be the soundtrack to a detective series, it would be this one. ‘Human Debris’ and ‘Silencer’ really have that rhythm and melody for a detective tv tune. It may seem kinda funny to you, but remember this album is called ‘Made Me Do It’, and the music does bring these Find-the-culprit images to mind. All the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit here.

In all, a very strong album. Just not as relentless as the debut.

85/100
Recommended tracks: Bury Your Dead, Hollow Ground, Revelation, Silencer, Under The Surface

After their angry debut, The Haunted returned quickly with their second full-length. The band was obviously in a creative flow and therefore "Made Me Do It" stands pretty close to their output from 1998. The first 90 seconds of the material, the intro "Dark Intentions", makes two things immediately clear. The Haunted still have an affinity for Slayer-esque riffing and the production opens the door to anger, hate and fury once again. It is no surprise that the first regular song, "Bury the Dead", possesses this straightforward approach of typical thrash openers. It provides the listener with a short infusion of high velocity, no more, no less. Even though the next track brings with it the first tempo breakdown, it is out of question that The Haunted like to score with harshness, violence and negativity. This does not exclude less vehement tracks like "Leech". But the basic atmosphere is full of darkness, depression and discomfort, no matter how massive and fast the songs are.

"Bury the Dead" opens the full-length for good reasons, because it is brilliantly designed and it met the expectations of those who had bought the debut very well. It is definitely great that more songs point in the direction of the first regular tune. The speedy closer completes the circle and further eruptions lie between these poles. "Revelation", almost as brief as the intro, celebrates a musical orgy of blood and stands shoulder to shoulder with the opener, but songs like "Human Debris" with its driving main riff also do not have to hide away. Not to mention the precise sharpness of the rapid "Silencer". The restlessly fighting guitars give the material a very lively element and the hateful vocals of the then new lead vocalist add the brutal touch. Freaks with a penchant for punk will probably also like this kind of songs, because they are more or less reduced to the essentials and avoid unnecessary complexity without being predictable or boring. Nevertheless, metal prevails.

Despite all its strengths, the output is not completely free from defects. "Hollow Ground" fails to deliver exciting guitars and the robotic vocals during the comparatively soft chorus appear strange. Was this their first kowtow to the greedy industry? I would not go that far, but it is a weak number, with or without commercial motivation. The band also tries to break the chains of its genre with the melodic chorus of "Under the Surface", and this experiment does not fully convince. Two little compositional flops, but the technical skills of the dudes are beyond doubt. Their accurate thrashing shows the dexterity and agility of the musicians. Okay, nobody expected anything else in view of their origin (Sweden) and their creative past (inter alia At the Gates). Nevertheless, it should be mentioned, because precision is a key success factor for a great thrash album. And "Made Me Do It", no doubt about it, is such an album. In my humble opinion, it is even slightly better than their debut.

I simply do not understand the hate that The Haunted seems to attract. Some people cannot get over the fact that At the Gates got big and split up, then some of the main players in that band took a different angle. Others seem to slap the mallcore label or the less offensive melodic death metal label on the band. Do these people even know what nu metal sounds like for fuck's sake! I pity the band for putting up with this bullshit, especially since all the musicians get less respect than they seem to deserve. Ex-At the Gates members aside, Jensen has kicked arse in Witchery and Seance and other lesser known musicians such as Marco Aro and Per Moller Jensen stepped up and delivered on this album. I'll be the first to admit this album isn't perfect, but for a band I recently saw getting cheers from Slayer fans at London Forum while plugging a supposedly trendier album than this, it's pretty fucking classy.

Interestingly, the band opened that concert with the opening 3 songs from this album, which takes off as the instrumental 'Dark Intentions' enters without bullshit, just one or two catchy riffs and plenty of speed. The pace doesn't let up for 'Bury Your Dead' either. I don't pretend that this is a true classic, nor that I rate Aro as a vocalist more than his predecessor Peter Dolving, but this is 3 unpretentious minutes of heads-down bluster with a real killer of a solo by Anders Bjorler - not too fast or technical but just perfect for the song. The hooks are all there and count the number of good riffs! Perhaps the most cohesive song of the whole album, particularly the pleasing transition to the more groovy, slower riffs after the second chorus. The third of these songs, 'Trespass', has the same catchy feel to it that so much modern thrash/melodeath/whatever-the-fuck-you-want-to-call-it is lacking. Simply, it sticks in my mind; there's no great vocal hooks like the previous song, but it's still a minor Haunted anthem in its own right.

Essentially, the rest of the album is made up of minor variations on these themes, though riffs are found in abundance and Anders Bjorler never needs to repeat a lead idea. There are a few more melodic moments found on the longer songs, 'Leech' slowing down into a contemplative mid-section, which also marks 'Hollow Ground' and 'The World Burns', which are 2 of the best developed and original numbers on the album. Indeed, these even feature a warbling, underwater effect on the vocals in the chorus. This is effective on first listen, though feels too predictable by the time that it is pulled out a third time for 'Under the Surface'. However, 'Victim Iced' is a blast in the face to follow and sees the band end the album on storming thrashy form. That means that, although the album drops off a little after 'The World Burns', nothing becomes stale or complacent, certainly not with a running time of under 40 minutes. The only flavour that begins to cloy as the experience goes on is Aro's fairly dry voice, which may begin to grate after his song-length outburst on the hyper-speed 'Revelation'.

I'm a fan of The Haunted who was less keen on their more recent, slower, melodic approach, but I completely have faith in the killing power of this album. Yes, there's thrash and maybe a bit of melodeath; no, there's no mallcore and, while it might fall slightly short of the debut in terms of out-and-out quality, Made Me Do It possibly beats it in terms of songcraft and flow, standing more as a great album rather than a great collection of songs.

I saw these guys live opening for Dimmu Borgir some years ago, right when this CD was released and live they killed! I actually thought for a moment that I was experiencing the second coming of Slayer. Little did I know. So when I bought this CD I was eagerly looking forward to a severe thrashing and instead got...meh.

First of all, Tue Madsen is absolutely overrated as a producer. This album sounds weak and tinny with a cardboard drum sound, and I was dismayed to hear this utter lack of sound quality. At least with black metal they have an excuse for sounding awful in their slavish quest to replicate the old school early 80s sound of its progenitors in an effort to create "atmosphere". But this...at least a good thick guitar tone, a better drum sound, and even some low end would've saved that aspect of the album. However, it sounds like a demo more than an actual professional caliber album, so points deleted for that alone.

The music is disappointingly weak and generic,and lacks the intensity they exhibited live. In fact, it is not terribly intense at all when you listen to it minus the adrenaline high of a live show. Marco Aro's vocals are weak and one-dimensional screeches that show he's listened to a lot of Pantera albums in his vain attempts at sounding like (the equally-overrated) Phil Anselmo. His low spoken parts here and there redeem him slightly, but not enough. The Bjorler brothers are disappointing too, with the guitar work being uninspired and overly restrained in an attempt to be "melodic" and the bass nonexistent as always, but even more so. Per-Moller Jensen's drumming is strong, but is sabotaged by Madsen's incompetence in the studio a la Rick Rubin's sorry excuse for production on "South of Heaven". Overall, whoever thinks this album is anything resembling inspired or even good is deceiving themselves. And yes, they do sound totally Swedish--after all, most of the band WAS only in At The Gates, the most copied band ever these days, so they can't help but sound that way.

In short, this band is terribly overrated and I'm sorry in retrospect that I bought this album. It is a waste of the Bjorler brothers' time in trying to continue what is often deemed a good thing (did I mention I think ATG are overrated too?) and watering it down for mass consumption. Even though they are competent players--hence the OK rating--this is a waste of time and money ultimately. If you want real thrash, get you some Destruction, old or new, and you'll see what the real dela is.

It's not that the album is horrible, it's just not anything mindblowing. This album is one of the better gothenburg metal bands, there's so many mediocre ones coming out that bore me.

They got a couple catchy tunes but they need more to makes this album worthwhile. With their more agressive heavier tracks, you could really hear a close resemblance to Slayer but just with a more hardcore/metalcore voice.

I've noticed, gothenburg melodic death and melodic hardcore/metalcore, are getting close. So many metalcore bands list In Flames, Soilwork, and Haunted as influences like Atreyu, From Autumn to Ashes, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage etc.

Hollow Ground is my favorite song here, nice catchy tune, a little singing thrown in, and a pretty good solo at the end. I like the song Trespass too, it's their more melodic side instead of their 'attempt at Slayer' side. All their thrash songs almost all sound the same with a few little changes in pace.

I know this melodic death stuff is hated by metalheads, just as much as nu-metal, but if you want to hear the best gothenburg melodic metal has to offer, this Haunted album is a good start.

First of all, let's state that this is not thrash, it's melodic death. Now that we've got that thing out of the way, let's begin with the review.

This album could actually be very good if they didn't try so damn hard. The sound is raw and angry, the guitars are heavy and have a very nice sense of melody, the drum and bass do their job very well. But the vocalist is quite mediocre. His half-shouting/half-growling voice is pretty weak.
My second complaint is that they just try too fucking hard to be too fucking brutal. There are a whole bunch of riff changes in every song, and while most songs have one or two damn fine riffs, most of it is incoherent, boring and very forgettable, and all the songs sound the same. It seems that they just added riff after riff along with kill-and-hate-everything lyrics, for the sake of adding riff after riff along with kill-and-hate-everything lyrics.
They need to concentrate on how the riffs work with eachother, and to make the verses more memorable.

It's not all bad though, there are quite a few highlights. Dark Intentions is a dark, heavy and melodic intro which sets a very cool mood, and it's followed by Bury Your Dead, one of the highlights. Very nice, and rather memorable all through. Keep writing stuff like this and you'll get about 70 from me.
We also have Leech. The opening riffs and verses are fucking brutal! Pounding double bass, and fast-as-hell devastating riffs, along with crushing midpaced verses. Headbanging madness! But, the rest of the song sucks ass. It's all too forgettable and boring, and the chorus is pretty much hardcore-ish.
Revelation is a fun little mosh number. Heavy, brutal and short- too short to be as forgettable as most of the songs, thus one of the best tracks.
Then it's all pretty much the same, until Under the Surface, which has some quite memorable stuff and a nice chorus done with clean vocals, and another short mosh track called Victim Iced, which closes off the album.

Those are the album's few good moments, the rest is pretty much shit.
Maybe their other albums are better; I shall have to see when I get them.

The Haunted Made Me Do It is one of those albums that has a visceral vibe only heavy metal can encompass... an intangible energy that runs through every riff, scream, or snare roll. After the Haunted's debut, they were christened the saviours of thrash ( a title i agree with) and the next Slayer... instead of taking a similar approach on MMDI, they opted for big choruses, the occasional melody, and better songwriting.

The first time I heard Dark Intentions/Bury Your Dead my jaw hit the floor... the same kind of feeling I got when I heard that first Slayer song 5 or 6 years ago. You just can't fuck with that, folks... Marco Aro does a good, if not outstanding job at replacing the mighty Peter Dolving. His clean vocals on Hallow Ground and Under the Surface are pretty lame, but sufficient. Aro's raspy style is rather like Mr. Tomas Lindberg, something I have no problem with whatsoever.

There is a few At the Gatesisms abound, as the Bjorler brothers take the majority of songwriting credits. Jensen puts in his 2 cents with Revelations, a fucking insane thrasher with enough riffs to kill your entire family twice, and Silencer, whose chord changes are almost hard rock at times. Leech is grinding and monolithic, Trespass is more melodic, and everything in between kicks alot of ass.

There were so many fucking ace albums in 2000.... dead heart in a dead world, of one blood, urkraft, blackwater park... made me do it is a welcome addition to that list. If you can't appreciate this, I worry about you

Well, what we have here is a very solid sophomore effort from The Haunted (an offspring of the At the Gates break up). This album isn't too different from a lot of albums coming out of the Gothenburg area, as it's the melodic death/thrash that everyone's heard by now, but it does have strong songwriting and great musicianship.

The album starts off with the killer intro "Dark Intentions" which is awesome thrash and then goes into "Bury Your Dead" which I can honestly say will tear your head off. The rest of the album is for the most part in the same vein except there are quite a few mid-paced songs with some well thought out melodies coming into play. Some highlights aside from the two previously mentioned songs are "Revelation", "The World Burns", and "Victim Iced".

This album is quite good and I pull it out from time to time but is it really worth a purchase? I can honestly say that I don't know as the album doesn't really stand out in my collection and there's a good chance that it won't in yours, but if you are big into thrash and gothenburg metal than I would say that it would be a good idea to atleast give the album a try before you write it off.