The Haunted

Arising from the ashes of the important mid-'90s Swedish death metal band At the Gates and featuring former members of Witchery and Face Down, the Haunted went through countless lineup changes during the late '90s before finally releasing The Haunted Made Me Do It in 2000, confirming the excitement surrounding the band. Back in 1996, guitarist Anders Bjorler and bassist Jonas Bjorler left At the Gates, eventually ending up as early members of the Haunted, along with ex-Seance guitarist Jensen and ex-At the Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson. Though it took the band nearly a year's time to find an adequate vocalist, they eventually settled for Peter Dolving from Mary Beats Jane after Earache approached the group about contributing music to their Earplugged 2 compilation. Soon the band went into the studio with this lineup and recorded their self-titled debut, which won plenty of praise from the metal community. Unfortunately, Erlandsson and Dolving ended up leaving the band, but the remaining members quickly found a new drummer and vocalist, Per Moller Jensen and Marco Aro, respectively. With the band rebuilt, they entered the studio once again, recording their sophomore album, The Haunted Made Me Do It, which received a heavy -- and definitely warranted -- push by Earache, again catapulting the group into the eyes of the metal community. A leap forward from their debut, The Haunted Made Me Do It presented a unique approach to death metal that took the melodic tendencies of the late At the Gates material to a new level, resulting in an innovative blend of beauty and aggression that rarely surfaces in death metal and even less frequently appears this realized.