The Haunted – Songs of Last Resort
Release Date: 30th May 2025
Label: Century Media
Bandcamp
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
FFO: At the Gates, Entombed, In Flames.
Review By: Paul Cairney
It has taken The Haunted 27 years to album number 10, and it is 8 years since Strength in Numbers. So, the question is, does the modern death metal scene need The Haunted or is Songs of Last Resort precisely that? Songs by a band that have reached the end of the road and this is all they have?
The answer is an emphatic no. Basically, The Haunted have returned just in time to give you a swift boot up the arse for ever doubting them. Songs of Last Resort slays! It pumps! It rips your heart out, replacing it with your spleen, after all, the spleen is not really required elsewhere!
‘Warhead’ opens the album with unadulterated aggression, a typical The Haunted style track rammed full of riffs that grab you by the throat. ‘In Fire Reborn’ will have you singing along, banging the head and making you ponder why you haven’t been craving a new album from these Swedish stalwarts of the genre.
The thing with the band is that they never let you down. They are possibly the underrated giants of death metal, fusing the odd thrash element into their heady mix of riffs, blast-beats and a vocal that you can understand and sing-along with.
You get the chance to relax, ‘To Bleed Out’ is less frenetic, but still nice and heavy. Although my first listen felt that the album appeared to peter out, subsequent listens actually made Songs of Last Resort come to a graceful end.
If this album is ‘songs of last resort’ Satan alone knows how good the tracks were that would have been first choice. The Haunted are back and you have been warned.
(4.5 / 5)
