Label: Century Media
Release: August 25, 2014

by DJ Insanity
Exit Wounds marks the beginning of a new path for Swedish metal band The Haunted. They were able to bring back former vocalist Marco Aro and add an legendary lead guitarist in Ola Englund(Six Feet Under) to keep the band going strong and keep pleasing the metal masses. “Exit Wounds” meshes a variety of sounds together with precision and allowed me to stay engaged while listening through the entire album.

The vibe was what I would consider a mix between older Arch Enemy and Lamb of God. Aro(vocals) laid a solid foundation of haunting, beautiful metal screams. The guitar work and overall composition was flawless through-out. At the end of the album I found myself wanting to hear more, so it definitely has qualities of an album you can listen to over and over.

“Cutting Teeth” is the first single off of Exit Wounds and serves as the perfect track to wet the listeners appetite for the metal onslaught that follows. “My Salvation” is a brutal yet melodic track that reminded me of Lamb of God, but with better vocals. This song got my adrenaline pumping and was my personal favorite from the album. This should please even the harshest of critics of metal.

Overall, “Exit Wounds” is an amazing piece of work that The Haunted should be proud of. My only critique is that towards the end of the album I felt less connected to the music then at the beginning partially due to lack of diverse sounding tracks in the middle of the album. Fans of this band and those that are getting their first taste should love this album. The changes to the line-up really made a great difference for the better and I could see this line-up playing for another 10+ years.

Rating: 8/10
Tracklist:
1. 317
2. Cutting Teeth
3. My Salvation
4. Psychonaut
5. Eye Of The Storm
6. Trend Killer
7. Time (Will Not Heal)
8. All I Have
9. Temptation
10. My Enemy
11. Kill The Light
12. This War
13. Infiltrator
14. Ghost In The Machine