Many heralded the return of vocalist Peter Dolving to The Haunted in 2003 as one of the best things that could have happened to the band. As is often the case, the departure and subsequent replacement of a band’s front man is typically a turning point in a band’s career from the all important fan’s point of view. Former vocalist Marco Aro’s announcement to leave The Haunted in 2003 could not have come at a more critical time as the band were in the midst of shopping around for a new label after fulfilling their contractual obligations with Earache Records - a label The Haunted signed to after forming out of the ashes of legendary Swedish thrashers At The Gates.

With the news of Dolving’s reinstatement into the band’s ranks, soon after they inked a deal with Century Media Records. The result was 2004’s acclaimed rEVOLVEr which saw not only the welcome return of Dolving’s interminable screaming, but also bore witness to the band exploring new musical territory (with tracks such as Burnt To A Shell and the awesome My Shadow) along side their normal helping of thrashtastic anthems (such as 99 and No Compromise) as well as working with Tue Madsen (Mnemic, Heaven Shall Burn) at Antfarm Studios in Denmark for the first time.

The Haunted hit the road in what seemed to be a relenteless schedule. Two thousand and five saw the band tour Europe several times with artists such as Insision, God Forbid and Cradle Of Filth as well as a U.S. tour with Meshuggah. Add to that their part in the annual summer circus known as Ozzfest and very quickly, 2005 is all but obliterated. But there’s no rest for the wicked as The Haunted are about to embark on brief tours of Japan and Australia with none other than Exodus in tow. Whilst Australian thrash fans can barely contain their excitement for the pending shows, The Haunted guitarist Patrik Jensen is battling the classic winter cold. “I’m fine…suffering from a cold but I’m doing better now,” begins Jensen as he discusses their upcoming tour of Australia, having Exodus as their opening act, their new album and just how frantic things have been for the band since we last spoke in October 2004.

“Ehhhhhhhh,” sighs Jensen. “Crazy. I mean, I hardly even remember last year. We started to tour in October 2004 for rEVOLVEr and 2005 just came and went. Playing a show is great, but being on the road for that long is not fun. If you’re on the level of Kiss or whatever, it might be nice. But just living on a bus for more than a year makes you feel like you’re living in a trailer in Louisiana or something. It kinda burns you out but I was just on vacation in Thailand and Hong Kong for five weeks. So I tried to catch up on some rest there.”

The Haunted’s historical gig guide on their website shows you just how busy these guys were in 2005 and there certainly doesn’t seem to be to many blanks for some time at home.

“No and I actually moved three times and…it’s a long story. Finally I got to come home and get everything sorted and get all of those moving boxes out of the way. So things are looking better!”

Whilst The Haunted were undoubtedly busy during 2005 with shows around the globe (well almost… Australia’s turn is in March), no doubt one of the biggest notches on their musical belt for the year was their appearance on Ozzfest.

“Er, yes, it was. It was very hot. Also very expensive - $75000 (US dollars) just to be able to play which is $3000 (US$) per show which is kind of a lot for just playing 20 minutes. Sometimes, when you have a rotating schedule, you play between nine in the morning and one in the afternoon and if you play at nine, then nobody is gonna be there anyway so you pay $3000 (US$) to play in front of 300 kids. So you pay $10 (US$) per kid you play in front of. So that sucked sometimes. But it was cool to hang out with all the people that were playing that festival. Although, I don’t think this years Ozzfest was really as good for the touring bands as the previous Ozzfests were for those bands because previous Ozzfests, the bands were so much more diverse. On this tour of Ozzfest that we did, there were four Swedish bands and then there were maybe four more American bands that sounded Swedish. So you didn’t stand out. I don’t think we got our monies back on that tour.”

Hindsight is always 20/20 and with the experience of Ozzfest 2005 on their side, given the chance to do Ozzfest again, Jensen explains that he wouldn’t be so keen to jump at the opportunity a second time around.

“No, I wouldn’t. My gut feeling or suggestion when we do discuss stuff like this in the band would be an absolute ‘No!’. That’s not because of the audience or anything. It’s just that it’s not feasible at all. When we first got the offer, we really jumped on it because Ozzfest is the thing to do in the U.S. In hindsight, with all the bands being kinda similar, it wasn’t any good. You blend in just as much as you do on a smaller tour because there’s so many tours. There was no kinda high profile on doing the Ozzfest because the bands were too similar.”

Moving on from the Ozzfest jaunt, The Haunted hit the road with Messhuggah, God Forbid and Mnemic - a line-up that we down here would kill to see. You’d thing that tour would have been a better one for The Haunted but it seems, even this one had some hitches.

“Well, you know, at the time, I think Century Media alone had 11 tours going in the U.S. That’s just Century Media. Then you have Nuclear Blast and Roadrunner and all of these labels. Kids have less money today. They have the mobile phone bills to pay and everything and less money. Everything is getting more expensive plus gas is really expensive, especially in the U.S. after the New Orleans disaster which harmed their gas production. The kids can drive to see a show even so the attendance at the shows were kinda so-so. Both God Forbid and Meshuggah are great bands and Mnemic of course as well. The actual tour was great but once again, the turnout of people could have been better.”

It sounds like 2005 was definitely a difficult year on the road for The Haunted.

“It never ended. Believe me. It just went on and on,” laughs Jensen.

Right now, as far as Jensen is concerned, there were no highlights from the year that was.

“Not if you ask me. It’s still too close in my memory. It’s like doing your military service. After a while, you only remember the cool stuff when you sit around with your buddies and talk about the fun stuff, but really when you were there, it was just ‘Oh man!’ I need to put another year between me and 2005 before I can go ‘Oh yeah, that was cool.’”

Stepping back just that bit further to the release of The Haunted’s fourth studio effort, 2004’s rEVOLVEr, Jensen is very pleased with reaction to the album from press and fans alike in the almost 18 months since its release.

“It’s been really good! Every album we’ve released in fact has been better and better both sales wise and so on. Of course you get the people that say the first demo was the best one. Regardless of what you do, there’s going to be people moaning and complaining, especially if you go to Blabbermouth where everybody is 13 years old and just wants to say ‘fuck’ a lot or something. You just read the comments if you want to be amused. You don’t read ‘em to see people’s point of view.”

Although us antipodeans are only just about to see The Haunted playing shows supporting rEVOLVEr, the band, who are vocalist Peter Dolving, guitarists Jensen and Anders Björler, bassist Jonas Björler and drummer Per Möller Jensen, are already hard at work writing new material.

“It’s been going well. We’re trying kinda of new formula for The Haunted because both me and Anders have moved from Gotherburg. So I’m back in my old hometown now just because of a new girlfriend and I’m back close to my parents after my Dad was really ill in 2005 and I had to go home early from the Cradle Of Filth tour. So I’m here and it’s only a three hour drive to Gothernburg anyway and Anders is in another city closer to Stockholm which might be four hours from Gothenburg. So we’re sitting and writing on our computers. When we do meet up in Gothenburg, it’s not like I show the band a riff and then we try it. It’s more like, I have these riffs and it’s kind of a song. We come with our CDs and play ‘em. Of course we can re-arrange them or whatever but it’s kind of a different approach which makes it all kind of exciting. We’ve been playing music and writing music for so long, that actually any kind of change is fun. So, if I come up with a riff that sounds stupid, I don’t have to convince anyone to try and play it because I can just add the drums and bass and whatever and it might be easier for the other guys to see where I’m going with it. So actually, we might have a more diverse album just because it’s easier to show the other guys what the vision with the ideas or riffs is.”

But at this point of the creative process, there’s no clear indication from either their previous album or the new material that suggests what we can expect from the musical direction of their fifth studio album.

“A lot of the guys want to try something different. I know that Anders really likes the style that he was going with My Shadow and so on. I’m the kinda guy who likes the three and a half minute catchy Hate Song stuff… the 99s. So I’m probably gonna stick with that just because I love it. I mean, if you listen to Witchery, which is 98% me, that is the formula. I don’t think that people will find the stuff that I’m writing for The Haunted to be too far off from what I’ve done before.”

On a slight side track, Witchery’s latest studio album, Don’t Fear The Reaper, is finally about to be unleashed at the end of February.

“It’s the best one so far. It’s a cliché but it really is. I’m really proud of that album. People tell me it’s not a cliché because it’s true. I’m like ‘Alright! Thank you!’”

Back on track with The Haunted’s first shows in Australia in three years just about upon, it all starts with a couple of shows in Japan on their way down under with Nile and Exodus, and the story behind legendary San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Exodus supporting in Australia is somewhat of a mystery to Jensen.

“I don’t really know actually. We just got an offer to tour Japan and have Exodus and Nile open for us. We were like, ‘Hey!! Exodus opening for us!!’ Paul Bostaph is doing the drums. It’s insane! Actually, I only know Gary (Holt, guitarist and only original member) and Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden, ex-Slayer). I know Jack (Gibson), the bass player, a bit. Still, it’s really strange to have Exodus open for you but it feels great! We’ve co-headlined Europe with Nile so it’s going to be cool to see those guys again. It’s actually one of the best packages I’ve ever heard of that we’ve done on tour. The Haunted – Mastodon tour package was just as cool. That’s a band I love these days. Bands I love today are very hard to find. I love Mastodon!” quips Jensen.

At the time of the interview, tour rehearsals weren’t quite on the agenda as yet but with a band like Exodus kicking things off, you know that The Haunted will have a fire under them as soon as they set foot on stage.

“Well, we haven’t started rehearsals for the tour yet just because it’s still two weeks to go. It’s going to be a long set. People are going to get their money’s worth. Just knowing that Exodus will be opening up for us, it’s kind of like a hot poker in the back that we need to get our shit together!”

If you’re like me and hoping to hear Soul Fracture played for the first time in a very long time whilst they are down here, then you might be out of luck.

“I don’t know about that one. I know Per (Moller Jensen, The Haunted’s drummer) always wants to play that song (Soul Fracture). It is probably one of the most complicated songs that we have I think. I think we’ve played it once. I can’t remember. I think it was in the U.S. somewhere. I don’t think that’ll be played in Australia I’m sorry.”

As you’d expect, there’ll be no sign of any new material that they are currently working on either.

“We’re still very early in the writing process. I think everybody’s more or less licking the wounds from 2005. I think there was one rehearsal when I was in Thailand. But apart from that, people have taken their time with their families and everything. There hasn’t been a lot of band practice going on but people have been writing at home.”

Just when they thought the ferocious touring of 2005 was over, The Haunted are pulling four shows in four days from the east to west coasts of Australia. Its’ a brief but intense schedule and Jensen is a little unsure of just how he will cope with it.

“I don’t know. Last time we were there, I think we had a day off in between everything. Or maybe they made that schedule just because they know that we’ve been on the road forever and they think that we just want to have it done and get home. But Australia and Japan are two of our favourite countries to play because we don’t get to go there very often. It’s probably going to be fine but it sounds pretty hectic!”

When I mention the first show is in Perth, Jensen is quick to quiz me on the one thing that he has to do whilst he is on Australia’s west coast.

“Do you know where I can find the location of Bon Scott’s grave? That’s actually one of the places I do want to go.”

For Jensen, being the huge AC/DC fan that he is, Bon Scott’s grave, which was recently granted Heritage Listing status in Australia, is holy ground. This is his Mecca.

“Yeah exactly! I’ll just get a car and go there and have my picture taken by the stone or whatever he has.”

There’s little doubt that The Haunted/Exodus tour will be the thrash fest of the year. Jensen sums it up pretty well with his final words.

“There’s going to be a lot of old guys there,” laughs Jensen. “There’s not going to be any young girls at all. Just old guys talking about the second Kreator album or something!!”

The Haunted's 2006 Australian tour takes in the following cities and dates: March 5, Heat, Perth; March 6, The HFi Bar, Melbourne (with Exodus); March 7, The Forum, Sydney (with Exodus); March 8, The Arena, Brisbane (with Exodus). For more information on The Haunted, check out www.the-haunted.com.