Gothenburg has given the world some of the best extreme metal of all time during the Melodic Death Metal movement in the mid 90s. One of the more prominent examples is The Haunted, delivering hit after hit, this band return after a 8 year recording break with their brand new album: Songs of Last Resort.

The record opens with the two lead singles; Warhead and Reborn in Fire, two examples of furious harmonised guitar work and vicious yet melodic guitar work designed to crush skulls. The whole album is full of vintage Gothenburg death metal and it never shows any intention of slowing down outside of the Slow Pantera inspired breakdowns which are just as violent.

There’s a brilliant assortment of quick and to the point blunt force trauma in the forms of rapid fire mini songs like Death to the Crown and the ominous Hell is Wasted on the Dead, a track that also gets in some catchy hooks before ripping your face off. In between the voracious barnstormers, there are a handful of more atmospheric and melodic tracks that invoke the likes of Soilwork, Collateral Carnage sounds like it could have appeared on The Ride Majestic with virtually no changes.

Longtime viewers of Ola Englund’s YouTube channel will not be surprised to hear the Pantera influence on tracks like Letters of Last Resort, which show off some unbelievably heavy and sludgy guitar work that gets heavier as it slows down. You’d be hard pressed to find a heavier track from the band as it slowly grinds through all that stands in its path, the people attending Damnation in Manchester are in for a treat if it makes the setlist.

You can tell that a lot of care went into putting this album together, the guitar work is catchy while still being aggressive and technical, the drumming is ferocious and the vocals have a masterful amount of clarity without sacrificing power. Melodic Death Metal isn’t as oversaturated as it was in the 2000s so we have to savour these releases but despite being less frequent, they more than make up for in quality.

I wasn’t planning on putting this in my top 20 of 2025 but The Haunted made me do it.

Songs of Last Resort is available May 30th via Century Media.