Today's Greatest Metal Album of All Time \m/

Made Me Do It by Swedish melodeath powerhouse The Haunted. 

The second full length from the band that arose from the demise of legendary Swedish death metal band At The Gates, Made Me Do It was the first of the group’s to include vocalist Marco Oro. Oro was the replacement for the original singer Peter Dolving, who in 2003 again joined the band and continues to lead the band. The album starts off with a short instrumental number that gives the listener a feeling of doom and dread that lets us know what we are about to experience. The main riff is a sinister piece of writing that, combined with the double bass pounding in the background, forebodes a truly immeasurable experience to come. The next track, “Bury Your Dead,” is a crowd favorite every time they play live. It is an incredibly fast and brutal piece of melodic death metal that is quite possibly the definitive song to mosh to. Complete with a mid-tempo part in the middle that lures the listener in before picking back up with the brutality, limbs are never stopping when this song is played live. The guitar solo might not be the most intricate or technical piece ever, but it fits perfectly in with the song showing that complete songwriting does have its place in metal.  Much of the album continues in the same fashion as “Bury Your Dead,” fast, intense, and unrelenting. One track that stands out as being a little different is the ultra melodic “Hollow Ground,” one that does have the trademark growl of Oro and amazing guitar work of Patrik Jensen and Anders Bjorler, but also includes some clean singing in the chorus. It is a track that gives the album a brief respite from the beating the listener’s eardrums incur throughout.  However tracks like “Leech” and “Human Debris” continue the onslaught that bash the listener over the head until submission is taken.  This album was one of the leaders of the melodic death metal sound that continued with Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, Hypocrisy, and many more which has inspired countless bands in today’s scene.  To bring back memories of your youth (for those of us not in our teenage years) do yourself a favor and go back to this beast of an album and relive mosh pits that helped spur your interest in metal in the first place.