Yeah, I liked the Symphony for the Devil album quite a bit.

No Compromise is probably the one you're thinking of.

No it's All Against All.

That 99 was a really misleading track i thought. I remember hearing it thinking 'wow they are fucking BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' and it set me up for the inevitable disappointment.

It's a pretty damn good record though, but i was hoping for something on par with their debut, which it clearly wasn't.

I just think it goes to show that the 'Swedish' sound in general has become stale. You can probably put it down to the Americanising of it into metalcore.

Yup, I would go along with this. There is something about The Haunted that makes me rigid with boredom. Peter Dolving's a pretty interesting guy, and good chat, but the band is just sooooooo fucking booooorrring. Urgh.

Apparently, some wild cat said they now sound like Korn. I don't believe that for a second, but whatever stylistic left-turn they've went on it's no doubt going to end up in deepest Yawnsville.

Re: the 'Swedish sound' and with a Haunted connection - are Mary Beats Jane and/or Face Down any use? I've heard of both a lot over the years but never gotten around to checking them out. Any recommendations, even if it's just "avoid"?

I can't say either set my world alight to be honest. Ok is about all I can say about them.

They have a handful of good tunes but overall they're very dull and boring. I always prefered Unearth for that modern thrashy sound, and always felt they deserved more coverage from Terrorizer. Though I guess they're often labeled a metalcore band I was never sure if they were that after their first EP/Album though.

The whole Gothenburg melodic death metal thing was fucking shit. At the gates were rubbish, In Flames are rubbish....

Who needs melodic death metal anyway? Girls?

I like bits and pieces of The Haunted, and maybe 2 tracks from ATG. But on the whole I have to agree - Melodic Death can fuck off.

Sounds interesting, cheers.

Not bad. Dunno if I'd get excited about it, though. Cheers.

The first few At The Gates are good though, far too much atmosphere to be considered "melodic death metal", and even the likes of 'Terminal Spirit Disease' is too vicious to be lumped in with all of that stuff.

In Flames are fucking shit though. There is already more than enough melody in the lead work of proper death metal bands like Dismember, Unleashed (or even something like 'For Victory' by Bolt Thrower) without listening to limp rubbish like melodic death metal and the whole Gothenburg scene.

I was quite into Face Down's second album (which I can't even remember the name of anymore) when it came out, but haven't listened to it since about '98 at the very latest.

XIII discussed In Flames at the ManOmeeT and he rightly pointed out that they did in fact kick asses before they began to suck farts out of them. First 3 albums ftw.

I liked Jester Race when I was young and stupid, but that's as far as I'll go.

The first WITCHERY album was a rollicking hoot.