Now we've got the experimentation from the band's previous album on full out blitz. All the parts that you, if you were like me, didn't really care for on rEVOLVEr (i.e., the bloody clean vocals) are here and more often than I thought possible or reasonable or certainly listenable. God/Satan, how I wanted to like this album. I just... don't. Not completely, anyway. There are times when that sound of old is present in spades, but then the sort of new sound rears its ugly head and dissatisfies in a major way.

I appreciate that the band wants to expand and evolve beyond the previous album and all that sort of stuff, I do, but IN MY OPINION this evolution has gone awry. Think Metallica's Load/Reload and even St. Anger. In fact, there are points on this record where latter era Hetfield and crew are flat out emulated ("The Drowning," "The Prosecution" and "The Guilt Trip" among others). "The Drowning" even blatantly rips off a lick from a very recent Entombed record.

For a band that started out flying the flag of Thrash a la the still mighty Slayer, this effort hears them now hoisting the flag of the once mighty Metallica. What would patron anti-saint Kerry F'in' King say if/when he hears this disc? He might very well retract his "The Haunted are the only band worthy of covering Slayer" [slight paraphrase] statement. If rEVOLVEr is The Haunted's so-called "Black Album" then The Dead Eye is clearly their Load. That's as simple as I can put it.

"The Fallout" alone should produce the most, er, fallout as the band sounds like a hell bent Linkin Park on this song. That aside, track #13 contains 3 isolated song structures (the listed song at ~4 minutes length, a ~1 minute instrumental crusher, and [after ~2 minutes of silence] a ~2 minute moody piece a la Powerman 5000's "Watch the Sky for Me" from 1998's breakout Tonight the Stars Revolt!) plus ~80 seconds of outro noise akin to Marilyn Manson's filler that sonically returns to the album's start. At times redundant and repetitive of this very album and past works, too, Tool is even invoked (see "The Cynic").

Easily one of the most highly anticipated records of 2006, The Dead Eye is a rather confusing album. Perhaps bipolar is a more apt description. Maybe Dolving's online rants are indicative that the man needs (more/different/stronger) medication. Maybe he is as bipolar as the music now appears to be, though his band mates surely must have signed on for the ride. God/Satan, how I wanted to like this album. I just... don't. Not completely.... It is interesting, though, to say the least. Curious, maybe. Quaint?

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 54.56