Interview with The Haunted guitarist Ola Englund | By Nicholas Senior
Exit Wounds was a vital comeback record for long-running Swedish metal stalwarts, The Haunted. The 2014 full-length proved they could be just as vicious, vital, and angry as ever eight albums into their career. The group’s excellent follow-up, Strength in Numbers—due out Aug. 25 via Century Media Records—is a step up in every way: better riffs, more dynamic songwriting, and a hefty dose of guitar wizardry.
However, what the band’s ninth record—and second in their latest and strongest incarnation—really highlights is that there truly is strength in numbers. With their combined experience, both together and apart, a greater sense of collaboration, and more non-Swedish influences, The Haunted are at their most potent yet.
Guitarist Ola Englund joined The Haunted before Exit Wounds and appreciates how important that record was for the band. “Exit Wounds was an album where The Haunted needed to show people that we’re back and mean business, in a way. We wanted to just do the fun stuff, basically, and that’s the fast songs,” he laughs. “The other guys wanted to prove that they’re back on track, and having [vocalist] Marco [Aro] back was big. With Strength in Numbers, it’s different. After [Exit Wounds], we could breathe a little bit; we realized we could take our time writing Strength in Numbers. It just turned out way more dynamic, up and down, and a bit more breathable as a whole album.”
Englund was much more involved in the writing process this time around and recognizes, with humility, the importance of having everyone involved. “With Exit Wounds, I probably wrote three or four songs,” he recalls. “With this new record, it just came out that way, but I probably wrote 50 or 60 percent of the album. We all work really well together. We try to mix up whose songs we use and provide as much input as possible, because we think it gives more of a dynamic to the songs. I know, for me, I’m getting tired of my songs all the time,” he laughs, “so it’s a good way of getting an extra set of eyes and ears.”
Englund’s biggest contribution is his non-Swedish writing style, despite hailing from Stockholm. This contributes to a groovetastic listening experience, as thrash, death, and groove coexist in a myriad of “invisible oranges” that appear with each spin of the record. “I don’t see myself as sounding particularly Swedish in my songwriting,” he explains. “I’m very influenced by ‘90s American [bands]: Pantera, Machine Head. I’m kind of stuck in that era, so those Stockholm riffs probably aren’t mine. The difference is that [former guitarist] Anders [Björler] is not in the band anymore, and he has such a unique type of songwriting that I cannot touch in any way.”
So, is he more comfortable as a songwriter in the band? “When they asked me to join The Haunted—I’m a very big fan of the band, so my joining The Haunted is basically as close to a dream come true as it can get,” Englund shares. “I thought I’m not going to try to replace Anders because it’s not going to happen. I’m just going to try to write as many songs as I can. It was hard for me to get comfortable with the band, but with Strength in Numbers, they are letting me come through a little bit more, letting me take up more space. We’ve been playing a lot together now, and they’re considering me more a real guy in the band. I mean, they always thought of me as a band member, but they’re just more comfortable letting me do my own thing, more open to what I’m doing.”
However, there’s a difference between comfort and trust. Englund agrees, “Yeah, there’s such a good vibe in this band. I don’t want to remove The Haunted from The Haunted, you know? I have such a huge respect for The Haunted; I’m such a huge fan of this band. I don’t want to change anything or make the fans disappointed.”
The album’s title, Strength in Numbers, seems like a sort of wink to the audience, as the lyrics discuss a lot of the problems associated with group-think and being led as a congregation or affiliation. “Exactly, the title can be obviously interpreted in any number of ways,” Englund concurs. “It could be interpreted that way, and it could be how a small group of dumb people are still going to make a lot of noise. It could be how insects come in waves, like how in the U.S., there are prime years where a wave of certain insects arrive,” he laughs. “It could be interpreted however you want. It could also be that it’s The Haunted’s ninth album, but the political aspect was definitely one of the main aspects, for sure.”
“Fake news” and ideology-over-intellect isn’t just an American phenomenon. “That’s just how it is today,” Englund says. “You have to value the news outlets and pieces you see and hear. Now, it’s up to every individual to decide if they think there is a piece of real news or not, which is pretty scary, because I think you can’t trust a lot people to have that kind of critical thinking ability. People decide what they want to believe in, which is scary in that way, because people can believe very strongly in something that may be fake. That really divides us. People tend to be very one-sided about what they read and believe, which is also scary. I’m trying to be very open-minded about all the news I’m reading, because there are always two sides to the story.”
Purchase Strength In Numbers here.
