Here it is ladies and gentlemen, The Haunted's mid-life crisis. The group, who spawned out of the ashes of At The Gates and delivered two death metal thrashterpieces have come to a crossroads in their career, and that crossroads is "The Dead Eye". While shades of their past glory are present, more often than not this album finds the band desperately trying to extend their reach past their melodic death metal confines.

In order to move forward the band make heavy usage of frontman Peter Dolving's previously-stilted vocal range. For those unaware, Dolving once headed the band Mary Beats Jane, a group who's material, while solid, became most famous for being spread around the internet as a new Tool track back in the mid to late 90's. That Tool-aping has now resurfaced and lives on throughout "The Dead Eye", as Dolving unleashes a bevy of Marynard-ism's and the band eagerly back him up with out of character instrumentation.

Still, while it's great to see the band moving past their boundaries, the problem with "The Dead Eye" is that much of the advancements don't feel natural. There are times when the melodic leaps almost flounder, feeling forced and lacking the emotion and depth that such towering interludes and subtle dynamic shifts require. If anything, it sounds like a vs. split between Mary Beats Jane and The Haunted, a combination that sadly turns out to be not as interesting as it sounds.