D.O.A. (The Haunted song)
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| “D.O.A” | |||||
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| Single by The Haunted from the album One Kill Wonder |
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| Released | 2003 | ||||
| Format | single | ||||
| Genre | Melodic death metal Thrash metal |
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| Length | 4:21 | ||||
| Label | Earache Records | ||||
| The Haunted singles chronology | |||||
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"D.O.A" is a single by Swedish melodic death metal band The Haunted from their 2003 album One Kill Wonder. It was released as a single shortly after the album's release, along with a music video, and has since then grown to be one of the band's most popular songs. "D.O.A." is also available as a downloadable song in the video game Rock Band.
[edit] Song structure and lyrical meaning
"D.O.A." features a striking main guitar riff, composed of a series of fast notes intervened by three galloping triplets and later four higher pitched notes, built upon a reworked version of one of the band's earlier songs, "Forensick", from their self-titled debut, which leads into the first verse of the song, driven by vocalist Marco Aro's twisted death growl singing. 29 seconds into the song, Aro's screamed phrase "D! O! A!" leads it into the first chorus, which features a different, heavier and slower riff, before going into a light and melodic bridge but still keeping the song's focused aggressiveness preceding the second verse, once again entering the main, thrash-based guitar riff. After the second verse and a new chorus, an ominously dark bridge is played. After this bridge, the song is launched into the guitar solo by Anders Björler, which lasts for 44 seconds, before going into a repeated chorus with the verse riff being played by Patrik Jensen on rhytm guitar. Finally, the song is ended with a noisy guitar solo using heavy distortion.
The meaning behind the song's lyrics, which like many other songs in the death metal genre aims at death-based subjects, may be that of a person realizing he or she is still alive and conscious even after his or her death, experiencing an autopsy in a mortuary (Voices break the silence, shadows infect the white-clad walls and Surgical steel twist the flesh, the hand of doom carves out the mesh), however fighting for his or her life unwilling to accept the true death of him- or herself (You try to flee), but in the end gives up his or her struggle and goes through a process of judgement of his or her life-bound actions (Chained to the altar of debt, the breed of your sins, nailed to the cross of guilt, the spawn of your greed) before ultimately dying (The circle is complete).
Another theory may be that the source of the person's death is that he or she has committed suicide (You try to repent) in a dark and remote place (In these vermin-infested streets), found dead on arrival, and brought to the mortuary where he or she goes through the autopsy and then is "chained to the altar of debt" with "the breed of his or her sins", due to the law of Christianity finding suicidal actions to be sinful.
[edit] Music video
A violent music video was produced for "D.O.A." It has the band performing the song in a room with a beaten and bloody hostage tied to a chair. Vocals are screamed in the man's face and one of his teeth is pulled from his mouth with pliers. By the end of the video, the still-living man is taken to a morgue and locked away in a body drawer. Because of its nature, the video aired on Fuse TV's Uranium but not on MTV2.
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