The Haunting was the first full length album by the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 deathrock

Deathrock

Deathrock is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...

/gothic rock

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 band Theatre of Ice

Theatre of Ice

Theatre of Ice were an early Deathrock band that formed in the Nevada desert in December 1978. Initially formed to record a soundtrack for a horror movie, the members instead evolved into what some claim was the first Deathrock band...

, recorded in 1981

1981 in music

See also:* Timeline of musical eventsThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1981.-January–April:*January 10 – A revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance opens at Broadway's Uris Theatre, starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith.*January 24 –...

, and released in 1982

1982 in music

This is a list of notable events in music from 1982. 1982 was a big year in music with Madonna making her debut as well as the year that Michael Jackson released Thriller which became the world's best selling album and it still holds that title today....

.

The recording sessions took place in a supposedly haunted house somewhere in the deserts of Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. While many at the time thought it nothing more than a gimmick, the band claimed that it inspired them to create what is now considered one of the more deranged albums ever recorded. Rather than opting for one musical style, the album alternates between hard, razor-sharp, creepy-crawly punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 with echo-like wolf howls to textural synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 soundtracks filled with strange noises. But, while the musical style varied, the themes remained rooted in modern horror.

Musicians

• Brent Johnson - vocals and guitars
• John Johnson - guitar and keyboards
• Mark Johnson - drums and things
• Eric Johnson - occasionally
• Lyle Johnson - continuity

Track listing

1. "A Militant Hymn"
2. "Down Arizona Way"
3. "Theatre of Ice"
4. "You are the Children"
5. "Puppet Love"
6. "The Burning Man"
7. "A Single Bullet"
8. "The Ghost Did a Scarey Walk"
9. "Driven"
10. "Monsters From Beyond"
11. "A Wagonload of Corpses"
12. "Fade to Red"
13. "The Sound"
14. "Creature on the Hill"
15. "On and On"
16. "Comfort"
17. "Brain Damage"
18. "Message From Home"
19. "From the Ruins of My Mind"
20. "Procession"
21. "Golden Girl"

Reviews

• Maximum Rock N' Roll, San Francisco, California
  San Francisco, California
  San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
  
   - Unlike anything I've heard before. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be determined. Very weird.

• OPtion Magazine
  Option (music magazine)
  Option was a music magazine based in Los Angeles, California.-History:Originally called OPtion, it, along with Sound Choice, were the dual successors to the earlier music magazine OP, published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network and known for its diverse scope and the role it played in...
  
  , Los Angeles - Hard, razor sharp, creepy crawly rock'n'roll with echo-like wolf howls. Rumored to have been recorded in an actual haunted house in the Nevada desert, with khemical/magikal rituals to "inspire" the musicians and derange their music. "A Wagonload of Corpses" sounds like time warp travel back to Middle Ages Black Plague Epidemic Rot. These maniacs were born to score horror flicks.-- Nik Wax.

• Unsound Magazine, San Francisco, California - This is the first release from the band which describes their sound as a fusion of Suicide
  Suicide (band)
  Suicide is an American electronic protopunk musical duo, intermittently active since 1970 and composed of vocalist Alan Vega and Martin Rev on synthesizers and drum machines. They are an early synthesizer/vocal musical duo....
  
  's minimilism, Chrome
  Chrome (band)
  Chrome was an experimental rock group founded in San Francisco, California in 1976.Chrome took part of their inspiration for their rough and sometimes chaotic music from proto punk pioneers like The Stooges. The sound of the group was often coarse and featured heavy elements of feedback and...
  
  's psycadelia, Snakefinger
  Snakefinger
  Philip Charles Lithman , who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents.-History:Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came...
  
  's pop and Throbbing Gristle
  Throbbing Gristle
  Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
  
  's violent confusion. This album is well produced and moves smoothly within its conceptual nature. Their focus is the morbid, bloody horror of B-monster movies with the campy mystery of blood and guts. Textural synthesizer lines and strange noises create a soundtrack style piece, a great substitute for ghost stories around the campfire.

• Flipside (fanzine)
  Flipside (fanzine)
  Flipside was a punk rock fanzine published in Los Angeles, California from 1977 to 2000.As one of the first and longest running US punk rock fanzines, this publication extensively chronicled the world of independent and underground music during this era. Known for its highly opinionated cast of...
  
  , Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
  
   - Moody post punk to experimental droney music. Perhaps the "scariest" album ever.

• OP, Seattle - The Haunting by Theatre of Ice features end-of-world vocals over throbbing industrial beats. Abrupt cuts of TV audio, weird hypnotic trumpets (?), synths. Excellent. Unlike anything before it.

• Cause and Effect, Indianapolis, Indiana
  Indianapolis, Indiana
  Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
  
   - Theatre of Ice are masters of the B-monster movie sound. This is raw primitive punk music whose subject matter deals with the morbid and macabre. Features a savage, echoey guitar sound and vocals straight-from-the-crypt. Recorded in a haunted house in the middle of the Nevada desert, The Haunting is made up of 21 tracks with titles like The Burning Man, Monsters From Beyond, A Wagonload of Corpses, Brain Damage and, From the Ruins of my Mind.

• SPAMM, Sacramento, California
  Sacramento, California
  Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
  
   - Extra moody experimental music. Throbbing synth, spastic but melodic guitars and haunting vocals makes this the music to blast out the window this October 31 to scare the trick or treaters away, the Halloween soundtrack of the 80's. Every composition is well above exceptional standards.

• Phoenix New Times
  Phoenix New Times
  The Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....
  
  , Phoenix, Arizona
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
  
  - The Haunting is a success in bringing a modern approach to gothic-horror themes. The band seems to have tackled the idea of a futuristic, underground spook show, but even as an alternative offering there are grave (sorry) deficiencies. At its best, The Haunting shows Theatre of Ice as an outfit with a future in soundtracks and/or audio performance art. The album's droning ambiance and scattered electronic background cries at times almost pulls the listeners inside the gloomy atmosphere. At its worst, the album is a Mr. Hyde of monotonous noise that leaves the listener gasping for a quick, clean pop song. It will now be interesting to hear how the group decides to progress–either as underground practitioners of the macabre, or more accessible musicians who can wrap it all up in a song.