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HAUNT
Golden Arm

Iron Grip / Church Recordings (2023)
Rating: 7.5/10

The prolific Haunt returns for an astonishing ninth full-length studio outing, which is even more staggering when one considers that Trevor William Church started this project just six years ago. It is possible that due to the prolific nature of this beast that I’ve sort of taken California’s Haunt for granted over the years; the albums have sort of whizzed by and in a sense there’s no real change here.

Golden Arm whistles by at a rate of knots and at just 27 minutes it certainly feels compact. All the tracks are pretty slow but each one bursts with a youthful energy and conviction which is something I find sorely lacking in releases by bands such as Sweden’s Enforcer.

The album streaks from the off with the feisty rattle of ‘Hit And Run’, through to other minor gems such as the crisp and steely title track, the airy and commercially melodious ‘Fight The Good Fight, to the twisting ‘Vacant Spaces’ with its tempo shifts. It’s all good, breezy metal that feels somewhat harmless in its stance, but it works for Haunt. Golden Arm is not essential to the collection but I admire the consistency.

Neil Arnold

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