The future is now. As BraveWords has guided you through our countdown, we’ve celebrated the new guard of heavy metal with the likes of Hell Fire, Idle Hands, and Riot City earning spots on our list. Churning in at #6 is Haunt’s If Icarus Could Fly. Led by Trevor William Church (son of Montrose bassist Bill Church), this California act checks all the boxes with captivating melodies, earnest riffs, soaring lead guitars, hardening rhythms, and an entrancing vocal delivery. The song construction is top notch and sitting at a tight 30 minutes, this fresh slice of heavy metal leaves listeners wanting for more. Haunt is proof positive that the groundwork laid by the legends is in worthy leather, metallic soaked hands.

As scribe Nick Balazs remarked in his review: “Haunt are going to at times remind you of Thin Lizzy, early-Riot, Dianno-era Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, and Cauldron, but no mistake the sound is entirely their own. There’s a certain mystical vibe Haunt possesses, and that’s due in part to Church’s desperate vocal delivery which is akin to Cauldron’s Jason Decay. The songwriting tightens up a bit and even with similar song runtimes, the riffs and melodies are so well constructed and laid out, they all stand on their own merits. It never feels like I’m listening to the same thing over and over again. The guitars possess a killer and heavy tone and the melodic leads layered onto the riffs are to die for, while the drums and bass provide the ample rhythmic efforts to launch these songs about relationships, the supernatural, and fantasy into the stratosphere.

“The time is now to become a Haunt Head folks. There is no reason why these guys can’t become heavy metal superstars.”