Haunt – Mind Freeze – Album Review
Haunting!
Shitting hell, these guys are prolific! No sooner had we gotten to grips with 2018’s rather spirited If Icarus Could Fly than Haunt’s third full length of trad metal goodness has hit us square in our metal lovin’ knackers!
As kicks to the nether-regions go, this is an unusually welcome one as Haunt continue their winning streak and commit to the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Sticking to their admittedly rather rigid formula of aping the cream of 80’s American heavy metal and NWOBHM bands, with a little bit of Deep Purple-esque organ-tinkling thrown in for good measure, Haunt know what they like, and they appear to like what they do.
Fortunately, so do we!
Catchy as fuck opener “Light The Beacon” is a damn fine intro – if not a little predictable – and packs a powerful earworm of a chorus while “Hearts Of Fire” is speed metal incarnate. Sure, each song on Mind Freeze reminds you of a dozen other classic 80’s metal tracks but when the songs are this catchy, this hooky and this downright re-playable who gives a fuck, right?!
Mind Freeze may be top-heavy when it comes to quality with “Hearts On Fire“ and Divide and Conquer” outclassing the latter tracks but, in fairness, there’s not really a duffer on here and considering this is Haunt’s third album in just under 17 months, that’s some considerable feat.
We’ll look forward to another stonking release later this year then, shall we lads! 8/10
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