“Golden Arm” is the new album from Fresno based musician Trevor William Church, a hyper-melodic and brightly rocking Californian purveyor known as HAUNT. Musically, he proudly flies the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal (NOTHM) flag, mixed with classic, traditional hard rock and a touch of glam. Think Kane Roberts on stereoids.
Trevor / HAUNT writes, sing and perform all instruments – except some hot guitar solos by Andy Lei – with ease, and the result is a catchy, melodic collection of songs with an ’80s feeling. But Trevor / HAUNT also assembled a band to perform live shows.
Both ”Golden Arm” videos for the tracks ‘Chimera’ and ‘Fight the Good Fight’ (see below) glimpse what a great live band HAUNT is. On the road, Andy Lei (guitar), Sammy Harman (bass), and Andy Saldate (drums) join Trevor. HAUNT will be performing across the US in the spring / summer. If you had the chance of seeing them, go!
HAUNT leans into classic metal traditions on ”Golden Arm”. Several songs like “Hit and Run,” “Piece by Piece,” and title track “Golden Arm” feature intros, one of our favorite metal tropes. How much more awesome are ‘Number of the Beast’ and ‘Shout at the Devil’ thanks to their intros? Each track benefits, but also kicks ass on its own.
Then “Fight the Good Fight” and “Piece by Piece” add a melodic hard rock groove to the proceedings, also within the vocal performance, giving the album another cool ’80s touch.
High energy permeates this record. It’s packed with melodic classic metal / hard rock, full of hooks, hot riffs and screaming solos. The songs have strong choruses and operating with backing vocals for a layering tactic. This certainly is one of Trevor’s strongest abilities, and is used to its advantage here.
Tracklist:
01. Hit and Run (3:15)
02. Golden Arm (3:41)
03. Piece by Piece (3:40)
04. Chimera (3:23)
05. Fight the Good Fight (3:53)
06. Save Yourself (3:12)
07. Vacant Space (3:07)
08. The Horses Mouth (3:17)
Haunt – Golden Arm (2023) EP
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