When I found this, the band name was vaguely familiar to me, but I had never actually heard them, and certainly had no idea about the direct Haunt connection. The general aesthetic made me think it was going to be some kind of traditional metal. When I briefly looked them up pre-listen, I was rather surprised to see they were a doom band. I then learned after more research post-listen that they shed some of the fuzzier doom elements and incorporated more heavy metal on this particular release. My keen metal intuition strikes again.
While it's easy to identify doomy riffs and passages when listening, this ultimately doesn't feel much like doom metal overall. Typically when doom and traditional metal are mixed, I think of more epic metal sounding bands like Doomsword, Coven (13), Solstice, or even various Cirith Ungol-inspired stuff. This doesn't really have that kind of vibe. The harmonized guitarwork is very NWOBHM-ish, and the vocals have a very "British" feel as well. They're generally reminiscent of Kevin Heybourne, especially on "My Only Wish," but I can hear bits of Sean Harris in them as well. Ironically, some of the vocal layering on "Shadows" brought to mind the singing on the first White Wizzard EP.
A solid EP with excellent guitarwork, well worth the 2 bucks. Releases like this remind me of the nearly incomprehensible amount of recorded heavy metal out there--while I fully recognize this is very good material in a modern context, it hardly leaves an impression compared to bands I consider excellent.
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