As Dark Angel famously said, “Time Does Not Heal”, but it certainly moves fast and here we are again, staring at our annual BravePicks countdown where the devout scribes at BraveWords get to stand up and shout! 2019, yet another banner year for extreme music, whether you call it heavy metal or not. We do, cuz we wear it on our sleeves! So the votes are in and the compiling is complete! It's time to crown the winners and put the noose around the bands that truly let us down.

So who will be our #1? You’ll find out as we count down the BravePick Of 2019 each day in December!

Everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! And stay tuned in January for the writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), Top 3 Concerts, What/Who Needs To Stop In 2019? and Metal Predictions For 2020. All will be showcased come the New Year!

So let’s commence the good, bad and ugly of 2019! First up, the Top 30 releases of 2019!

BravePicks 2019

6) HAUNT – If Icarus Could Fly (Shadow Kingdom)

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.”