Oliver Pinder raises the voltage on his latest single, haunted (out February 19th, 2025), an intense, riff-heavy juggernaut that slams grief into the spotlight with unapologetic force. The Wakefield-born indie rocker ditches subtlety here, trading his earlier folk-tinged brooding for a full-throttle assault of rock music.
Let’s break down the chaos. You’ve got Pinder, the 24-year-old somehow turning life’s worst moments into fist-pumping anthems. His voice is a tightrope walk between “I’m gonna punch a wall” and “I might cry in the bathroom.” Guitarist Morgan Lindley lets out licks that slice through the mix like a serrated knife, weaving melodic tension alongside walls of grunge-inspired distortion. Drummer Harry Stobart? A human metronome with a vendetta, hammering out beats that feel like a racing pulse, while new bassist Michael Tuck locks down the low end with a menacing and hypnotic groove. It’s a sound that’s less indie and more incendiary.
haunted isn’t just loud—it’s loaded. Pinder touches on the reality of losing someone slowly, a reality he directs through hospital-room imagery and the suffocating weight of anticipatory grief. You can practically smell the antiseptic and feel the weight of those endless hospital hours. The verses simmer like a coiled spring, all tension and nervous energy. Then that chorus hits, and holy moly. It’s like someone ripped the floodgates open. Pinder’s howling his heart out, Lindley’s guitar is wailing like a banshee, and you just wanna scream along until your throat’s raw. This is the kind of track that begs to be played so loud the walls shake, ideally in some dingy club where everyone’s drenched in sweat and shouting every damn word.
Yeah, you can hear traces of Wunderhorse and Fontaines D.C. in there – that sandy, no-malarkey post-punk vibe is strong. But Pinder’s got this faculty for hooks that’ll burrow into your brain and set up camp. It’s not just noise for the sake of it. There’s real meat on these bones, real feeling behind the fury. Instead of wallowing in misery, “haunted” takes all that hurt and turns it into a middle finger to the universe.
haunted proves Oliver Pinder isn’t here to whisper sweet nothings. He’s here to scream into the abyss—and we’re all invited to join him.