Dark Tranquility is my favorite metal band ever, no contest. I’ve been listening to them my whole life and they’ve only put out phenomenal albums. So, when I heard that front man Mikael Stanne was forming a band with former members from In Flames, I was ecstatic. While I’ve never been the biggest In Flames fan, I do greatly respect them. They, along with Dark Tranquility, were instrumental in defining “The Gothenburg Sound.” Stanne, along with former In Flames members Niclas Engelin on guitar, Jesper Strömblad also on guitar, Peter Iwers on bass, and drummer Daniel Svensson, wanted to get back to the roots of the Gothenburg Sound in the 90s, so they formed The Halo Effect.
Not only do the band want to go back to the roots of Gothenburg melodeath, they also want you to experience it with them. This resulted in thehaloeffectmap.com; a map of Gothenburg with little dots on certain locations showing you videos of where the band members used to hang out, where festivals used to be, and even a beer brewery, giving you the authentic Gothenburg experience.
Getting to the actual music, wow, it’s amazing. The band has got fantastic chemistry, probably because they’ve all been mates since they were 15 but it’s still impressive to see. During an interview with Mikael Stanne I learned that he was writing the lyrics for this album, and it shows. The album has the same lyrical themes that he writes about in Dark Tranquility – very doom and gloom lyrics. But where in Dark Tranquility the music that goes along with it is similarly moody, in The Halo Effect the melodies are far more upbeat, in the kind of signature early In Flames style.
‘The Days of the Lost’ heavily leans toward sounding like In Flames. The guitar has a nice melody while also being a little bit complex. The lyrics are very Mikael Stanne, with the likes of “these are the days, these are the hours” sounding very much like the moment centered that you’d hear in a Dark Tranquility song. (Example: The Pitiless “right here, right now”) ‘The Needless End’ is really fun, with the intro going straight into the main riff and ends with just the guitar isolated from the rest of the instruments. It sounds a lot like the intro to “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd. ‘A Truth Worth Lying For’ is probably one of my favorites from the album. The guitar does a wonderful riff in the bridge that really amps me up. All in all, it’s just a phenomenal record.
It’s very easy listening, not to say it isn’t particularly heavy, because it is. But it’s accessible, which is something I’ve always liked about melodeath. It’s not weirdly experimental (although I do like that sort of thing). The Halo Effect goes back to their roots – no keyboards, very little clean vocals, just good old fashion Gothenburg melodeath. This new album shows that, even after all these years, the “Gothenburg Sound” is still one of the most fun and beautiful styles of metal. While this new album doesn’t re-define the genre or bring it to new heights it is just really fucking good music, and that’s all that matters really.
(8.5/10 Dexter Grahame)
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