The Halo Effect - New Album 2023/2024

[Meheva]

He seems to be doing some t-shirt desings for my favourite band Cult Of Luna also. You could easily wear this to a Halo Effect gig and people would have no idea that it's actually another bands shirt.

CULT OF LUNA "Snakes" T-Shirt

evilgreed.net

 

[The Grayfox]

I think my problem with the cover isn't the design itself, it's that Adrian's work is very primitive looking by design and here he is trying to make it look bright and almost too colorful by adding glow effects. I can only assume the band asked for this to distinguish itself from the DotL artwork. It reminds me of some kind of Assassin's Creed inspired art.

 

[eochaid]

I think that the art gives a sense of coherence and continuity. In that regards, I'm ok with it.

 

[DE4life]

I didn't mind the original artwork, and this is in the same vein. I do like albums to have their own personalities though. One of the things I like about In Flames, even in modern times, is that they switch the artwork up stylistically between albums. Gives each album a fresh vibe, even if the music itself sucks (Battles).

Overall I find the artwork a bit generic (as far as THE as a band are concerned) and not particularly distinctive, but whatever. I would have liked Sundin to be given art duties, but for whatever reason I guess they don't want to ask him to do the artwork for their albums.

Ultimately I only really care about the music. Artwork is interesting and adds to (or detracts from) the overall package, but if the music is sub-par then it doesn't really matter. Even if ASOP, SC or Battles had best artwork ever I'd still think all three sucked. I actually quite like the Foregone artwork, but the album is boring to me so it doesn't really matter.

Just give me some good ol' 90s/00s Swedish MDM and I'll be happy.

 

[The Grayfox]

Maybe they didn't ask Sundin because he has a very distinct style that Dark Tranquillity utilizes thoroughly. That's not a bad thing. I like his style quite a bit and I have several shirts with his artwork on them, but if you consider that some people already think THE "sounds like Dark Tranquillity", and Mikael is the singer in both bands, they're probably trying to avoid too much crossover. Personally, I was hoping they were going to get Andreas Marschall and really give it that 90's MDM treatment, but oh well.

 

[DE4life]

Sundin seems to have adapted his style into something a bit more abstract for DT's latest releases, so I think he could have done something a bit different for THE. I'm sure they have their reasons for not using him, but since the entire idea of the band is to celebrate nostalgic MDM, why not have Sundin involved as well?

Andreas Marschall would have been cool indeed. I don't know if he still does album artwork, but I absolutely loved his Blind Guardian, In Flames, Rage, Stratovarius, Night in Gales and Dimmu Borgir album covers.

Just had a look on discogs and look like the most recent metal album cover he did was Dead Mother Moon by some band called Upon Stone, so yeah, still doing the occasional commission.



Now granted this kind of thing ain't gonna work for The Halo Effect, lmao, but you can see that unique style is still there.

 

[CladInShadows971]

Song just came online in Australia and my first impression is holy **** it is good

 

[Blast_The_Virginborn]

Awesome song! Just what I was hoping for.. The beginning of a song reminded me of Pinball map..
Really looking forward to hear the rest of the album

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, this is an awesome track. Can definitely hear the Pinball Map influence in the beginning. The verses are quite reminiscent of Conditional from DotL. There's a ton of lovely guitar melodies, Mikael's vocals sound just as good as they did on DotL. Drumming and bass just as solid as before. Production similar to DotL, which is just fine for me.

THE continue going strong, doing what they do best.

 

[eochaid]

It's good but I don't like that the song has a section directly taken from Path of Fierce Resistance. After a year or more of work, they should be doing better.

 

[DE4life]

In some ways it's almost like a mixture of Conditional and PoFR. It's got those really upbeat, happy melodies that were in PoFR, but the verses and some of the riffing really strongly reminds me of Conditional. Even the chorus has a Conditional-like vibe to it, although I think the song as a whole is a bit more varied than Conditional in terms of melodies. Maybe a bit less structured though? I don't know. I do like it, but having listened to it quite a lot now I do feel like it's Conditional with happier melodies sprinkled in.

 

[eochaid]

I meant that it's literally taken from POFR. At 2:50 I think it was.

 

[The Grayfox]

Song just came online in Australia and my first impression is holy **** it is good

Did you just censor yourself? lol

Good song. Production is in a similar vein but the first thing I noticed was that the drums sound a bit brighter, especially the snare which is a welcomed change. I guess some might call this “more of the same”, and if that’s the case, I’m totally fine with that. That’s pretty much what I want from this band. I’m not looking for a bunch of experimentation. I can’t wait to hear the next 7 singles.

 

[CladInShadows971]

Did you just censor yourself? lol

Good song. Production is in a similar vein but the first thing I noticed was that the drums sound a bit brighter, especially the snare which is a welcomed change. I guess some might call this “more of the same”, and if that’s the case, I’m totally fine with that. That’s pretty much what I want from this band. I’m not looking for a bunch of experimentation. I can’t wait to hear the next 7 singles.

I'm on too many forums to remember which ones accept swearing and which don't.

Anyway, this song is just growing on me further. I love how there are constantly little leads layered into every part of the song. Reminds me of Colony and Clayman.

This definitely feels like Jesper had more involvement compared to the first album. Hope that is the case throughout the album.

 

[Xpyro125]

I’m in the US, so I just got to listen to it. I’ll be honest, it’s alright. Going from Days of the Lost to this really does show the improvement in Stanne’s vocals, and that’s fucking awesome. The bass is nice, and I’m glad it’s audible.

But even though the faster pace is a welcome change, I can’t say I’m in love with the guitarwork the same way I could about many of the songs on Days of the Lost— And Jesper’s my favorite guitarist, so his increased involvement should be a home run, but it just isn’t. It’s nice to listen to it multiple times and notice that it isn’t actually just a safe single and that the structure is surprisingly adventurous. That’s really cool, but something about it just isn’t gripping me the way I was hoping.

I hadn’t noticed it until now, but fuck does the drum sound not only on this suck, but also on The Defiant One and Become Surrender. The snare sounds so fucking plastic, though at least the hits in The Defiant One are strong (Daniel’s playing, not the kit itself) and at least there’s some reverb or something applied in Become Surrender that gives more of a lasting impact. There’s nothing of the sort here, and I’m seriously worried for the album in that aspect. The cymbals are at least louder, that’s cool— Especially given that cymbals just didn’t exist in Endtime Signals— but when the rest of the kit sounds as weak as it does here, it’s really, really bad. They were certainly better in Days of the Lost and Path of Fierce Resistance (Which yeah, was from DOTL’s recording sessions), even if they weren’t as crisp or natural sounding as on albums like Colony, Clayman, and Come Clarity. Hell, even Reroute has a vastly preferable drum sound.

I don’t know, it’s a huge mixed bag for me, and I’ve gone from being insanely hyped for the album to being somewhat worried.

 

[Meheva]

When the song started, I was expecting a cheesy clean chorus to come. So happy that there was not. Very promising song and there was a bit of that old school gothenburg feeling. Stannes vocals sounded nice and brutal. But overall the production feels a bit too "modern" and soulless for my taste. Still looking forward for the full album.

With Days of the Lost, I listened all the singles about 100 times before the album dropped and that kind of ruined the full album experience. I think this time I will do the opposite and listen the singles just 1-2 times.

 

[drawntoblack]

The thing with these happy upbeat lead guitar parts is that they would feel right at home in a punk-rock song and once you notice that vibe you can't really unhear it. It's not really what I want or like in melodeath and it always sounds cheesy.

Upon first listen I'd say 5/10.

 

[CladInShadows971]

The happy upbeat lead guitar parts was pretty much pre-R2R IF's whole thing. Not sure why you'd be looking for something different from this group of guys.

 

[drawntoblack]

The happy upbeat lead guitar parts was pretty much pre-R2R IF's whole thing. Not sure why you'd be looking for something different from this group of guys.

I heavily disagree. There are only a few sporadic parts like that on Colony and Clayman, by that I mean intro of Embody the Invisible and the main synth/guitar part of Only for the Weak. When I think of pre-R2R, if I absolutely had to find some kind of description for their melodies I would say... heavy folk influence (lots of 3/4 waltzy leads) but the atmosphere itself feels like something that would fit in a sci-fi novel. I don't mean industrial production nor anything like that - just the atmopshere that music itself portrays.
Obviously I am aware that these things are largely subjective to a degree, but I definitely don't think "happy and uplifting" about Whoracle as a whole, or even about Colony as a whole. Feels a lot more sci-fi dystopian in atmosphere.

With THE the happy upbeat thing is pretty much the dominant characteristic of their sound. I think we were all expecting more memorable melodies like Zombie Inc when the band got announced first with Jesper in it.

 

[eochaid]

So Swim or Suburban Me aren't happy guitar melodies?