The Halo Effect - New Album 2023/2024

[eochaid]

It's not as if episode 666 is dark and melancholic.

 

[DE4life]

TJR/Whoracle melodies are of the darker and folkier variety, but yeah, I wouldn't say there's much difference between the happy-sounding melodies across Colony/Clayman and Detonate. They are different but not egregiously so.

Battles you could certainly make that argument for though.

 

[eochaid]

I fail to hear in Detonate anything that is specially happy. I would say that it's on the light side of the spectrum which is OK because that's what I used to like from IF and that's something that I appreciate in DOTL.

 

[DE4life]

The melodies are clearly upbeat and energetic, which most people would also describe as happy-sounding. I don't think it's much more than that, unless you want to start categorising it into slightly happy, moderately happy, very happy, not happy but light, and so on until you want to slam your head against a wall.

 

[eochaid]

How do they dare when they should be miserable?

No. Really. It's not as if they're different from the previous album.

Listening again to it it just came to my mind that this song sounds a lot like Iron Maiden, from the intro to the melodies from the bridge, those parts sound a lot like something that Steve Harris would have done.

There's also this random dude trying to grab some attention.

 

[DE4life]

MetalPilgrim may be trying to grab attention, but I agree with him

 

[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’m cutting out the drum rant because it’s a lot.)

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.

Listening to it again this morning, I do like it more than I did last night. I think I’d still put it below most songs off of DOTL, but I’ll give the band a ton of credit for giving me what I asked for— Something a bit more adventurous, some change-ups to structure, and getting out of the mid-pace 100 BPM 4/4 setup they had. This is probably 105 BPM, given that Conditional also was, but the faster pace riffing alleviates the samey feeling.

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 will say that I do want some experimentation though— And I don’t mean as in something like Time Out of Place (Though I do love that song), but rather something like Gateways. Even though it’s only a top two or three DOTL song for me, it’s the exact type of melodeath song that has progressivisms without losing the plot that I want to hear more of.

 

[Xpyro125]

Just watched the video, and I’m sad to say that Jesper cut his hair. It’s a fine enough video otherwise, but man.

Edit: Never mind, this was not as recent as I realized, it’s just been for a month or two now.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Just listened to the song. Sounds bad my friends!!!

Just kidding. Had a good time with it. Because comparisons with In Flames are obligatory, this gave me very strong Pinball Map vibes. That Take This Life-esque part at 2:52 is such a cool fusion of Stromblad's and Engelin's individual styles -- you can hear the In Flames and the Engel simultaneously.

 

[The Grayfox]

I will say that I do want some experimentation though— And I don’t mean as in something like Time Out of Place (Though I do love that song), but rather something like Gateways. Even though it’s only a top two or three DOTL song for me, it’s the exact type of melodeath song that has progressivisms without losing the plot that I want to hear more of.

Gateways is probably my favorite song on DotL, but I guess I never really thought of it as experimentation strictly because it's the first album and there was really nothing to gauge it against, if that makes sense. I do think we'll see different things going on with this album. This is the first single and they're probably playing it safe with that one, which is totally fine. I would be very surprised if the entire album sounded like Detonate. I'm going to guess that we're going to hear something in the form of a ballad on this one too. Something in the vein of Auctioned or Evil in a Closet.

It is weird seeing Jesper with short hair, meanwhile Daniel is still hovering between short hair and long hair like he can't decide what he wants to do.

 

[eochaid]

The first single is usually a safe bet. But i tend to agree. I would like to listen to something else than a three minutes long song, and I'm afraid we won't have anything like that in the album.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

I dig it, it's authentic Gothenburg melodic death metal. It feels very much in the same vein as Days of the Lost, but given that for a lot of the last decade we'd been lamenting the fact that these guys in their various projects didn't seem interested in going all in with the classic sound they created, I'm thrilled that they're rediscovering the magic in that sound and it seems like there's a lot of joy and creativity going into it. I would like them to push the envelope creatively on this new record, maybe a few longer songs, maybe some acoustic interludes or instrumentals, but if it's Days of the Lost II then I'm fine with that, it's one of my favourite albums.

 

[eochaid]

Yeah. As long as the music is good, I might be complaining about things that I would like to listen at or not, but I will be happy enough.

To this day, I'm listening to and enjoying DOTL.

 

[Cronopio]

It's a good song, and I'm glad Jesper seems to be doing fine, but I still think he should resurrect Dimension Zero.

 

[DE4life]

Is he still saying DZ is coming back? I know every few years at one point he'd say that but it never happened. It would indeed be very cool to get a new DZ album.

 

[eochaid]

Nope. He's just making some solo something.

 

[DE4life]

That's also been happening for about a decade, lol.

 

[eochaid]

Then this might be the longest amount of time that any metal musician has put into doing something.

 

[Xpyro125]

Is he still saying DZ is coming back? I know every few years at one point he'd say that but it never happened. It would indeed be very cool to get a new DZ album.

Last I heard it was “active” with Andy from Amaranthe being recruited for vocals. Never seen or heard anything even from within the studio, much less any actual music from it.

 

[DE4life]

Then this might be the longest amount of time that any metal musician has put into doing something.

Giving Jari from Wintersun a run for his money for sure.

Last I heard it was “active” with Andy from Amaranthe being recruited for vocals. Never seen or heard anything even from within the studio, much less any actual music from it.

I liked Andy's vocals for Amaranthe. Would be different to Jocke but not necessarily worse. I get the feeling it's a dead project though.