The Halo Effect - New Album 2023/2024

[Xpyro125]

As a whole album, I think MotU is a lot more fluid and just flows really nicely together. It feels like a cohesive effort. And it's a very solid one.

Also, their setlist for the headline tour:


This Curse of Silence
March of the Unheard
Feel What I Believe
In Broken Trust
The Needless End
Detonate
Conditional
Cruel Perception
A Truth Worth Lying For
Become Surrender
What We Become
Gateways
Last of Our Kind
Days of the Lost
Shadowminds
Coda (outro)


Kind of sucks they're only playing video songs from MotU, but oh well.

Ten to six if you count Become Surrender as part of DotL’s roster, which is a bit of a shame. I think dropping The Most Alone was the right call, but they could’ve trimmed the fat a bit more. I get the feeling that we’ll get one more single off of March in due time, but it won’t be on the setlist for now. I would’ve loved to see something like Between Directions into Gateways or Conditional into The Burning Point, but the setlist still kicks ass. I think In Broken Trust and A Truth Worth Lying For are songs that come alive a lot more live, so I’m glad they’re still there even though it would’ve been easy to drop one or both of them. Although IF’s setlists have been a lot better recently, there is no Graveland here, so maybe THE wins out here. Don’t tell Anders that.

Well, opinions are what they are, I'm just thankful I really love both albums.

I will absolutely agree with this though.

 

[DE4life]

The main thing is that both albums are great - in the end the minute details are just that to me, minute. Interesting to consider, particularly in regards to how other people hear the songs and regard the albums, but ultimately to me it's the difference between a 9 and a 9.5, so, it becomes unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Compare to IF latest releases and it's glorious, really. IF release is like picking a carcass for a tiny piece of meat. Desperately looking for something to like, because you know there's something there, buried in the husk of what's left of the band. You find a tiny sliver of what once was and cling onto it, because you want it to be better than it really is. I still like I, the Mask as an album - but it isn't a patch on DotL or MotU. It just isn't. SC and Battles aren't even worthy of being considered a part of the same sphere. I'll leave Foregone alone as I've already voiced my opinion on that.

With DotL and MotU, for me, it's more like... what tiny details am I thinking about that makes this a 9 instead of a 10/10? And that's a beautiful position to be in.