The Halo Effect - New Album 2023/2024

[Moonshield_]

The lead guitars during the chorus of Detonate really please me, it brings back a lot of nostalgia because it conveys the exact emotions which led me to love melodic death metal 20 years ago. I can feel it was written by Jesper

(Someone here mentionned a similarity between this song and Free Fall, I couldn't agree more)

 

[DE4life]

I liked Detonate a lot, but I'm holding off on listening to it anymore until the album drops. I don't want to be burned out on it, or any other the other tracks, before the album comes out.

 

[eochaid]

New single coming in 5 days.

 

[eochaid]

The new single is March of the Unheard. The instrumental part is cool. A bit melancholic. It reminds me a but to days of the lost. But, the snippet from instagram is not a part of it.

 

[Blast_The_Virginborn]

Damn that opening riff is such a earworm, so good! Very very cool song!
I believe that the snippet from instagram is actually instrumental song (This curse of silence) that comes before the title song on the album. So i guess they connected those two songs for the music video. Hope so!

 

[DE4life]

I really like this one. After hearing the two singles I have no worries about the next album, it's already shaping up to be another killer release.

MotU is short, sweet and to the point. Absolutely top notch MDM, as we've come to expect from THE. The instrumental starting at around 1:43 gives me major mid-to-late 90s MDM vibes, just with much cleaner production. It's hard to describe, but almost an epic melancholy. You hear it so infrequently these days, but Niclas and Jesper just get it. The two of them are a fantastic combo, and they're arguably producing stuff at the moment which is up there with the music Jesper and Bjorn created in the glory days. Stanne meanwhile just fits into the music like a glove, enhacing every song without trying to make himself the centrepiece.

I'm just so thankful these guys were able to get together and give those of us left from the old guard a fitting final act to the Swedish MDM golden era. Stanne never disgraced himself with DT, never even came close, but DT have gone in a very different direction since the mid-2000s. With THE, Niclas has really placed himself amongst the pantheon of MDM musicians who should be acknowledged as being masters of their craft. Jesper may not be able to do much live anymore, but it's so pleasing that he's finally able to put his name to a project that fully realises his talent in a way that hasn't been seen since the mid-2000s. Considering everything he's been through, this revival with THE has been more than I ever thought would be possible for him. Daniel and Peter meanwhile also solidify themselves as some of the very best at what they do within the MDM genre.

Fanboying a little, maybe, but I ain't embarrassed to do so for these guys. They're legends in my eyes and I can't wait to add another incredible MDM album to my collection when March of the Unknown (album) finally drops.

 

[eochaid]

Interview with Peter.

 

[drawntoblack]

Okay that was pretty pretty good for a first listen. They crammed a lot of different parts into a short 3 minute song.

 

[eochaid]

To be fair, I'm a bit tired of 3 minutes songs. I do enjoy them a lot but there's zero risk or surprise in doing that. To me, the ideal length is between 4 and 5 minutes where a song can be properly developed. 3 minutes is just following the standard pop structure.

But, this doesn't stop me from enjoying the songs.

Something interesting from the interview is knowing that Peter and Bjorn are still associates in the restaurant 2112 and then I wonder how comes that Bjorn never knew of THE and has never listened to a song. It's hard to believe that Peter would hide this from him or that he wouldn't be excited enough to not show him what they were doing. I mean, we, usually, want to share what we like or do with our friends. But Bjorn is behaving as if he almost doesn't know the guys in the band.

 

[DE4life]

He knows Anders would throw a tantrum, so he lies in interviews to avoid the confrontation. We all know Bjorn has heard THE, probably long before any of us did.

 

[drawntoblack]

It's easier to play dumb in order to avoid questions that have nothing to do with you or your band. It's actually understandable.

As for the song length and arrangements, I get the impression that they want to write relatively simple songs without getting too scientific about arranging and writing long epic songs. When the overall vibe in a band is having fun and everyone being happy as the most important thing (acording to that Peter interview above), people tend to roll with the first idea without forcing things too much.

Honestly even on their debut album there were songs that had some really neat bits that weren't explored enough or repeated at all even. This is supposed to be fun easy-going metal from the get go, don't expect too much depth.

 

[Xpyro125]

Just listened to the new track, it’s alright. I think the above discussion says all I can say. I’m sure it’ll do more for me in the context of the full album, but as it stands it’s not something I’m going to listen to much before the whole thing releases. On the bright side, that will at least make the album a fresher experience for me, so I’m happy about that if nothing else. If more of the other tracks on the album are deeper, then I’ll be fine with the singles being a bit shallow.

 

[eochaid]

I fail to see how 5 minutes tracks are long epic songs.

 

[drawntoblack]

Could also be a conscious decision because they are not headliners, they play short support slots and festivals. This way they can play more songs live.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

So, the song is actually five minutes long and allows some really nice melodies to build during its extended intro, it's just the version on Spotify is a shortened edit for some reason:

 

[21-only-son]

Sounds like Jotun, but that's not a bad thing.

 

[eochaid]

So, the song is actually five minutes long and allows some really nice melodies to build during its extended intro, it's just the version on Spotify is a shortened edit for some reason:

The official music track on youtube is also 3 minutes long. Also the released track, available to download, is 3 minutes long. So, I guess that it's as blast_the_virginb said, an instrumental track that serves as intro to this one. I like this much better and I will be dissapointed if the whole thing is not in the album.

 

[Xpyro125]

Just watched the video now that I’m on break, and I seriously disagree with the people complaining about the intro. I really hope it’s on the full album, I genuinely liked it more than the actual song— Though it did make me appreciate the song more. The intro’s just gorgeous, absolutely love the Insomnium melodies and atmosphere before going to In Flames leads. I really hope there’s more of that on the full album, I just think they get the melodic part of melodeath perfectly.

 

[eochaid]

Who's complaining about the intro ? It makes the song to go from really good to outstanding.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah that intro is nice indeed. I don't think there's anywhere for it to fit on the album as an instrumental track as March of the Unheard is the 7th track and before that is This Curse of Silence, which is presumably not gonna be this instrumental. So either album track will be the full thing including intro, or the 3 minute version released everywhere else so far. Well, at worst you can download the MP3 from this YT video if you want full version with intro.

Also I see path of Fierce Resistance is listed as a bonus track on the new album... again? Lmao. It was already a bonus for DotL so it'll be weird if that's true, might be the first song to be a bonus track on two different albums.