Today we are going to be talking a brand new Swedish melodic death metal band called The Halo Effect. This is their debut album titled Days of the Lost. For those who don't know, this band is made up of all the old members of In Flames and the vocalist of Dark Tranquility.
I'm going to declare this as my favorite album of the year so far and give The Halo Effect - Days of the Lost a well-deserved 10 out of 10!
The first track is called "Shadow Minds" which begins with a slight buildup with a pitch harmonic note being played in the opening riff which ends up also being the main riff. Any fan of the band Dark Tranquility will appreciate the volume level of Mikael Stanne's vocals. Every musician in the group gets to shine evenly throughout the entire duration. The main calming guitar riff preformed by both Jesper Strömblad and Nicles Engelin is second to none when it comes to creating something totally memorable.
The third song is called "The Needless End" which is honestly more reminiscent of Lunar Strain or The Jester Race as far as the skipping fret notes seem to flow with the guitars. They fully managed to once again capture lightening in the bottle. I even enjoy the musical pauses in this particular song. The classic stop and start trick is used hear and only the most in-sync of musicians can pull that off without it sounding corny or generic.
Next up we got a song titled "Conditional" which will almost certainly remind listeners of mid-era Dark Tranquility records such as: Character, Fiction and The Gallery. I'm sure many will even find a way to make connections with Skydancer as well.
"In Broken Trust" gives us our first taste of clean singing from Mikael. It sounds as though it would be a hit song if this type of music was more accepted by the general public. If only rock radio stations would play this kind of music during graveyard shirt hours. It would be a much better world. The clean singing doesn't wear out it's welcome as it is very short-lived and only serves as a course.
"Gateways" is yet another stellar tune due to its groovy guitar riff. Its another defining track and gives people the verbal opportunity to describe this album as "Riffs For Days". When people say that, this is what they mean. This one starts out slow with some undistorted guitar picking and Mikael's raspy voice followed by a lovely little tune. This structure repeats but it isn't repetitious at all; in fact, the guitar solo in this is very dream like and the song closes with sort of that Insomnium kind of vibe.
Then we have a song called "A Truth Worth Lying For" which will get you nodding your head with those funky bass lines performed by bassist Peter Iwers. This song is also the second time were hear Mikael's very brief clean singing which never feels out of place. I haven't heard clean singing in melodic death metal sound this good since Christian Avelstam was in Scar Symmetry.
And now, my favorite song on this whole album "Feel What I Believe". I am so tempted to buy this shirt for this song but dammit, I have to save my money. Everything from the riff, to the lyrics, to the drums to the vocals makes this one arguably the best ear worm on this absolutely incredible debut.
"Last Kind Words" begins slow with a very soft classical music sample before diving head first into the most headbang inducing guitar chugs while a completely different riff is being played by the other guitarist. Mikael does this shouting style of clean singing with his raspy voice digitally placed over it.
The final track is "The Most Alone". As a whole, this last song doesn't stand out quite as much as the others but it certainly has my favorite miniature solo which you will hear after the halfway mark.
Be sure to show your support by following them on social media and purchasing their music from Nuclear Blast Records. You can listen to them pretty much anywhere whether it be: Amazon Music, Spotify or YouTube.