THE HALO EFFECT, the project featuring five former members of the Swedish metal band IN FLAMES — Jesper Strömblad (guitar), Daniel Svensson (drums), Peter Iwers (bass), Niclas Engelin (guitar) and Mikael Stanne (vocals) — will release its second album, “March Of The Unheard”, on January 10, 2025, via Nuclear Blast Records.
Following the massive success of THE HALO EFFECT‘s critically acclaimed debut “Days Of The Lost”, “March Of The Unheard” delivers a triumphant continuation of the band’s signature sound. Packed with soaring melodies and electrifying energy, the new LP promises to exceed fan expectations.
The official music video for the second single from the album, the “March Of The Unheard” title track, can be seen below. The visually stunning video matches the intensity of the song, blending dark, atmospheric imagery with explosive performance shots, delivering a cinematic experience that complements the band’s signature sound.
Engelin comments: “This song is based around the melody theme for the intro on all our ninety-six shows. I just got the idea of starting the whole album with this theme and building a full song around it. Mikael took the whole song to another level with his lyrics, which enlighten the need for our society to hear the voices of the unheard — the powerless.”
He continues: “We are all suckers for melancholic melodies in an uptempo beat, and add some harmonies to that and we get a beautiful HALO song. Working with the mighty Gothenburg marching band ‘Göta Lejon‘ just blew our minds both in the studio and live… Damn, they are powerful!”
“March Of The Unheard” will be made available in the following formats:
– CD Jewel case
– CD Digi, including three bonus tracks, 24-page booklet, UV spot varnish & parchment paper **
– 1 LP Crystal Clear (Retail)
– 1 LP Curacao/Ocean Blue/White Splatter (NB shop)
– 1 LP Curacao (Band shop)
– 1 LP Yellow (Sweden Rock) + 1 Bonus Track *
– 1 LP Light Green (Nordics)
All vinyls come with 24-page booklet, UV spot varnish and parchment paper
“March Of The Unheard” track listing:
01. Conspire To Deceive
02. Detonate
03. Our Channel To The Darkness
04. Cruel Perception
05. What We Become
06. This Curse Of Silence
07. March Of The Unheard
08. Forever Astray
09. Between Directions
10. A Death That Becomes Us
11. The Burning Point
12. Coda
Bonus tracks:
* “Not Yet Broken”
** “Path Of Fierce Resistance”
** “The Defiant One”
** “Become Surrender”
Shortly after “March Of The Unheard”‘s release, THE HALO EFFECT will embark on its first-ever headline tour in Europe. Industrial outfit and labelmates PAIN will be special guest on this tour and to round up this great package, melo-death shooting stars from Finland BLOODRED HOURGLASS will join as a support.
In a recent interview with Finland’s Chaoszine, Stanne stated about “March Of The Unheard”: “It’s been done for a while. Yeah, I think that’s the hardest part for our labels, in order to squeeze stuff in and have room enough to promote and make sure that everybody knows about it. So, we pushed the release until early next year… But it’s really cool. I’m incredibly proud of it. It sounds awesome. Niclas and Jesper have written some incredible songs that are very — like a different level of confidence, I think. Because the first album, we were just going, ‘Yeah, let’s see what can happen.’ It feels like a more confident band. Everybody knows exactly what to do now, so the album sounds awesome.”
Stanne was also asked if Strömblad, who has been battling addiction for more than a decade, will be part of THE HALO EFFECT‘s lineup when he and his bandmates return to the road or if THE HAUNTED‘s Patrik Jensen will continue to fill in for him. Mikael said: “Most likely [Jensen will continue to tour with us]. Whenever Jesper wants to, we want him, so we’re always ready. If he’s up to it, then he will join us. But it’s always up to him. And we always said, ‘Yeah, we’re there. Jensen‘s always gonna be there. If Jesper wants to play, then we’re here.’ So that’s kind of the deal we made early on.”
Asked in an interview with A Swedish Fika With about the musical direction of the new THE HALO EFFECT songs, Peter said: “I think it’s definitely the same type of music, but as an artist, you don’t obviously wanna repeat yourself. But I guess what we did on the first one, we just went in and we took the ideas and what was written and made it into songs. And without thinking of, ‘This is gonna sound like this or that.’ And now with the second album, we know how it’s gonna sound. But I guess we kept on still doing it the same way. So there’s no real change. It’s THE HALO EFFECT. It’s not gonna be a big change in a different direction. We’re gonna keep on trying to do what we started to do.”
In August 2024, Peter told Australia’s “Everblack” podcast about THE HALO EFFECT‘s mindset while writing the new material: “What we’ve done with this one and the last one was basically we just went into the studio with some ideas. Niclas had many, many ideas, some finished songs, and then he invited us, everybody else, in the songwriting process. So we went in without having a clear plan on how it’s gonna sound, but obviously, it’s in the fingers and it’s in Mikael‘s voice. Whatever comes out is the way that it sounds now. So the next record is — you always wanna evolve, obviously, but it’s not different; it’s definitely the same type of genre. And, like I said, we went in and we played what we felt like. And Niclas had written a bunch of songs together with Jesper, and we went in the studio on this one and just did our thing on them.”
He continued: “A lot of times some bands evolve all the time and it’s always different from record [to record]. But I think we feel more comfortable than we did before. We had no pressure by doing [the first THE HALO EFFECT album] ‘Days Of The Lost’, and we had no pressure [on the follow-up album]. But at the same time, we’ve been out playing, we’re together in an even stronger way than we were before. So, it’s definitely the same type of music. But it’s — I don’t know; it’s hard to describe.”
Also in August 2023, Stanne told Finland’s Chaoszine about THE HALO EFFECT‘s upcoming LP: “It’s done, and it sounds awesome. But, yeah, we were [originally] supposed to do an EP [instead of a full-length album] — we had that kind of plan — but then we realized, ‘Ah, maybe not.’ … So it’s been — not stressful, but we did a lot during a short period of time, which ended up being fantastic just because it turned out a much more confident album, I think. It’s very focused and you can, you can probably tell — at least from the people that I’ve played it to — that whereas the first time was kind of, like, ‘Hey, let’s figure out what we wanna do,’ whereas this is kind of, like, ‘This is exactly what we wanna do.'” He added: “So it’s, it’s gonna be interesting. I can’t wait to have people hear it because I’m incredibly proud of it.”
Asked if the second THE HALO EFFECT album is a “continuation” of “Days Of The Lost”, which came out in 2022, Stanne said: “Yeah, I think so. I think Niclas and Jesper were more confident in terms of their songwriting, where it’s, like, ‘Yeah, this is gonna work.’ And there are some cool experimentation on the album as well, but some of the songs are just like straight up, like there’s no questions. It’s just so easy and so to the point, you know. So it’s kind of fun when I get the demo version of a song, and I start thinking about lyrics and vocals, it’s, like, it just makes sense. I just know this by heart. It’s so easy. Which is — it is weird, but it’s just, like, it speaks to me in a way that where I go like, ‘Okay, I know exactly what to do and I can finish it in a matter of days.’ That’s sometimes how it feels. You just hear a song and you go, like, ‘Yep, I know this already. I know exactly what to do. And it’s gonna be great.”
In February 2024, THE HALO EFFECT released the official music video for the song “Become Surrender”. The track, which has been a staple of THE HALO EFFECT‘s live shows for a while now, will not appear on the band’s upcoming second album.
THE HALO EFFECT debuted “Become Surrender”, which was recorded at the same time as “Days Of The Lost”, during its February 2023 Swedish tour.
In May 2023, THE HALO EFFECT released a visualizer for the song “Path Of Fierce Resistance”. The track, which was previously released as a Japanese exclusive on “Days Of The Lost”, was finally made available in the rest of the world.
“Days Of The Lost” entered the official chart in Sweden in the summer of 2022 at position No. 1. This was believed to be the first time a debut LP from a metal act had ever topped the chart in Sweden in its first week of release. “Days Of The Lost” also landed at No. 6 in Germany.
Photo credit: Linda Florin