After blasting onto the scene a few short years ago with their electrifying debut, Swedish supergroup The Halo Effect return with second full length studio release March of the Unheard (Nuclear Blast Records). Comprised entirely of former members of In Flames, The Halo Effect is sort of like the musical equivalent of a support group for disgruntled ex-employees, but with riffs instead of complaining.
If you liked what you heard the first time around then you might as well just stick this one in your online shopping basket right now and settle in for more but with a few tweaks and revisions along the way. Opener “Conspire to Deceive” is a surging start to proceedings, everyone in the band instantly firing on all cylinders with crunchy riffs and chuggy rhythms flying at you from all angles.
It’s full speed ahead for “Detonate,” vocalist Mikael Stanne champing at the bit while keeping the clean vocals at arm’s length as the song draws heavily from the likes of Iron Maiden and one or two other particular acts a lot more obvious and closer to home. Opening with a sense of familiarity, the gentle acoustic intro to “Our Channel to the Darkness” is quickly blasted into oblivion by the guitars of Niclas Engelin and the legendary Jesper Strömblad. Slowing down around the halfway mark, it’s time for drummer Daniel Svensson and bassist Peter Iwers to draw your attention to them before the song races towards its explosive climax.
Their most recent single “Cruel Perception” sounds like the offspring of Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, which of course it is, while “What We Become” broods menacingly before leaping out from the shadows with another hook-filled chorus. An instrumental interlude save for some background choral vocals, “This Curse of Silence” returns to Maiden for inspiration before leading into a title track which is nothing short of a masterclass in melancholic melodic death metal.
“Forever Astray” unveils the album’s first proper clean vocals while “A Death That Becomes Us,” and “The Burning Point” are further sturdy blasts of Swedish melodeath, the latter possessing a riff that sounds suspiciously similar to Black Sabbath‘s “Hole in the Sky.” However, it’s on “Between Directions” where the band lands arguably its biggest punch. A simply sensational cut, dramatic and insistent punctuated by a subtle but powerful orchestral backing. Stanne’s clean vocals sound better than ever here while his growls are somehow more inhuman and guttural than usual. Not bad for a singer with his iron currently in four different fires. All this before the self-descriptive instrumental “Coda” sees out the record with strings and choral backing vocals, the final track becoming more emotive as it progresses.
Speed, energy, infuriatingly adept guitar solos, massive riffs, roaring vocals and hooks that never want to leave your brain. Name anything you could want on a Swedish melodeath record and March of the Unheard delivers it in spades.
Buy the album here:
https://thehaloeffect.bfan.link/motulp
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK
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