For Swedish melodic death metal devotees, the prospect of a collective comprised entirely of former In Flames members creating new music reminiscent of that group’s early years was incredibly appealing. And fittingly, The Halo Effect’s 2022 debut full-length Days Of The Lost captured the very essence of Gothenburg’s metallic legacy. The record was a triumph, filled with hook-laden, yet brutal gems. After plenty of touring in support of the album, the band returns with its follow-up, March Of The Unheard. Heavy Music HQ caught up with guitarist Niclas Engelin to get the lowdown.
Brendan Crabb: My understanding is this new album has been finished for a while, correct?
Niclas Engelin: Yeah.
Was there a reason to delay the release, other than obviously Mikael (Stanne, vocals) has Dark Tranquillity and Cemetery Skyline recently releasing new LPs?
We are one of those boring bands that have to look at a schedule and map it out really carefully in advance, up to one or two years in advance. And Dark Tranquillity started a campaign, I think it was in April/May, then they released the album in August and then started touring. We have to be careful about this stuff so it works for everyone in the band. We moved the release to January 10th, so we would start our campaign, I think it was early October or something like that. But we played our last show in late August with Amon Amarth. So, we stopped the touring cycle, and it goes hand in hand with starting the campaign with the next album.
Was the initial plan with this album based around the belief that the first record worked so well, so let’s continue utilizing that formula? Or did you want to experiment beyond that?
I think this album shows that we feel more comfortable, we feel more secure and… I mean, we did so many shows for the first album, and that shows when you listen to March of the Unheard. Because something’s gotta happen when you do almost 100 shows together as a band under the banner of The Halo Effect. Even though we have played for decades together and known each other, playing The Halo Effect music is another world to us.
And I think that shows on the album. It’s a little bit more of everything like solos, melodies, a little bit more, I wouldn’t say proggy, but intricate song structures, sometimes. There’s stuff happening all the time. You listen to a song like “Detonate,” there’s always some melodies, some guitar-driven stuff that only comes one time in the song, and we leave it behind and just continue. Stuff like that; small stuff that we didn’t do on the first album.
The Halo Effect’s debut was one of my favorite albums of recent years, and for many fans of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal it just hit that sweet spot. Is it a key goal to stay true to that classic sound, but perhaps expand upon it a little?
It’s a little bit of a mixture of both. When we started out, in the beginning when we met up over a coffee and just talked… We listen to all kinds of music. We’re all over the place, and we didn’t know how to do this. We just started out, and the first song was “Gateways” that we wrote together, and then “Shadowminds” and then “Feel What I Believe.” And that kind of paved the way for us. ‘Okay, let’s stick to what we do and what we’ve got here, and this is the music we love to play, and love to play live as well.’ So that came by all naturally to us because we’ve been doing this for so long. And we love our heavy metal obviously [laughs].
There’s definitely a dark and melancholic feel to the album’s themes at times. Is there a worldview that the band members share with regard to the tone of the songs?
Mikael is the master of lyrics, and he puts some effort behind that to make everything flow within the song, with words and the lyrics. They’ve got to make sense to him; he’s a poet in that way. But I think the overall theme when you listen to the music, it has a positive energy to it. Still, we’ve got these melancholic things like melodies, and a little bit of Swedish folk music into it. But this is a positive album, to me at least.
It felt like when the first album was released, there was a perception that The Halo Effect in some regard had influenced In Flames to return to their roots and make their heaviest album in some time (2023’s Foregone). Was it ever a consideration for this band, that you may inspire them to some extent?
For us it has always been, do this together, and there’s a lineup, and make the music that we love to play, both [on] record and live. Because live is where the music comes alive and real. And something happens when you play it live… In the reaction and the feeling in the venue and with all the beautiful supporters, was getting in on the music. We just want to play music and it happens to be this genre of music that we’ve been doing for so long.
And do you feel that The Halo Effect now stands alone as its own entity, and won’t have that tag of “the band featuring the ex-In Flames members” from now on?
I think definitely we are a band nowadays that people know it’s a band of its own. It’s The Halo Effect. This is our second album and we did so many shows on the last album, so I think people nowadays are, ‘yeah, this is The Halo Effect and we’ve got some identity of our own.’
What is it about that Gothenburg sound though, that crushingly heavy, yet melodic approach that has captivated metal fans for 30 years now?
[Laughs] I don’t know. Maybe it’s the blend. It’s traditional heavy metal, like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motörhead for me. I love Motörhead. And if you combine that with a little bit of thrash – Testament, Kreator, Anthrax. And then of course, some strong melodies, and Swedish music, folk music too. Then you have that kind of mix, I think.
I think also what matters is everyone still loves to play this kind of music over here, and we’re still enjoying it. We’re doing it with a smile. I think that makes it shine throughout all the bands’ music – At the Gates, HammerFall as well, even though it’s power metal, heavy metal. But it belongs, we’re from the same area, we’ve known each other for so long. It’s still fun to play and be around, even today. That’s really important for music to shine, to be relevant, I think. Stay happy and make music.
Indeed. Shifting topics, I imagine with Dark Tranquillity also on a touring cycle that there will be plenty of the aforementioned planning in order for The Halo Effect to play shows in support of the new record?
We’re going to plan that carefully, because we don’t want to interrupt Dark Tranquillity’s activities. We’re going to let both bands live, and we’re planning ahead of time. We sit with a calendar and really talk about this stuff. Mikael, he works his ass off at the moment – he’s all over the place touring. I feel a little bit worried about the guy; how long are you going to keep up with this tempo, doing this stuff? He’s amazing.
A couple of your bandmates co-own a brewery, Odd Island Brewing. Are you a craft beer enthusiast yourself?
I am, in a very basic way [laughs]. I can have one or two of these beers, but Daniel [Svensson, drums], Peter [Iwers, bass] and Mikael as well are the beer enthusiasts in the band. They know everything about those beers; how it works, how it’s put together, all this stuff. I don’t.
So, when you’re all at a band dinner, do you order a bottle of wine instead?
Some of the guys drink beer and wine, but also tons of water. That’s needed. You don’t want to get hungover, that’s bad.
I suppose after this long in the game you need to make good lifestyle decisions when out on the road.
Yeah, most definitely. I love to take care of myself. Stay healthy, stay strong. That’s how I work. I run a lot, I’m a runner, which clears my head while I’m out running. I’m 52, I don’t have time to get hungover or drunk or anything like that. No, I don’t enjoy that. It’s in the past [laughs]. We have all taken care of ourselves to make this work, and because when you’re out there touring the thing you want to do the most is to play live and do it 100 per cent. And you can’t stand there [doing what while] feeling sick, that sucks.
Jesper Strömblad [guitars] has largely sat out The Halo Effect’s touring activities. Will he play live with the band in the near future?
[Patrik] Jensen will still be with us. Jesper needs to stay home still and take care of himself. That’s where we are now. But I would love to have Jesper on board on tour, or on single shows here and there. That would be just great. [Meanwhile] Jensen has been there since the start, and he’s a great guy and a great guitar player, so why change a winning thing?
On a personal note, what have been your favourite metal albums of 2024?
I think it’s been a good year for music overall. I loved the new Judas Priest album, I’m a huge Priest fan. I really liked the Kerry King album, which I think was really good. And I’m really into the doom genre. I love the band Pallbearer, who put out an album that I thought was so good. That’s all that comes to mind right now.
Any famous last words?
We’d like to come back to Australia, that’s for sure. I love your beautiful country, and New Zealand as well. Let’s hope that we can make that work.
(interview published January 9, 2025)
