Album review: The Halo Effect – The March Of The Undead

The Breakdown

The first album was an introduction but this second album is the band firmly putting themselves on the top rung of the melodic metal ladder

– 9.0

It doesn’t feel like two minutes since this super group blew up my speakers with their album ‘Days Of The Lost’—a superb debut from some of the finest voices/fingers in the melodic metal scene. Now the band have regrouped for the second album ‘The March Of The Undead’

The band bring more of the same but with a far more fierce competence, each member clearly finding their musical space within the band. Early favourite track and the first single ‘Detonate’ beats the unconscious concious as singer Mikael Stanne delivers a biting vocal performance over uncontrollable riffs that abound left right and centre.

There is no shortage of riffage from this band, and the way they manage to get tracks to shift gear to deliver the hook-ridden choruses and breakdowns is my main attraction to this band’s music. That and Stanne’s gruff growling is perfect.

‘Our Channel To The Darkness’ may be the beginnings of the band going soft; however, that is quickly diminished when the track takes hold and is one of the heaviest on the record. ‘The Curse of Silence’ also leads you down the path of melodic softening over heaviness, but it’s a nice inclusion to the band’s work here. Breaking the album up, it sits as a lengthy choral intro to the raw title track ‘March Of The Undead’ and is also a showcase for the dual guitar prowess of both Niclas Engelin and Jesper Strömblad.

Another single, ‘Cruel Perception’, shows off the superb fretwork I have already mentioned. Engelin and Strömblad make many a track throughout this album, and it’s often the little hidden melodic runs that take a couple of listens to pick up. Check out the verses on ‘Between Directions’ to hear what I mean or the pin sharp tapping on ‘Our Channel To The Darkness’ guitar solo. Magnificent.

The tracks are busy with a lot going on, and this isn’t an album you can just put on in the background. You need to give it your full attention. ‘What We Become’ and the metal sledgehammer ‘A Death That Becomes Us’ are epic power metal done with a solid backbone. These potent tracks on a powerful album recharge the listener from the usual winter gloom that affects us all at this time of year. Stanne is a man processed on ‘What We Become’. His understandable guttural mutterings are delivered in snappy rhythms matching the song’s electrifying tone.

Master musicians, these guys are. You can hear the pedigree on complex tracks like the apocalyptic ‘Our Channel To The Darkness’ and the Dark Tranquillity sounding ‘Forever Astray’ with Stanne dropping in some clean vocals amongst the rampaging guitars. Even the euphoric rush on ‘Cruel Perception’ is as impressive musically as it is emotionally.

It’s also time to mention the solid backline of drummer Daniel Svensson and bassist Peter Iwas. I may have battered on about vocals and guitar work, which is all well and good, but they wouldn’t hit half as good without the solid concrete laid down by these two from which the three, Stanne, Engelin and Strömblad, stand on to reach the dizzying heights of musical perfection.

The drums are huge in places. Arena huge, giving the tracks a vastness that wraps around the listener like you are in the middle of the maelstrom. The simple beat on ‘Between Directions’ is a powerful example of this. Svensson knows when to bring it but also knows how to keep things on a purely dynamic footing without getting manic on the cymbals. There are times and places for both.

‘The Burning Point’ is a massive rampaging freight train of a track where Svensson is let loose, destroying his drum kit in the process. It may be the second to last track, but it’s the one where the band give it all before the final track, ‘Coda’ brings things down to a softer finish.

Acoustic and sweeping strings soothe the broken bones after the previous 10 tracks as Coda ends the album. There is still the hint of the band’s fierce menace in the spiky rhythms, but it is much subdued and smartly crafted. Much of this album’s well-thought-out arrangements and track placement hint at a band who have a firm understanding of the direction and limits of their songwriting talents.

There are bands out there that do metal better and heavier, and there are ones that have a firmer grip on the melodic side, but not many merge the two as brilliantly as The Halo Effect does. The first album was an introduction, but this second album is the band firmly putting themselves on the top run of the melodic metal ladder with this masterpiece.

Check out the track ‘What We Become’, below: