On September 8th, 2022, The Halo Effect opened for Machine Head. Robb Flynn referred to them as “death metal royalty”. The backstory involves In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, but that night my review said, “There’s something about The Halo Effect that you can’t fail to recognise as being excellent.”
Which brings us to album number two. “March Of The Unheard” basically comes on like arena rock masquerading as melodic death metal.
Think Children of Bodom, and you aren’t far wrong as “Conspire To Deceive” kicks off.
Make no mistake, though; this is heavy, and for all the hooks, “Detonate” can start a mosh pit. Hell, it’s supposed to.
Yet, this is so much more. “Channel To The Darkness” is fun, but if that’s the yin, then “Cruel Perception” is the yang, coming on like an icy blast of Scandinavian wind. Barren as any tundra, even if it can’t resist an explosion before the end.
“What We Become” offers something slightly more epic, but there’s something welcoming at its heart. Mikael Stanne always finds a way to welcome you in, and then there’s the kind of effortless way they manage to make their songs sound huge.
The instrumental piece “This Curse Of Silence” lives and dies on its harmonies and acts as a companion piece to the title track.
The thunderous drumming from Daniel Svensson is wonderful, but try and ignore the urge to wallop your fists in the air if you dare.
If ever there was a heavy band that understood that denim and leather brought us all together, it’s this one, and “Forever Astray” only serves to emphasise this with its superb use of clean vocals.
A desire to push the boundaries has bubbled under here to an extent, but “Between Directions” makes it explicit. Veering from classical—almost power metal—stylings to harsh and unforgiving, if anything stands as the mission statement here, it’s this.
All of “…Unheard” is expansive and polished (the latter is not meant as a criticism), and songs like “Death Becomes Us” sound ready for big stages in a way that many bands of this type do not. Put it this way: you can spot the In Flames connection despite the band originally being cited as a return to the “Gothenburg sound”.
There’s enough “death” in the metal of “The Burning Point” to make it work, and there’s enough “melodic” in the mix to give it crossover potential to people who wouldn’t usually be the obvious target market.
That’s perhaps underlined by the acoustic and string arrangement of “Coda,” and it almost feels like the credits roll here, given its cinematic air.
Maybe it’s a time to reflect, as if The Halo Effect know they’ve given you something special and are going, “There it was, what do you reckon?”
The kind of band that could play Bloodstock Festival in the early evening and end up being the band of the weekend, “March Of The Unheard” almost demands you listen to it.
Rating: 8.5/10
REVIEW: THE HALO EFFECT – MARCH OF THE UNHEARD (2025)
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