PETER IWERS Shares How THE HALO EFFECT Has Become The 'Perfect Band'

By David E. Gehlke

For an act that is essentially the convergence of two of melodic death metal's all-time best bands, DARK TRANQUILLITY and IN FLAMES, THE HALO EFFECT doesn't re-write the melo-death playbook as it does follow it carefully. Perhaps it's a lesson learned from when IN FLAMES and DARK TRANQUILLITY made their own unnecessary detours or simply just age and experience shining through. Either way, the band's new "March Of The Unheard" capably sticks to the script of its well-received predecessor, "Days Of The Lost", particularly in the guitar harmony department where Niclas Engelin and Jesper Strömblad still hold down the fort and ubiquitous vocalist Mikael Stanne (DARK TRANQUILLITY, CEMETARY SKYLINE) continues his rough and clean vocal volleys.

For its members, THE HALO EFFECT bears none of the grind-it-out touring responsibilities that were the norm 20 years ago. IN FLAMES, in particular, were almost a constant Stateside presence during the "Clayman", "Reroute To Remain" and "Soundtrack To Your Escape" glory years and it permanently gave the band a foothold here that THE HALO EFFECT also benefits from. With "March Of The Unheard" on its way and 2025 dates being lined up, BLABBERMOUTH.NET caught up with bassist Peter Iwers to talk about the latest with the band and to reflect on touring days of yore.

Blabbermouth: What's been the most satisfying thing about doing THE HALO EFFECT thus far? Is it the ability to launch a second band successfully? Or is it something else?

Peter: "The friendship. THE HALO EFFECT is five friends, six friends if you count [touring guitarist Patrik] Jensen [also of THE HAUNTED and WITCHERY], who is with us at all times. When we formed the band, we wanted to do something together. We've known each other for years. Some of us have played together in the same constellation. You just form the band, create the music and go on tour with your best friends—people you've known forever but have not necessarily done something like this together. That's very satisfying. To go out and be able to play in front of people who appreciate it, that's amazing. It still is. If there's one incident I must mention, it was our first show at Sweden Rock [in 2022]. We had no idea what to expect. We were on the main stage. People were there early. It was packed. It was extremely overwhelming."

Blabbermouth: After you stepped away from IN FLAMES in 2016, did you envision being in a band again?

Peter: "I was okay with it after I left IN FLAMES. I run some restaurants and I have a brewery with Daniel [Svensson, drums]. The restaurant is with [IN FLAMES guitarist] Björn [Gelotte]. I was done with touring. I wanted to step away from the whole machinery. I wasn't planning on doing anything. I made some recordings here and there and I wrote some music, but I never saw myself touring again at that point because I enjoyed being home too much. I enjoyed kind of having a normal life, especially being in charge of my own time. A lot of times, my kids would go, 'Hey, dad. There's this thing in three months. Can you come?' And it's like, 'I'll try.' [Laughs] Now I can say, 'Yeah, for sure.' That still goes with THE HALO EFFECT. We block periods off if we have something important to do. No, I wasn't expecting it. When Niclas asked me, I was like, 'Yeah, this can be fun.' It was the right period to start doing something that would involve playing live again, even though we formed just before the pandemic."

Blabbermouth: Were you burnt out from all the touring IN FLAMES did?

Peter: "Not really. It was one of these things if you look at the guys like a wife or any other relationship where you feel you're done, you're done. I had the biggest anxiety before I told the guys. When I did, when I told the guys, all this pressure that was here was gone. It wasn't anything negative. I can't say anything negative about what led to the decision. I felt it was time for me to step aside to do something else."

Blabbermouth: Let's go into "March Of The Unheard". With "Days Of The Lost" under your belt, did you do anything differently?

Peter: "Niclas and Jesper, of course, did most of the writing for the new album. They show us ideas and we go in and add our stuff to it. I think if anybody felt pressure, it would probably be him and Mikael, of course, with his lyrics. We've done this for so many years. Never has it been a thing where you do it to please someone else. You write music that you like yourself and you write music that you enjoy listening to, you enjoy writing without complicating things too much. I think if you sit down, whether it's in the studio or in your living room writing music and you think about what the response is going to be, then it's not going to be as relaxed. At least for myself, I tried to put that aside. When we were in the studio, it was just us. We're just there. No one else matters. It's more pressure than when you're going to play it for your record company. [Laughs] Then you're done at the same time, and there are no changes to be made. Nuclear Blast had only heard one song when they signed us for the first record. They trusted our pasts to actually sign it. They were just happy with it, but in the second album, they came and listened, and they had some thoughts about it, but they were all positive. No pressure from my end."

Blabbermouth: Jesper has generally been the guy who has received notoriety for his songwriting and justifiably so. It feels like Niclas is stepping out of the shadows.

Peter: "He's very generous. He listens to an idea that you have and we discuss it immediately. I like this. He's never been like, 'I don't like that.' He focuses on what he likes and we create something out of it, which was the case for 'Gateways'. That was a little thing I had. I showed him and he took one of the parts and said, 'We can create something with this.' He's very open-minded. The same thing when he shows you something, when he wants your input. Whether it's an idea he has or he's already recorded the demo, he'll always say, 'Do whatever you want. Change whatever you want. I want everyone's input.' He's very generous. He's a riff machine; he's a genius. I think being the way that he is and inviting everyone else into the process is amazing. Of course, Jesper is a big part of it as well. I haven't sat down that much while Jesper is writing, but when he's in the studio, it's the same. He's also very generous. We have this saying, 'Kill your darlings.' If you have something you really like and someone doesn't, it has to go. Everyone is on board with it. THE HALO EFFECT is very much a group effort even though we have these two guitar players doing most of the work."

Blabbermouth: How is it working out with Jensen stepping in for Jesper for live dates?

Peter: "Jesper is very much part of the band. He joins us when he can, basically. He can always come and play whenever he wants to. We've known Jensen for such a long time. When we asked him, he fit perfectly personally and playing-wise. He's a hard worker. He has no ego. He just goes in and does his thing. Last year, when we played in Gothenburg, Jesper came to a few shows and Jensen was there as well, so we did an IRON MAIDEN with three guitar players. It's very relaxed and very open. We can talk about our feelings about it. I think it's almost like a utopia. This is the perfect band."

Blabbermouth: Do you feel that given everyone's pedigree here, you can come close to achieving melodic death metal perfection? And, if anyone is going to do it, it should be you?

Peter: "I would love to say that, but when we started writing, we just went in and wrote songs. We had no idea how it would sound. We didn't think about or talk about it, 'Should we use distorted bass on this one?' Let's just be ourselves and write music. None of us thought that it would sound a certain way. I know it might sound like a cliché or something we made up, but we didn't. We wrote music. You got Niclas, who writes these amazing riffs and together with Jesper and his amazing harmonies, it becomes what it is. Then you add Daniel's drumming and my bass and Mikael's vocals to that. You will always sound the way we always sound. Of course, we can do it as well as anyone else, but I wouldn't say we've perfected it. We do it in a way that feels comfortable for us. It's natural. It's really important not to overthink stuff as well. I know that on the first record, the demos were really good and we tried to record them properly. We tried to change as little as possible. The first impression you get, the first idea, that's usually the one to stick with. We don't revisit as much as I think you could do. We try to stay where it is. We even have songs that we've recorded that we might use for the third record. We may re-record them or not change as much."

Blabbermouth: How is this all going to work out with touring this time around, especially with Mikael's multiple bands?

Peter: "Obviously, DARK TRANQUILLITY is the main focus for him and we adjust to that. We first try to plan as much as we can. At the same time, I would like every show to matter. I remember a lot of the shows with IN FLAMES and other bands, it's you like go on two, three, four tours in America. You do two or three European and a couple of Asian ones. That's awesome. I always enjoyed touring, but at the same time, I wouldn't want people to say, 'I'll catch them the next time.' If we come to your town, you should want to see us. That's the approach we tried to have, which was great on our first tour when we opened for AMON AMARTH and MACHINE HEAD, then we did the same for MESHUGGAH, then played again with AMON AMARTH. Playing with bands that have a huge crowd, we can go out and present ourselves and get good exposure the first time. We're going to try to tour everywhere we can. It just won't be we will come back to your city again that cycle. "

Blabbermouth: This goes against what you were doing with IN FLAMES 20 years ago. You were touring all the time. Did you think you guys were fried?

Peter: "We were probably tired or jetlagged. We always enjoyed touring a lot. I did up until my end at IN FLAMES. When you go on tour, at least for me, I get into touring mode. That's what exists there, even though I have businesses at home. I try to focus on being in the moment. I always stay in touch with my friends and my kids. But I would never say we were fried. We might have been tired. It sometimes could have been we played so much that we went into a certain mode."

Blabbermouth: Your dedication to touring the States back then was second to none. You were over here all the time.

Peter: "I remember the first couple of times here, we stayed in the tour bus a lot. When you grow older, you realize there's a really cool city here and there's a site there and you want to do stuff. You want to go to the gym and work out. It's a different lifestyle. You become healthier and more aware of your surroundings, which makes it even more fun. In the beginning, we could park on an off day at a Walmart and stay there the whole day, barbecuing and drinking beer. Later, we decided, 'What's around here?' I guess smartphones changed all that. [Laughs]"