THE HALO EFFECT To Record New EP This Winter

THE HALO EFFECT, the new project featuring five former members of the Swedish metal band IN FLAMES — Jesper Strömblad (guitar),Daniel Svensson (drums),Peter Iwers (bass),Niclas Engelin (guitar) and Mikael Stanne (vocals) — is planning to enter the studio before the end of the year to record a new EP. The upcoming effort will be the follow-up to THE HALO EFFECT's debut album, "Days Of The Lost", which recently entered the official chart in Sweden at position No. 1. This was believed to be the first time a debut LP from a metal act had ever topped the chart in Sweden in its first week of release. "Days Of The Lost" also landed at No. 6 in Germany.

Speaking to Overdrive.ie 's Oran O'Beirne after THE HALO EFFECT's September 13 performance in Dublin as the support act for AMON AMARTH and MACHINE HEAD, Peter stated about THE HALO EFFECT's plans for the coming months (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're gonna try and go back into the studio and finish up the next record. Maybe not a full-length, but like an EP or something " Mikael added: "I'm gonna be on tour [this] winter with DARK TRANQUILLITY. But then at the end of the year, we're gonna record some new stuff and hopefully have something ready before next summer so that we can play longer sets, basically… Because it's been weird playing the entire album at some of the festival shows we've done. Also, we did it before the album came out, which nobody does. So, yeah, that was kind of strange."

"Days Of The Lost" came out on August 12 via Nuclear Blast.

Asked in a recent interview with Tomar Uma if THE HALO EFFECT is a "band" or just a "project", Mikael said: "It is definitely a new band. It started out as a project or an idea, but because of the time we had, I think we made it into a proper band and we wanna treat it as such because we want to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to make this as good as it possibly can be. We wanna do some tours; we wanna do cool festivals. And we're already starting to plan for more recordings and the next album and that kind of stuff. So everybody's just excited. And because it felt good and we were on a roll… You really can't hold Niclas and Jesper back once they get started. So they've already started writing new stuff. Let's keep up. It's gonna be a lot of work [laughs] the next couple of years, that's for sure."

Stanne was also asked if "Reroute To Remain", IN FLAMES' sixth album, which came out in 2002 and featured Jesper, Peter and Daniel, was an influence on the way THE HALO EFFECT approached the songwriting process. He responded: "I don't think so. I love that album — I think it's fantastic — but no, I don't think so. But, obviously, the other guys were a big part of it, so maybe that's something… They had that experience, so that will color and will somehow affect them. But I don't think it ever came up, so I don't think that was a particular influence. But, of course, everything is a part of what you do, right?!"

In June, Iwers was asked in an interview with Australia's "Scars And Guitars" podcast if he would agree that "Days Of The Lost" is, in some ways, a "spiritual successor" to "Reroute To Remain". Peter said: "Ooh, interesting. I haven't really thought about it. When you make music, like we do, you tend not to overthink stuff — you just go in and you write music and kind of know that what comes out will sound a certain way because of the style that we are playing and how we are playing and performing our music. So I haven't really thought about it, but maybe — maybe. It was definitely nothing intentional. We just went in. We had a bunch of ideas and we came out with a bunch of songs that happen to sound a certain way. But none of us really overthought it and it was never meant to 'it's gonna sound like this' or 'it's gonna sound like that.' We just [went], 'Let's write this music and see what happens.' And because of, like I said, how we're playing, it will sound a certain way."

Added Daniel: "A lot of people like to analyze music, and, of course, it sounds Gothenburg metal-ish because we all are from that genre and we are some of the people that kind of created it. So, of course, it will sound Gothenburg metal-ish, IN FLAMES-ish. And then which era, I don't know. And as Peter said, we don't really think about how it should sound. This is how we sound today, and with our legacy this is inevitable, that we sound as we do."

Continued Peter: "Obviously, people like to do a lot of comparing between us… It's a difficult topic to discuss because none of us have — even though we've all been in IN FLAMES at some point, none of us have really thought about this as what you're saying. But then a lot of people that we speak to say it. So it's a little hard to take in, as we've been very thorough in just writing music. But I'd say it's a little flattering to hear it."

Svensson, who joined IN FLAMES in 1998, announced in 2015 that he was leaving the group to focus on his family life.

A member of IN FLAMES since 1997, Iwers issued a statement in November 2016 saying that he was exiting the band "to pursue other endeavors."

A founding member of IN FLAMES, Strömblad quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction.

Strömblad's THE HALO EFFECT bandmates have been supportive in his ongoing battle with the bottle, going so far as to hire THE HAUNTED's Patrik Jensen to fill in for him at any gigs he is unable to play,

Engelin has been sitting out IN FLAMES' tour dates for the past three and a half years but has never officially confirmed his departure from the band. Engelin's replacement for IN FLAMES' live shows since then has been former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE guitarist Chris Broderick.

Photo credit: Markus Esselmark