THE HALO EFFECT To Release First Song From Upcoming Album Before End Of The Year

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) — recently completed mixing its sophomore album for an early 2024 release. Asked in a new interview with A Swedish Fika With about a possible release date for the new THE HALO EFFECT material, Peter said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I believe we will be releasing one new song later this year, and one more, I think, beginning of next. And then we'll see. I mean, the album is done. It's recorded and done. And we've actually been talking about going in and start writing new stuff. And then there's record labels and release plans and everything that comes together that goes beyond our control. So, I'm not 100 percent sure when it will be released, but there is a new record coming, definitely."

As for the musical direction of the new THE HALO EFFECT songs, Peter said: "I think it's definitely the same type of music, but as an artist, you don't obviously wanna repeat yourself. But I guess what we did on the first one, we just went in and we took the ideas and what was written and made it into songs. And without thinking of, 'This is gonna sound like this or that.' And now with the second album, we know how it's gonna sound. But I guess we kept on still doing it the same way. So there's no real change. It's THE HALO EFFECT. It's not gonna be a big change in a different direction. We're gonna keep on trying to do what we started to do."

This past August, Peter told Australia's "Everblack" podcast about THE HALO EFFECT's mindset while writing the new material: "What we've done with this one and the last one was basically we just went into the studio with some ideas. Niclas had many, many ideas, some finished songs, and then he invited us, everybody else, in the songwriting process. So we went in without having a clear plan on how it's gonna sound, but obviously, it's in the fingers and it's in Mikael's voice. Whatever comes out is the way that it sounds now. So the next record is — you always wanna evolve, obviously, but it's not different; it's definitely the same type of genre. And, like I said, we went in and we played what we felt like. And Niclas had written a bunch of songs together with Jesper, and we went in the studio on this one and just did our thing on them."

He continued: "A lot of times some bands evolve all the time and it's always different from record [to record]. But I think we feel more comfortable than we did before. We had no pressure by doing [the first THE HALO EFFECT album] 'Days Of The Lost', and we had no pressure [on the follow-up album]. But at the same time, we've been out playing, we're together in an even stronger way than we were before. So, it's definitely the same type of music. But it's — I don't know; it's hard to describe."

Also in August, Stanne told Finland's Chaoszine about THE HALO EFFECT's upcoming LP: "It's done, and it sounds awesome. But, yeah, we were [originally] supposed to do an EP [instead of a full-length album] — we had that kind of plan — but then we realized, 'Ah, maybe not.' So now we're gonna release the album beginning of next year and starting with singles and that kind of stuff soon. So it's really exciting, because we worked really hard just to fit into all of our schedules to make sure that the album was kind of done in time, and then we figured out like a release schedule and a release date and all that stuff. So it's been — not stressful, but we did a lot during a short period of time, which ended up being fantastic just because it turned out a much more confident album, I think. It's very focused and you can, you can probably tell — at least from the people that I've played it to — that whereas the first time was kind of, like, 'Hey, let's figure out what we wanna do,' whereas this is kind of, like, 'This is exactly what we wanna do.'"

He added: "So it's, it's gonna be interesting. I can't wait to have people hear it because I'm incredibly proud of it."

Asked if the second THE HALO EFFECT album is a "continuation" of "Days Of The Lost", which came out last year, Stanne said: "Yeah, I think so. I think Niclas and Jesper were more confident in terms of their songwriting, where it's, like, 'Yeah, this is gonna work.' And there are some cool experimentation on the album as well, but some of the songs are just like straight up, like there's no questions. It's just so easy and so to the point, you know. So it's kind of fun when I get the demo version of a song, and I start thinking about lyrics and vocals, it's, like, it just makes sense. I just know this by heart. It's so easy. Which is — it is weird, but it's just, like, it speaks to me in a way that where I go like, 'Okay, I know exactly what to do and I can finish it in a matter of days.' That's sometimes how it feels. You just hear a song and you go, like, 'Yep, I know this already. I know exactly what to do. And it's gonna be great."

THE HALO EFFECT debuted two brand new songs, "Become Surrender" and "The Defiant One", during its February 2023 Swedish tour. Speaking to MoreCore.TV about the decision to perform new material before it is officially recorded and released, Mikael said: "We decided to [test the water a little bit], see if people are into the new stuff that we're writing. Not that it's super different, but still… And it's been fun to kind of, yeah, try things out and see if people are into it. And they seem to be digging it. So we're really excited."

In May, THE HALO EFFECT released a visualizer for the song "Path Of Fierce Resistance". The track, which was previously released as a Japanese exclusive on "Days Of The Lost", was finally made available in the rest of the world.

"Days Of The Lost" entered the official chart in Sweden in the summer of 2022 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.