Swedish supergroup The Halo Effect is releasing their debut album in 2022, but you could say that the band has been in the works since the early ’90s. That’s when vocalist Mikael Stanne (also of Dark Tranquillity) first met ex-In Flames members Niclas Engelin (guitar), Daniel Svensson (drums), Peter Iwers (bass), and Jesper Strömblad (guitar). “We’ve been friends since we were teenagers,” Stanne tells Apple Music. “But the pandemic finally gave us the opening to do this.”
Drawing on their collective past as pioneers of Gothenburg’s melodic death-metal style, the members of The Halo Effect pooled their collective talents on Days of the Lost. “We decided to play to our strengths,” Stanne says. “We didn’t want to overthink it or try to be anything other than what we are. And that was very liberating. It was kind of like having this band starting in ’91 or ’92, because that’s how it felt.” Below, he discusses each song.
“Shadowminds”
“This was one of the first three songs that we wrote. Instead of writing about my experiences, as I do with Dark Tranquillity all the time, I wanted to talk to the other guys and see what they were feeling and what they’ve been through. Lyrically, it’s a little bit about substance abuse because Jesper has been going through a rough time and I was trying to understand where he’s been. It’s saying, ‘Don’t let that overtake you. Focus on the positives and don’t let this kind of negativity bring you down.’”
“Days of the Lost”
“This was one of the first songs that Jesper was a part of. It has some of the more intense and heavy riffs that I’ve written vocals to, so I remember that being a challenge. Lyrically, it’s about who we were when we started out making music in the late ’80s. I remember feeling so strongly that this is what I wanted to do, and the only people I could talk to about it were my friends, the other super metal geeks—and no one else. We all met because we had this shared passion. Extreme metal became this thing that united us.”
“The Needless End”
“Niclas brings so much melody to this song that I didn’t really need to sing it—I could just scream. But it’s basically about how things come to an unnecessary end because communication comes to a standstill. Of course, that is something we’ve all been through in our different bands over the years. Why does communication eventually just break down? For us, it has to do with being Scandinavians. We’re not very comfortable with talking about our emotions, but it’s so frustrating because most things can be solved if we just open up to each other.”
“Conditional”
“This is another super intense and heavy song. Jesper wrote most of it, and I remember thinking that it was kind of cathartic for him. At least that’s my opinion. The lyrics are about how you come to a point where you need other people in your life in order to complete every task. I think a band is like that. Very few bands have just one guy that takes care of everything. So, it’s a matter of working together and being a part of something in order to achieve stuff, which is a super positive and amazing thing but can also be limiting, where you become used to having someone else take care of things for you.”
“In Broken Trust”
“This band is such a great thing to be part of because these are some of my best friends, and also musicians that I love but never worked with—except for Jesper back in the forever ago. We often talked in the studio about what brought us to this point and how important it feels to be back to this level of friendship. It’s easy to go with a band for a long time and lose track of that. You think everybody wants the same thing, but that’s not necessarily the case. All of a sudden, you realize somebody has an ulterior motive you don’t agree with or understand, and that can be devastating.”
“Gateways”
“This is the first song we wrote. Niclas and I were sitting on a train coming back from the Grammy Awards in Stockholm. Dark Tranquillity and In Flames were nominated, but Ghost won. We were drinking and talking about music in general, and then Niclas suggested that we should write something together. A couple of weeks later, he sent me this song. I really love it because it has a more progressive vibe to it, but it also sets the tone for some of the other songs as well. It’s probably my favorite of the album.”
“A Truth Worth Lying For”
“It’s one of the more emotional songs on the album, I think. I remember feeling like the prechorus is very much a tribute to Children of Bodom, and that’s how I wrote it. I think maybe that’s what Jesper thought about it as well. And, of course, Niclas writes these hugely emotional melodies without even thinking about it sometimes. It’s a song about the commitment that we make to this kind of lifestyle. As much as we love it and as cool as it is to be able to basically live off your hobby, it’s still hard work. But nobody would ever believe you if you tell them how much work it actually is, so it’s much easier to just say, ‘It’s all good.’”
“Feel What I Believe”
“This is basically about being a kid. I remember hanging out with Tomas Lindberg, from At the Gates, at his parents’ house. We were 14 or 16 or something like that and were sitting in his room, listening to metal. His parents were like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They just didn’t get it and thought it was just a phase. But for us, it was a special thing. It didn’t matter if no one understood or cared. You had friends that supported you—screw everything else. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, here in the south of Sweden, being a metalhead or a punk was not cool. It was not respected or understood. But we didn’t care.”
“Last of Our Kind”
“Jesper wrote this track and suggested that we do strings at the beginning, like old At the Gates. We even contacted the guy who plays violin on the first two At the Gates albums, but he wasn’t available. So, this feels like a tribute to the old days of Gothenburg death metal. Not just a throwback or retro thing, but more like, ‘Hey, this is what happened back then, and it was important.’ How we learned about music back then, through tape trading and fanzines, that stuff is gone. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, but I think you become more passionate and dedicated when something is so hard to get.”
“The Most Alone”
“Usually, when I come up with a song title, I google it to make sure that not many bands have the same title. What comes up if you google ‘The Most Alone’ is a whale off the coast of Canada that has a speech impediment. He cannot communicate with other whales because he sings whatever they do at a different frequency. He’s the most alone animal in the world. That was heartbreaking, so as I was writing the lyrics, I imagined if you were just on a different frequency than everyone else. Of course, that’s maybe what we have felt like all our lives because we have chosen a different path. It can be very lonely, but we were lucky to find a community early on.”