The Halo Effect caught a ton of buzz given it’s Gothenburg pedigree and concept of delivering some of the ole ‘In Flames magic’ to a new generation. For long time fans of In Flames (and Dark Tranquillity for that matter), the promise was delivered upon with their debut, Days of the Lost, but for better or worse, it stuck to the old Gothenburg traditions. While it’s melodies swirled and twirled, much of it’s glimmer stemmed from nostalgia. March of the Unheard doesn’t suffer from the same feeling, despite being steeped in the glory of classic sounding material.
The Halo Effect’s second offering feels more atmospheric and moody, not to mention a little more urgent, than their debut. There’s a lot of vicious, high-tempo melodies that are all but dancing in their melodeath heyday, such as “Detonate” and “The Burning Point,” which should bring a shiver to longtime genre fans faces, but there’s more to it. “A Death That Becomes Us” carries more melancholic riffing to its arsenal, as does “Between Directions,” which goes the extra mile by tossing in some of Mikael Stanne’s one of a kind clean vocals to sweeten the pot further. “Forever Astray” does this as well, but sits more on the shreddier side of things before it dives into the clean vocal chorus that has some ear-noodling melodies behind it.
It’s also pretty streamlined in it’s songwriting too. The songs get right in and to ‘the good stuff,’ such as the gleaming melodies and often frantic riffing. “Conspire to Deceive” hits this from the opening, diving right into a hook-y melody that acts like pure adrenaline until Stanne opens up the vocals. Jesper Strömblad and Niclas Engelin easily hold things up the high bar, even indulging in some heavy grooves as the album comes to a close with “A Death That Becomes Us.” If there’s one nit-pick to be had, the instrumental closer “Coda” doesn’t seem to cast the same vibe as much of the album and ends up being mostly forgettable.
March of the Unheard is a stronger album than it’s predecessor in every way. Those who were a little underwhelmed by The Halo Effect’s debut (like this scribe) should find this to be a fitting tribute to the Gothenburg sound, written by the masters, and given a vitality that helps to keep it running off of energy instead of sheer nostalgia.
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