The Halo Effect - Shadowminds

Goodness, has Gothenberg ever been good to us. Whether you like it heavy or melodic – good news! The entire region decided one day to meet in the middle and bring melodeath to the world in all its fury and dual guitar harmonising. Just think, we could have lived in a world where it was born from somewhere particularly drab. Imagine what the Scunthorpe sound would be like. No offence to the bands from Scunthorpe there. Though even if there had been any, the fact you wouldn’t catch me dead there would put paid to the idea of being able to enact any sort of vengeance. 

From vengeance to retaliation, we come to The Halo Effect. The band was born in 2019 out of the ashes of what In Flames, the long-time Gothenburg sound pioneers, became – founder and guitarist Jesper Strömblad breathing new life into proceedings along with long-time members Niclas Engelin, Peter Iwers, and Daniel Svensson, before roping in ex-In Flames vocalist Mikael Stanne just to make sure that the entire line-up were already on first name terms. Their version of the fabled sound takes things to their old school beginnings after getting tired of the direction that In Flames had been heading (them and a few others by the time Reroute to Remain came out). And it truly meets the measuring marker – not least because half these dudes were there at the time it all started. 

So while there’s a lot of history to unpick in the creation of The Halo Effect, there’s very little that’s complicated about how easy it is to sit back and enjoy this one. Do you take Shadowminds to be your lawfully wedded Rock Song of the Week pick? Careful how you answer that, because I was ordained on a very drunken tour one time, and it’ll be legally binding if you kiss the computer screen. You’d be very surprised by how many people get caught out by that one.