I have a love-hate relationship with melodic death metal. The genre’s gems are my favorite albums, but stretching beyond is a long tail of work that is banal, toothless, or some combination thereof. In theory, The Halo Effect‘s roster of In Flames alumni fronted by Dark Tranquillity‘s Mikael Stanne (also of Grand Cadaver and Cemetary Skyline) is great news for people hoping for more gems. In practice, I lean towards Metalligator’s view that Days of the Lost was some distance from that. Yet despite that, I jumped on March of the Unheard the moment it was released, just in case this was the one that hit.
The opening notes of “Conspire to Deceive” filled me with dread as it’s exactly the sort of overly glossy, middle of the road melodeath that I dislike most. But after that, something clicked. The bulk of March of the Unheard draws on melodeath’s thrash roots for their verses before digging into the NWoBHM playbook for hooky choruses. “Forever Astray” and “Our Channel To The Darkness” are prime examples of this formula, coming across like a downbeat Mors Principium Est. There’s some real highlights away from that core sound though. “Cruel Perception” captures that Insomnium-esque melancholy nicely, and the rambunctious Iron Maiden leads of “Detonate” are powerful enough to overcome even my aversion to fun. Then there’s “Between Directions”, a gloomy number that’d be at home on any recent Dark Tranquillity album if they turned those strings melodies into synths (I like the strings), and, as such, heralds the nascent genre of Stanne-core.
Speaking of that man, Stanne sounds as raspingly charismatic as ever — true of all involved in The Halo Effect, truth be told. Guitarists Jesper Stromblad (Dimension Zero) and Niclas Engelin (Gardenian) are obviously the focus, churning out shiny leads and cold riffs about as well as they ever have. Even when their ideas bounce right off of me, it’s impossible not to appreciate that they’re doing what they set out to, with the exception of the overly calm and long outro “Coda”. The rhythm section of Peter Iwers and Daniel Svensson (Sacrilege) is more workmanlike and measured, and I wish their performances were more forward as that energy could have been the shot needed to lift March of the Unheard from something solid to something great.
There’s the rub. I want my melodeath to have an unhinged, manic energy. The Halo Effect have many fine things going for them but recklessness is not one of them. Perhaps it’s unfair to expect those nearing fifty to have the same fire they did when they were nearing twenty. But fair or not, that’s what I love most. When I take March of the Unheard for what it is though, it works — in the right mood, its hooks burrow. People desiring innovation from The Halo Effect will see this as part of melodeath’s long tail. People who just want more throwbacks to the genre’s heyday might see a gem. I’m in between but the more time I spend with March of the Unheard, the more I’m hearing its quality cadence.
