THE HALO EFFECT
With a well-planned shock effect, the hard rock veterans of The Halo Effect blessed all metal lovers when they announced their existence through the album “Days of the Lost” in August 2022. The paths of Blåkläder and several of the band members have crossed a number of times over the years, and for the European tour with Amon Amarth and Machine Head, it was time to do something new together. Blåkläder met the band during the preparations for the tour.
The Halo Effect doesn’t consist of just any. We are talking about national and international death metal royalty who have been around since day one and shaped the genre into what it is today. Mikael Stanne, Peter Iwers, Niclas Engelin, Daniel Svensson and Jesper Strömblad all have a shared past within In Flames and Dark Tranquility. Now with The Halo Effect, they breathe new, majestic air. But the epithet “supergroup”, which they naturally have been called, is something they mostly laugh at.
– Haha, it’s fun if people think we are, but we certainly not see ourselves as some supergroup. We are a bunch of pals who want to play music together because it is great fun, that’s how it started, says Peter Iwers. The Halo Effect initiator Niclas Engelin agrees:
Photo: @spephansdotterphotography
“We’ve all been friends for many years, so when the fingers began to itch during the pandemic, we met to drink coffee and to jam. We immediately got ideas for songs, and from there, it went really fast until we had a finished album. Everything was based on having fun together, the joy of playing music and the raw sound without going too much into details.”
– Niclas Engelin.
The debut album “Days of the Lost” – a powerful display in epic and dynamic death metal – is really imbued with everything that Peter Iwers and Niclas Engelin choose to highlight regarding the origin and future of The Halo Effect; the joy of playing and the love for the music they all have grown up with shine through. Something that Mikael Stanne also chose to focus on during his time working on the lyrics for the album.
– I wrote the lyrics based on our common perspective as outcast hard rockers when we were young and how our children see the world today. It was an interesting experience, because I’ve never really approached my lyrics that way before.
Despite the fact that everyone in the band has a number of well-known songs, best-selling records and world tours in their luggage, it is a bit “back to the roots” with The Halo Effect.
Photo: @spephansdotterphotography
“On previous tours with other bands, everything was taken care of. You didn’t have to do anything yourself other than wake up in the morning and wait to play. It easily makes you become both lazy and restless. Now with a new band, we have to do much of the work behind the scenes ourselves. During the European tour, we have two crew guys of our own and get to borrow some guys from the other bands, but besides that, a lot of the job is on us. It is a bit like being back where it all began, which is actually really fun.”
– Daniel Svensson.
This is where the collaboration with Blåkläder comes into the picture. Over the years, Blåkläder’s paths have crossed with several of the band members’, not least during the collaboration with In Flames in 2015, where Blåkläder launched an exclusive workwear collection and made a documentary series about the hard-working scene builders. Niclas Engelin, who has worked as a painter for many years alongside his music career, has also acted as a model for Blåkläder’s painter collection. There is also an ongoing collaboration with Peter Iwers, Daniel Svensson, and their brewery Odd Island Brewing.
In addition to workwear for the band and crew, Blåkläder has also produced an exclusive t-shirt, sold at the gigs on the European tour.
“For us in the band, Blåkläder is synonymous with quality and hard work. Except that we like to work in these clothes, it’s really nice to be able to offer our fans a t-shirt from The Halo Effect where it also says Blåkläder in the neck. Of course, we wanted to work with the best, so we contacted Blåkläder.”
– Peter Iwers