THE HALO EFFECT (avec 5 ex-IN FLAMES: Strömblad, Svensson, Iwers, Engelin et... Mikael Stanne !)

En gros le line up d'IN FLAMES de la grande époque se reforme sans Björn Gelotte et Anders Fridèn, mais avec Mikael Stanne au chant (c'est lui qui chante sur le 1er album du groupe).
Inutile de préciser que je suis hypé de ouf.  

Déja un teaser, le 1er single sort le 9 novembre et le groupe est signé chez Nuclear Blast, c'est du sérieux :





THE HALO EFFECT, the new project featuring five former members of the Swedish metal band IN FLAMES — Jesper Strömblad (guitar), Daniel Svensson (drums), Peter Iwers (bass), Niclas Engelin (guitar) and Mikael Stanne (vocals) — will release its debut single, "Shadowminds", on November 9. A teaser for the song's official music video is available below.

A founding member of IN FLAMES, Strömblad quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction.

Five years ago, Jesper slammed his former bandmates, calling the group a "sinking ship" and saying IN FLAMES singer Anders Fridén has "never been a songwriter."

Svensson, who joined IN FLAMES in 1998, announced in 2015 that he was leaving the group to focus on his family life.


A member of IN FLAMES since 1997, Iwers issued a statement in November 2016 saying that he was exiting the band "to pursue other endeavors."

Engelin has been sitting out IN FLAMES' tour dates for the past two and a half years but has never officially confirmed his departure from the band. Engelin's replacement for IN FLAMES' live shows for most of 2019 and early 2020 has been former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE guitarist Chris Broderick.

When Engelin was asked in an August 2020 interview with the "MetalBreak" podcast what his "future" with IN FLAMES was, he responded, "I choose to pass on that [question]," before quickly adding, "I'm still in the band."

As of last year, Engelin was not listed as a member of IN FLAMES on the band's Facebook page (Broderick was), and he is not featured in any of IN FLAMES' current promotional photos from the group's record label, Nuclear Blast.

IN FLAMES recruited American drummer Tanner Wayne, best known for his work with UNDERMINDED, SCARY KIDS SCARING KIDS and CHIODOS, to sit behind the kit for the band for its 2018, 2019 and 2020 live appearances. Wayne stepped into IN FLAMES following the departure of Joe Rickard, who played on the band's "I, The Mask" and "Battles" albums.

Shortly after leaving IN FLAMES, Iwers joined CYHRA, the band featuring vocalist Jake E (ex-AMARANTHE) and Strömblad. He announced his departure from that band in May 2018.

IN FLAMES' current lineup features American bassist Bryce Paul Newman, who has been playing most of the shows with the group since Iwers's exit.

During a January 2021 appearance on the "Vox&Hops" podcast, Iwers was asked if he ever misses being on the road. The bassist replied: "Yeah, absolutely. Well, 'miss' is kind of the wrong word. I loved being on the road for most of the years that I was with [IN FLAMES], and I miss the good times. I have no regrets as far as leaving, but, of course, sometimes I really miss just being free and out and playing shows and traveling to new places every day. But I have plans. Maybe this will happen again in the future — not with IN FLAMES, though, but, yeah, we'll see."

He continued: "I'm kind of not missing spending time thinking about stuff like that. I'm kind of more living where I am now, where I'm actually free to do whatever I can with my own time. I own my own time, as I like to say; I can plan it however I like it. And I'm kind of focusing on enjoying that rather than missing the past.

"It's fun to reminisce, but at the same time, it can take you down a dangerous road as well," Peter added.

In a 2017 interview with Ireland's Overdrive, IN FLAMES guitarist Björn Gelotte said that he wasn't surprised by Peter's departure from the band. "It wasn't a 'shock,' so to speak, as we kind of knew that it was coming," he said. "I think he was just done with it all and not happy. No, 'happy' is the wrong word. He just wanted to pursue other things. Peter is a very, very busy guy. He has his own brewery with Daniel called Odd Island Brewing and he's also got four or five different musical projects happening, so he's really got his hands full at the moment."

A year ago, DARK TRANQUILITY vocalist Mikael Stanne, who sang on IN FLAMES' debut album, 1994's "Lunar Strain", dismissed comparisons between the two bands, telling the "BREWtally Speaking Podcast": "We are kind of forever linked, just because of our connection early on. I sang on the first IN FLAMES album, and Anders sang on the first DARK TRANQUILLITY album, and this is still a cause of great confusion for some reason. But, yeah, we toured together, we are friends and we grew up together in the same area outside of town [in Gothenburg, Sweden]. So, of course, it's obvious. And I'm okay with that — that's fine. It just becomes a little bit old, because there's not much to say about it anymore, because we've gone in very different directions. So it's not relevant, but, of course, you do make comparisons — that's how people work, how you go, 'I like this band better than that band.' And if there is a link somehow, and there are many between the two of us, then you use that as some kind of reference or, 'This is better than that,' or, 'The guitar player is better in that band' — that kind of stuff. So I'm okay with it. It doesn't change anything. And sometimes questions about it tend to be uninspired. It's just like, 'Oh, what do you think of the other band's albums?' It's, like, 'It doesn't matter, but I'm a huge fan. I love it.' And it's the same with, of course, AT THE GATES as well, even though we haven't shared any members together, but we still kind of grew up together, so, obviously, there's a huge connection there as well. And I don't mind talking about my friends and the awesome bands that are from this town — it's fine — but sometimes the direct comparisons seem… Maybe they meant something in the '90s, but they really don't anymore."


Edith me glisse qu'ils seront en ouverture de la grosse tournée Machine Head / Amon Amarth de 2022:

A suivre, intéressant sur le papier (le groupe, pas cet horrible line up pour la tournée)

Je voudrais bien être hypé mais se remettre avec son ex, ça fonctionne rarement.

J'ai l'impression que ce qui favorise ça c'est que la carrière de Dark Tranquillity bat un peu de l'aile (tout le line up historique sauf Stanne s'est barré ces dernières années)... Stanne s'est déja fait plaisir avec son side project Grand Cadaver, et maintenant il cède peut être à un projet "fan service".
Mais bon, en tant que fan ça marche pour moi !

J’espère que tu te trompes en ce qui concerne la carrière de Dark Tranquillity, car j'adore vraiment le dernier album.

Premier single dévoilé !



Au final je trouve que ça sonne plus comme du DT que du IF, sauf le passage avec les guitares en harmonie qui sonne très Jesper.

j'aime bien la chanson, et effectivement je n'aurai pas dit mieux :

"Au final je trouve que ça sonne plus comme du DT que du IF, sauf le passage avec les guitares en harmonie qui sonne très Jesper."

la mélodie principale sonne carrément comme du DT récent ! et avec leur chanteur en plus ça renforce cette impression d'entendre du DT

c'est quoi le délire d'un projet comme ça ? les ex in flames réalisent que DT c'est la voie à suivre en mélodeath et donc on les copie ? ils ne veulent pas refaire du IF à l'ancienne plutôt, ça se serait cool !

Ca s'écoute bien, mais ça fait déjà entendu

En fait c'est Engelin qui est à l'origine de la création du groupe.

How Five Former IN FLAMES Members Came Together To Form THE HALO EFFECT

Regarding how THE HALO EFFECT came together, Stanne told the "Heavy Hops" podcast (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "This is basically all my old friends from the area. Gothenburg is small, and it's always been very incestuous in terms of members, back and forth, in bands.

"I got asked by Niclas Engelin, who I've known since he… We played our first-ever show together with his old band; they were called SARCAZM, and we were still SEPTIC BROILER, before DARK TRANQUILLITY. So that's how far back we go. So he asked me, like, 'Let's play some music together.' And I was, like, 'Sure. It would be nice.' I was really deep into the writing and recording of the latest DARK TRANQUILLITY album, 'Moment', but I said, 'I'll be done soon.' 'Cause I was still kind of in the mode of sitting at home, recording and singing. So I was, like, 'Send me some songs. I'll see what I can do.' And then Peter Iwers called me as well and he was, like, 'I'm probably gonna be a part of this thing with Niclas. And it would be great if we could do it seriously. And we can probably get Daniel as well,' who played in IN FLAMES as well, 'and then maybe Jesper Strömblad as well.' And I was, like, 'That sounds fucking awesome.' That's totally old school. Even though we never played in that constellation in the early days of IN FLAMES, I was there, and Jesper was there, and then the other guys kind of joined later. So it was kind of, like, 'All right. Yeah, why not? Let's see what we can come up with.' So it's basically all the kind of old ex, weird members of IN FLAMES. But for me, it really is like… Daniel was in my younger brother's class when we grew up, so I started getting to know him because he got into death metal and he started his band SACRILEGE that I really loved. And Niclas was always kind of like a really, really proficient, great guitar player, playing in SARCAZM and tons of other bands that I always went to see, and we always hung out in the late '80s and early '90s. And Peter, of course, I knew, because he was the brother of Anders, who's been my friend forever. And Jesper I met during our first-ever shows in maybe '87, '88 — or something like that — hanging out at Valvet, which was the only kind of underground metal place here in Gothenburg in the late '80s and early '90s. So it kind of made perfect sense. So when we started talking about playing together, it was, like, 'Okay. What do we do then?' Should we just see if we can kind of pick up — not where we left off, but what we wanted to back then and see if we can update with what we have learned [through] our collective experiences. So that was kind of the idea. And it's been a blast — just being able to hang out with old friends. Because of touring schedules and all the stuff, in the recent 15 years or so, we never really get to see each other that much. But now we have. So it's been super, super, super cool."

On the topic of THE HALO EFFECT's musical direction, Mikael said: "Niclas started writing a few songs, just based on what he has and what he kind of digs. And I immediately felt, like, 'Oh, this is super cool. We're on to something here.' It's super heavy, it's melodic — it's all those things that we kind of grew up trying to do. Then Jesper got involved and he started changing a little bit of that or adding stuff to it. And we were, like, 'Okay, this is awesome.' It doesn't feel new at all, it doesn't feel super different, but at the same time, why should we? Let's focus on the things that we know best and try to kind of recapture that feeling that we had when we were kids, when we wanted to play together and that kind of playful atmosphere. Because the longer you play together with your main band or what have you, you try to constantly reinvent yourself, and so much energy goes into trying to be different from what you have done before. Whereas starting something new like this with a very familiar genre of music meant that you could be very free about it. It doesn't have to be anything in particular, it doesn't have to conform to any rules — it just needs to fucking kick ass and feel good. So that was the starting point. And then I tried, lyrically, to sing about or write about how it was growing up and how we felt and what was the thing that drove us to this extreme kind of music and all those things. It became kind of a thing that we always talked about: 'Do you remember this? Do you remember that old show? Do you remember that venue where we used to go and the long bus [ride] that took us all the way to that shitty youth center where we saw those bands?' or whatever. So it really became partly nostalgia but also kind of an appreciation for where we came from and how things turned out."

Stanne also talked about "Shadowminds", which was accompanied by a music video directed by Lucas Englund. He said: "It was one of the first songs that we wrote. We decided, like, 'Let's record a few songs, see if it works, see how it feels, see what we can come up with.' So we recorded three songs, and 'Shadowminds' was one of those. And we were really happy with all three of them. And we were, like, 'This feels great.' Because everything was written really fast. We went into the studio. Jesper put his spin on it. Then I wrote some lyrics in a day or in a couple of hours, sang it on a demo version and sent it to them, and they were, like, 'All right. Cool. Yeah. Let's record this super fast and see what happens.' Then we recorded a few more songs. And we couldn't decide on what would be the first single, because when we initially recorded these demos, it was just a way for us to present something to a label, see if someone is interested. So we were, like, 'Okay, but what song is most representative of this music, this band that we hardly even know yet.' So we played five songs to a bunch of friends and people who work in music, and they all kind of agreed this is probably the one. This feels most representative of what we are. It's a really intense song, it's melodic, it's heavy, and it's the first song that we eventually finished where we felt, like, 'Okay, this is a good direction. This is a good way of moving forward. And if we can have the songs be at least this kind of quality but in a different way, then we should be fine.' So that felt good. It was a great starting point — starting off with something that we were instantly very proud of and we felt like this is gonna be a song that's gonna stick for a while."

Göteborg est une petite ville ?
600000 habitants, en Suède, ça commence à faire, non ?

Non je vois ce qu'il veut dire. Ca me rappelle une interview des mecs d'In Flames il y'a une dizaine d'années où ils disaient que la vague Death Mélo de Göteborg dans les 90's c'était l'affaire de très peu de musiciens, 50 tout au plus, du coup ils trouvaient que les européens avaient une vision complètement disproportionnée de la chose. Là en fait il ne fait que redire la même chose : c'est un petit milieu, tout le monde se connait entre zicos.

Nouvel extrait, plus In Flames, moins DT, plus intéressant :



C'est carrément très bon !

Retour à Göteborg au milieu des années 90 !

Ok c'est du In Flames époque Clayman!

Clayman ? hmmm c'est pour moi ça

Encore un extrait, on va finir par connaitre tout l'album avant la sortie... En tout cas j'ai hâte !

Je vais attendre l'album maintenant.

J'ai hâte également.

Comme on pouvait s'y attendre Jesper Strömblad est déja remplacé sur scène par Patrick Jensen (The Haunted, Witchery) qui semble dépanner toute la scène de Göteborg en ce moment (il joue également avec At The Gates).

Gné ? il lui est arrivé quoi à Jesper ?

Il picole trop. Encore. Toujours.

C'est de notoriété publique, le groupe a même communiqué à ce sujet :



C'était déjà le cas à l'époque d'In Flames, il a quitté le groupe pour cette raison en 2010 mais ne participait plus aux tournées depuis quelques années déja. A l'époque il était remplacé chez IF par... Niclas Engelin !

Mon si beau Jesper, ruiné par ses démons....

T'as retrouvé le chemin de la maison, toi?
Tu pourrais saluer ton vieux

Très sympa cet album au demeurant. Marrant comme ça fait coexister du Dark Tranquillity plutôt moderne et du In Flames 90's/00's.
Et Stanne est toujours le patron (avec Tompa).

Tompa a pas mal perdu de sa superbe ces derniers temps, surtout sur scène...
Pourtant je l'aime comme un fou, comme un soldat, surtout sur SOTS évidemment.


Edith me signale un nouveau clip :