The Halo Effect
Amager Bio, Copenhagen - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
In less than two months after his last visit, Mikael Stanne was back in Copenhagen. Different venue, different band - but would it be as good?
If you for some reason didn’t know, and since it’s our first time covering them, The Halo Effect could easily be considered a super group, although I don’t know if they’ve ever used the term in their marketing - if not, more strength to them - as it consists of current and former members of bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Engel and more, all deeply entrenched in the famous Gothenburg death metal scene, and this style is exactly what The Halo Effect is all about as well.
“It’s great to see you too, Copenhagen! Let’s play some Gothenburg death!”
- Mikael Stanne (vocals)
This Curse Of Silence was partly used as an intro, with the musicians dropping underways and beefing the sound up with actual playing. Not surprisingly, march Of The Unheard followed straight after this.
The first impression was of the lovely visuals the band had brought along - backdrop and podium drop looked amazing, and in the style of old school In Flames, the string bending trio all had matching button up shirts with the band logo and their names stitched in. Yes, even Patrik Jensen (The Haunted, ex-At The Gates) had his own signature shirt, even though he was merely acting as a live stand-in for Jesper Strömblad. I later noticed that even the crew had their own shirts, and that’s an impressive attention to detail! Makes you wonder why Daniel Svensson and Stanne weren’t using them.
After the visuals had settled in, the next thing to be noticed was the sound. The Halo Effect had an amazing sound, especially so on the guitars, which had a perfectly raw distortion shredding our ears.
The playing was also tight and to the point, the gathered professionalism bleeding through in a big way. Admittedly, I had been hoping to see Strömblad, it’s been such a long time, but Jensen filled his shoes quite well as well, and was obviously comfortable around the rest of the band, as they moved about and played up against each other, and had fun on stage.
Stanne proved once again what a charismatic frontman he is, and loved chatting with the crowd with ease between songs.
Stanne’s praise of the support from the crowd wasn’t unwarranted. Even though things had been leaning to the relaxed side so far, this was not visible as soon as The Halo Effect hit the stage. People were quick to cheer the band on, and there was a lot of back and forth communication despite the (admittedly low) language barrier, and when A Truth Worth Lying For neared its end, everyone was singing along to the clean guitar melody as if we were listening to Fear Of The Dark or the like.
Later, when the band took a short break before the final track of the night, the fans were chanting “Halo” over and over while stomping the floor.
Given that this was our first encounter with The Halo Effect, I was highly impressed with the show. Knowing who were in the band made me kind of expect a good performance from their side, but I was also positively surprised by the fans and how well they received the band. Cruel Perception was the highlight in a show that was on top from start to finish.
Setlist:
This Curse Of Silence
March Of The Unheard
Feel What I Believe
In Broken Trust
The Needless End
Detonate
Conditional
Cruel Perception
A Truth Worth Lying For
Become Surrender
What We Become
Gateways
Last Of Our Kind
Days Of The Lost
Shadowminds
Coda
If you for some reason didn’t know, and since it’s our first time covering them, The Halo Effect could easily be considered a super group, although I don’t know if they’ve ever used the term in their marketing - if not, more strength to them - as it consists of current and former members of bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Engel and more, all deeply entrenched in the famous Gothenburg death metal scene, and this style is exactly what The Halo Effect is all about as well.
“It’s great to see you too, Copenhagen! Let’s play some Gothenburg death!”
- Mikael Stanne (vocals)
This Curse Of Silence was partly used as an intro, with the musicians dropping underways and beefing the sound up with actual playing. Not surprisingly, march Of The Unheard followed straight after this.
The first impression was of the lovely visuals the band had brought along - backdrop and podium drop looked amazing, and in the style of old school In Flames, the string bending trio all had matching button up shirts with the band logo and their names stitched in. Yes, even Patrik Jensen (The Haunted, ex-At The Gates) had his own signature shirt, even though he was merely acting as a live stand-in for Jesper Strömblad. I later noticed that even the crew had their own shirts, and that’s an impressive attention to detail! Makes you wonder why Daniel Svensson and Stanne weren’t using them.
After the visuals had settled in, the next thing to be noticed was the sound. The Halo Effect had an amazing sound, especially so on the guitars, which had a perfectly raw distortion shredding our ears.
The playing was also tight and to the point, the gathered professionalism bleeding through in a big way. Admittedly, I had been hoping to see Strömblad, it’s been such a long time, but Jensen filled his shoes quite well as well, and was obviously comfortable around the rest of the band, as they moved about and played up against each other, and had fun on stage.
Stanne proved once again what a charismatic frontman he is, and loved chatting with the crowd with ease between songs.
Stanne’s praise of the support from the crowd wasn’t unwarranted. Even though things had been leaning to the relaxed side so far, this was not visible as soon as The Halo Effect hit the stage. People were quick to cheer the band on, and there was a lot of back and forth communication despite the (admittedly low) language barrier, and when A Truth Worth Lying For neared its end, everyone was singing along to the clean guitar melody as if we were listening to Fear Of The Dark or the like.
Later, when the band took a short break before the final track of the night, the fans were chanting “Halo” over and over while stomping the floor.
Given that this was our first encounter with The Halo Effect, I was highly impressed with the show. Knowing who were in the band made me kind of expect a good performance from their side, but I was also positively surprised by the fans and how well they received the band. Cruel Perception was the highlight in a show that was on top from start to finish.
Setlist:
This Curse Of Silence
March Of The Unheard
Feel What I Believe
In Broken Trust
The Needless End
Detonate
Conditional
Cruel Perception
A Truth Worth Lying For
Become Surrender
What We Become
Gateways
Last Of Our Kind
Days Of The Lost
Shadowminds
Coda
The Halo Effect
