Band Interview: Niclas Engelin (Lead Guitar) of The Halo Effect
Featuring guitar heroes & songwriting wizards Jesper Strömblad and Niclas Engelin (ex- In Flames), singer Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquility), as well as former In Flames members Peter Iwers and Daniel Svensson, The Halo Effect is a new Swedish melodic death metal beast. They will release their debut album, Days of the Lost on August 12th, 2022.
Ahead of that release, we chatted to lead guitarist, Niclas Engelin about all things The Halo Effect. You can read a select transcript of the interview below. The full thing is available to listen to via YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
I’ll simply start by saying thank you so much for taking the time to do this today.
Thank you for doing this.
It is my absolute pleasure. How’s your day going so far?
Today has been all about guitars. We’re going back in this weekend and I had to check them out a little bit, see how they were feeling and practise and all.
Well, overall, how’s everybody doing in The Halo Effect Camp particularly, of course, as we make our way slowly to the release of the debut album.
We’ve been busy playing festivals this weekend. We went to Slovenia Metal Days and then we were off to Rock Off Festival in Istanbul, which was adventurous and really cool. Then we got back and then it’s all about interviews. It’s all about that leading up to the album release. Then we fly off to Japan. We’re doing Download festival, which is amazing. I love Japan.
Have you ever been before?
Yeah, I’ve been there many times, actually. And it’s always very nice.
They love their metal over there. They really do. It’s an incredible country, particularly for the music scene.
Yeah, it is, definitely.
How have the festival crowds reacted to you guys? Has it been quite intense?
No, the whole thing is going really fast. It’s been a long build up to the album release. The album release is just around the corner. Finally and I need to get my copy. I have to open up the vinyl. It’s a gate fold and it looks awesome, but I need to hold it. I need to smell it and play it. Self importance like that.
No, we did Sweden Rock at first. It was crazy. We just had four singles out by that time. The fourth single came out on Friday and we were playing Sweden Rock on Saturday. We had to play the whole album front to back. Wow. Okay, I’ve done that before, but it’s when you have a back catalogue and then you say, yeah, let’s do that album. But we had to do that from the get go. It’s been overwhelming. It’s been very fun. You see the people react and how happy they get by the tunes and just seeing us together playing, it’s flawless.
I’m so happy about this.
I’m glad, because the incredible response that you’ve had online from the singles that have been released so far, I imagine that has filled with you with even more confidence regarding how the overall album will likely be received when it’s released.
Yeah, true. I mean, we just feel good about everything and these shows has been really good to us. This is the cool thing with music overall because you need a band, you need audience and you need both to make it happen, to make it a wonderful evening. I’m so happy playing.
Your enthusiasm really does come through and I’m glad it’s been going so well so far. But I want you to take me back to the original vision behind the upcoming album. At what point did it really start to take shape what you wanted to do? And was it always quite clear the direction you were going in?
No, not from the beginning. We had a couple of meetings, we met each other from time to time and knew we wanted to do this. It wasn’t that obvious that we’re going to play this kind of music because we listen to all types of music. I’m really into old soul, funk and stuff like that. I would love to play that, but I’m a metal head. So we tried this out. We had an intro for the song Gateways, which was actually the first song we wrote. After we did the chorus, the bridge and of course the metal, on top of that. We knew this is the way we should do this and that we just go for it.
This feels good and we’re having fun with it and it sounds good. Yeah, just do it. That kind of lead us into a path where we felt, okay, let’s do this. We can be us here and we can fully stand behind it.
Were you surprised that everybody quickly was very interested? And were you conscious of the expectation that it kind of comes with that level of interest?
Yeah, I wasn’t even prepared to think in those terms because we were recorded for so long and we were having so much fun with the music. So, when the day came, all right, tomorrow we’re going to post this and that. We had like a plan and then I woke up. I didn’t think about it.
That’s incredible, it really is and it’s been a full steam since then but inevitably there are comparisons, they’re going to happen. Genre, labelling, it’s just something that happens in the music scene, whether we like it or not. Being labelled as Gothenburg melo- death, is that something you’re happy to embrace?
Yeah, we are actually, because we’ve been playing this kind of music and been there since the formative years, in the late 80s, early 90s, in and out in different bands and we know each other for so long, who we are and I think why should we shy away from that? We should be proud and happy about it.
Well said. It’s always an intriguing element because of the labelling and the natural expectation that comes with that.
Yeah, to be honest, I don’t dwell on it, I just want to play music, be happy, give love and get love back, of course. I’m happy to be in this band and we just are going to release our first album and people seems to really like it. What else? Just go with it, embrace it, have fun.
It’s that attitude that is, ultimately, the most rock and roll thing of all. Days Of The Lost is an incredible debut release. It is out on the 12th August. Not only that, you’ve got all these shows, these festivals, you’re doing the Japan trip, but in September you’re popping over to the UK where you’re going to be playing in arenas alongside Machine Head & Amon Amarth!
Oh, yeah, I am so pumped up for that. I can’t wait to play these songs live before you all on that tour. It’s going to be so much fun.
What is the most exciting part about the future and what may come from continuing to create music in the Halo Effect as we go forward?
Well, I just love the fact that we have new songs coming up, we are writing all the time and we are throwing bits and pieces back and forth. Talk about music when you’re living inside that bubble, create a bubble and you just want to be on the move all the time. I love that and we are in the middle of that bubble.