THE HALO EFFECT may have begun as five old friends just making music for fun, but they’re now one of the most beloved new bands in heavy metal. Before the Swedish quintet even formed, their members were heroes of heaviness, key in establishing melodic death metal’s much-imitated ‘Gothenburg sound’ during the ’90s. Then, when the longtime scenemates finally united and released debut single 'Shadowminds' in 2021, they quickly racked up millions of streams. Their subsequent debut album, Days of the Lost, was nominated for a Swedish Grammy and promoted on tours with Machine Head, Amon Amarth and Meshuggah. It then won the Rising Star trophy at the 2024 Metal Hammer Awards. This collective’s ascent has been as rapid as it has been well-deserved.

“What I loved about the first album with THE HALO EFFECT was that it was just new,” says singer Mikael Stanne, also esteemed for his decades of work with melodeath frontrunners Dark Tranquillity. “We didn’t know what we wanted to do. It was just for fun, to amuse ourselves and each other. But then you have to do a followup to an album that was named album of the year here in Sweden by our biggest magazine. It’s like, ‘OK, how do we do that?’”

Evidently, the answer was for the band to both adhere to their roots and broaden their vision. March of the Unheard is a triumphant successor brimming with everything that made Days Of The Lost an instant breakthrough. The likes of 'Detonate' and 'What We Become' bear all the hallmarks of the Gothenburg sound, flaunting the slicing guitar leads, energetic percussion and shoutalong hooks that have made it addictive for generations of metalheads.