Review:

		7/10
		Artist: Halo Effect Title: The Fourth Zone Format: CD Label: No Label Genre: EBM, Synthpop Release date: November 1, 2009

The Italian band Halo Effect was formed back in 2001 by Alessandro Polinori, Federico Rosi and John Peverieri. Shortly after, the band was joined by Marco Cattani. Several demos later the first EP “Schwarz E.P.” was released for whats to come on their album “New Romantic Industry” which was released in October 2007. Two years later saw the release of the second album “The Fourth Zone” and where made available on numerous digital download sites world wide. The album is influenced by the tragic days regarding the nuclear explosion reactor in Chernobyl in 1986, until these difficult days that we are living now. The introduction ends here. Now over to the music.

After a pretty useless intro the album starts on a serious point. With a sound reminding me of And One we’re introduced to “Hammer The Gear”. But with a more pounding bassline the track is more into the vein of EBM and mixing both old school and modern sounds. The song has a pretty catchy structure and a nice melody. “Life Goes On” almost follows the same path but with a more synthpop inspired sound and slightly increased beatcount. With “Deeper Than You” the sound is changing to a more gloomy appearence with darker sounds. The following “Days Of Violence” goes back to the more EBM characteristic structure ala Nitzer Ebb or Front 242. “Drain” is easily the best track of the album and the one I enjoyed the most. It’s a dark synthpop track with a dropped BPM to create that harmonic atmosphere and one of few that offers great vocals. “Mirror” is a ballad type of song with a gloomy atmosphere, great vocals and an amazing – but also interesting – soundscapes. Two words; melodic and emotional.

Constantly shifting styles of EBM, Synthpop and Electropop to offer a rather interesting sound by bringing together both new and older stuff from the electronic music scene. Likings of Depeche Mode, De/Vision – or even Nitzer Ebb on some songs – will surely find this release enjoyable.

Tracklist:

01. Scram
02. Hammer The Gear
03. Life Goes On
04. Deeper Than You
05. Days Of Violence
06. Drain
07. Hidden Place
08. Funeral
09. It Was Nothing
10. Their G.O.D.
11. Mirror
12. 26041986