Upon its first listen, “New Romantic Industries” by Italian band Halo Effect, appears to be a fairly standard ethereal gothic-industrial release. Heavy use of synths and beats permeate the music, easily danceable in any club.
Until the lyrics kick in.
Halo Effect's style with NRI is fairly consistent – it fits in very neatly with the electro-pop scene along with bands like VNV Nation, Gary Numan, and other such examples of electro. That being said, however, the vocalist (John Peverieri) has a tendency to spoil the sounds of what could be otherwise very enjoyable music with incongruous tone, words, and frequent ventures into the dread realm known as “off-key.”
The use of synth with this album is, however, well-done and consistent with its beats. All the instrumentation of NRI is well-done and easily digestible. There were a few tracks where the vocals seemed to agree with the instrumentation, such as “One Million Lights.”
With Alessandro Polinori, Federico Rosi, and Marco Cattani all on keys, synth, and programming (with Marco also on guitar), Halo Effect, while not quite managing to develop a “signature” sound, has produced a few tracks in this album that fit in very neatly with any electro-pop fan's music library, listing such influences as And One, De/Vision, Beborn Beton, and other bands well-known to the gothic-industrial culture.
However, it might be easier for the band to find a label if John would take a few voice lessons.
The band played several live gigs around Rome during 2008. No show dates for 2009 have yet been announced.
New Romantic Industries can be downloaded (as per the band's permission) at http://www.af-music.de/en/releases/haloeffect-newromanticindustry
Muse en Lystrala is a musician and writer living in the New England area. She is part of the writing team at Nocturnal Magazine , and is presently working on producing her third album under project Ocean Born Muse. Learn more about Nocturnal Magazine at Nocturnal Publications.