Niclas Engelin

2025 END OF THE YEAR LISTS: BEST GUITAR DUO

What a great year 2025 has been for music. So many great albums, tours, songs, you name it. And now the time has come for…

The 2025 Audioeclectica End Of The Year Lists begin with the list for Best Guitar DuoAs always the stipulation for this is that an Album or EP had to be released in 2025.

Vote for your favorite in the comments section. At the end of the month, I will release the results of the readers poll.

This list is also in NO PARTICULAR ORDER!!!

01) Will Benoit/Mike Repasch-Nieves- SOM
02) Cassidy Fleeman/Isabella Broersma- The Anti Groupies
03) Josh Graham/Dan Hawkins- Guiltless
04) Chris Traynor/Gavin Rossdale- Bush
05) Chino Moreno/Stephen Carpenter- Deftones
06) Claudio Sanchez/Travis Stever- Coheed and Cambria
07) Chris Corvino/Keith Huckins- Deadguy
08) James Hammontree/Ryne Bratcher- Black Magnet
09) Patrick Jensen/Ola Englund- The Haunted
10) Jesper Stromblad/Niclas Engelin- The Halo Effect

New Release: The Halo Effect- Shadowminds

THE HALO EFFECT: Band Feat. Gothenburg Icons Release First Ever Single &  Music Video 'Shadowminds' | Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

This is exciting. The Halo Effect is a new band featuring 4 former members of In Flames and 1 member of Dark Tranquility. This is quite the collection of members. Having 4 members of In Flames alone makes this very intriguing. Ever since these members left In Flames that band has gone downhill. So it’s very refreshing to have them come back together and form a new band. Their debut album will arrive in 2022 via Nuclear Blast Records and their first tour is opening for Machine Head and Amon Amarth. The first song they’ve released “Shadowminds” is a solid premiere. It’s got the melodic tinge that they’ve been known for in their previous band but this stands on its own. Speaking on this song the band has said “We are incredibly excited to unveil this new band with one of the first songs that we wrote together. We felt strongly that this was the right direction for the band. Finding identity, finding a drive and passion is what the song is about and also what this band is about. What drove us to do this in the first place, what obstacles have we overcome in order to fully commit to this lifestyle? It’s about how easy it is to get lost if you lose focus and passion for what you do. With the video we wanted to convey the emptiness of the city in the early stages of the pandemic and what we saw outside of the studio as we were writing but we also love the cool dystopic imagery so we made the city look even more barren and destroyed.” So with out further delay, check out The Halo Effect!

The Halo Effect- Shadowminds:

What Happened: In Flames

flat,800x800,075,f.u4.jpg

In Flames, where do I even begin with them? Well, let’s start from when I first heard them. I was in high school and a friend had a copy of the album Colony and he told me to check it out because he thought I’d dig it and I sure did. I went after school to go buy the CD and cranked that one for a long while till In Flames released Clayman, which to me is their best album.

(more…)