Kris Barras Band's 'Halo Effect' - Album Review

The current UK-based rock boom does not seem to be abating anytime soon. Considering the glut of bands whom I was championing back in the late 2000s really struggled to turn heads, it is good that the current wave of diverse young rock bands are - and perhaps one of the real leading lights of this harder rock revival is the Torquay-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kris Barras. As he is relatively local, Barras is a musician whom I have been familiar with for a while - but I did not really become a fan of his until 2021 when I saw him and his band open for Black Stone Cherry in Exeter. Whilst my view on blues has changed over the years, it is still not a particular favourite genre of mine. Barras was always advertised as such, which is perhaps partly why I had never really checked him out, but I picked up his 2019 release Light It Up in the lead up to that 2021 show and found myself enjoying it. There was certainly plenty of blues on the album, but it also rocked harder than I had expected. It made me look forward to Barras' set more and I really enjoyed his efforts to get what was close to a home town crowd for him fired up for Black Stone Cherry. His set that night also included a few songs from the then-unreleased Death Valley Paradise (which I reviewed here), which dropped in 2022, and it was clear that Barras was heading in a new direction. I pre-ordered Death Valley Paradise and listened to the album a lot throughout 2022 - during which I also saw Barras again on his own tour as well as opening for Thunder in London. I think that it is fair to say that Death Valley Paradise contains almost no blues in the traditional sense and that it is very much a modern-sounding hard rock album. I was a bit concerned to see the likes of Blair Daly and Zac Maloy involved in the album's songwriting, as they and their ilk have been responsible for dumbing down bands like Black Stone Cherry incidentally in the past, but for me Death Valley Paradise really worked. Barras' voice and his riffy guitar style certainly brought the punchy songs to life and there was still some room for his trademark busy soloing - which is perhaps where the last few strains of his blues background could be heard in the phrasing. Barras has been busy ever since the album's release, with another lengthy UK tour taking place last year, but he also found time to write and record some more songs - with his latest album Halo Effect dropping earlier in the month. The CD case contains essentially no information about the album at all, save for the song titles, but I think that it is safe to assume that the album was recorded with the current iteration of his band: multi-instrumentalist and producer Josiah Manning, bassist Frazer Kerslake, and drummer Billy Hammett. It was certainly produced by Manning, after the band opted to use an outside producer last time, and Spotify's metadata also reveals that Barras and Manning wrote all of the album together - with both Daly and Maloy contributing to a handful of the songs again. The band clearly learnt a lot working with an outside producer last time, but with Manning gaining a reputation as an up-and-coming producer it made sense to keep everything in-house this time. The lack of outside help certainly does not show, either, as Halo Effect sounds huge - and every bit as 'produced' as Death Valley Paradise. Halo Effect continues the more modern sound established on the previous album and perhaps even doubles down in places - with more of a synth presence throughout alongside Barras' trademark gritty riffing and tasteful leads.

There are a handful of moments which shift things up somewhat, but generally Halo Effect sees Barras consolidating his current sound. The first two songs on the album acted as its lead singles and they are certainly tracks which are going to become live favourites going forward. Kicking off with Hourglass, the album gets off to a hard rocking start - with a juddering guitar riff and some cold synths opening the song up. As with his previous album, all the songs here are pretty short. There is little room for extended soloing or fat arrangements - and it is clear that all of Barras' focus here has been on riffs and hooks. The juddering riff here forms the basis of a pretty up-tempo verse, which hits hard thanks to the stabbing drum groove behind it, whilst the chorus slows things down a little and goes for a more epic sound - with more of a keyboard backing. When I first heard the song I thought that the lyrics did not really fit nicely into the melodies, with Barras feeling rushed whilst singing, but over repeated listens this feeling has gone - and the chorus has become a hooky earworm for me. There is a brief change of pace later on in the form of a clean guitar-led bridge, which concludes in a classic Barras solo, but generally the song is a hard rocker with a chorus that deserves to fill arenas - and this is not the only song that feels like such here. Unbreakable, the album's other lead single, is similar overall. The main riff this time is a bit busier than the staccato approach of the previous track - and the production choices and melodic approach really hark back to Barras' last album in my opinion. The main riff has a metallic quality to it, but the band never really stray into true metal, whilst the chorus is much more expansive - with keyboards and clean guitars adding to a cinematic sound to back some of Barras' best vocal hooks on the album. There is no real bridge this time which means that there is more time to focus on guitar soloing. As much as I like Barras' current sound, I do wish that he would allow himself to cut loose a little more often - as his solos are always excellent. This song is given a big kick thanks to his shredding here - and it leads nicely into the final iteration of the chorus which packs a real punch. With You retains the heaviness of the opening cuts, but ups the urgency somewhat - with the track moving beyond the mid-paced grooves of what came before to rock out a little more. The bass is really prominent during the opening riff, its popping tone adding a lot to depth to Barras' heavy riffing, whilst the drumming during the verses is filled with a few busy fills to add to the song's overall urgency. A few studio tricks such as gang vocals and record skip effects add to the verses, shaking things up, but everything really pulls together during a chorus which is maybe the biggest-sounding yet - with the clean guitar backing pushing its overall scope whilst Barras' smooth vocals easily push the 1980s-esque melodies. Despite the faster overall pace, the song is perhaps not has heavy as the opening two cuts - but a closing riff-led section does up the heaviness as the song fades out, with some effects and distortion seeing the song crash to a strange close.

Savages feels like Barras' latest attempt to really create an anthem. It is perhaps not as overt as My Parade from the previous album, but it has a similar overall feel at times - thanks to the opening gang vocal hooks, which are reprised throughout the song and somewhat modified to create another big chorus. The song is not as punchy as My Parade, though, and it feels that Barras has tried to do something a bit different here. I really like the song, but it does feel as if at one point it was probably a heavier track which was then morphed into something different. The strange electronic drum loops early on and the surprisingly sparse verses are unlike anything else here, but once the chorus kicks in it feels like classic Barras. There is also another excellent guitar solo later on, which is perhaps one of the album's best - as it mixes some tasteful bluesy phrases with some modern shred to create a real instrumental journey. I cannot help but think that the song would have been even better with more weight behind it, but as things stand I think it works nicely - with the experimental vibe and anthemic chorus coming together. A real favourite cut of mine here is Fall to Fly, which opens with one of the best guitar hooks on the album. Barras tends to lead with a riff rather than a guitar melody, but here he opts for the latter - whilst the band behind him really rock things up. Snappy verses, with plenty of busy bass playing, keep this high-energy feel going - and again the track feels like the songs on his previous album in a big way whilst including some of the guitar business of his earlier work. The verse vocal melodies do feel a bit rooted in the early 2000s at times, but they still work well, and it is the chorus where the song really shines anyway - with lots of busy guitar leads mixed into the background whilst the overall scope and vocal approach during it is not too far away from something Alter Bridge might attempt. The focus on guitar leads here and the massive chorus was enough to make the song jump out from the off - and it has already climbed up my list of favourite Barras songs. Waste Away with Me opens with another Alter Bridge-esque riff actually, with a main guitar chug out of the Mark Tremonti playbook, but the rest of the song is just sounds like typical recent Barras - albeit boosted with more of an overall 'production'. The subtle vocal effects during the hard-driving verses give the song a little bit of a twist but, again, it is the chorus where everything really kicks off - with plenty more keyboards and subtle backing vocals layered to create an effective sound. A brief bridge sees some more vocal effects used, creating a vocoder-esque feel, before a shredded solo builds on the song's overall energy. Reflections slows things down somewhat, opening with a pretty groovy riff and a shimmering synth backing. Despite there being some weight throughout the song, it is probably the gentlest on the album up to this point. It certainly feels like a ballad at times, but there are still plenty of riffs and a surprising amount of energy injected throughout. The hard-hitting drumming of Hammett would make any song feel heavier whilst the chorus is still backed by a heavy riff - even if the chiming clean guitars are higher in the mix overall. I do like the song, but it is the only one here which has not really grabbed me all that much yet. There is nothing bad on this album but Reflections is less interesting than the other pieces here in my opinion - even if the chorus is still pretty memorable overall.

Secrets is arranged in a similar manner, but overall I think that it works better as a slower piece than Reflections - and the arrangement overall feels more dynamic. It is another song that feels somewhat ballad-esque, but overall there is still quite a bit of harder rock to be found - with slow-burning verses building towards a pretty tough and faster-paced chorus. I think the balance is better than on the previous song, with the urgency of the chorus hooks contrasting well with the more laid back nature of the verses with their synths and clean guitar melodies. Another big plus for this song is that fact that Barras does cut loose a bit more guitar-wise here. The guitar solo is maybe the album's longest overall and it is packed with lots of excellent melodies and some fast-paced runs. After a couple of ballad-esque teases, Landslide then goes all out and acts as the album's 'true' ballad. Even so, though, it is not exactly a gentle acoustic piece - as there is still a big production to be found throughout, with Hammett's percussive drumming giving the song plenty of backbone. That being said, though, the song really pushes its emotional side in a big way. Barras' voice has a lot more room to breathe throughout, with less big riffing around him, and the chorus is expansive to really allow this to happen. There is more of a focus on clean guitars and synths throughout, but the riffing and toughness from Barras' core sound does still make itself heard - meaning that even the album's ballad packs a punch. The guitar solo does take a more emotional route, too, with some bluesy phrases which hark back to some of Barras' older albums. After a run of slower pieces, the album then comes to a close with two harder rockers - with Fear of Letting Go taking a bit more of an anthemic route overall. The song contains riffy sections but this is a track which goes all in for a more cinematic and big-screen sound. It reminds me a little of These Voices from the previous album, with a little of U2's scope mixed with his usual love of heavier riffs. Manning's production really brings the song to life, though, and this is a song where it is clear that a lot of thought went in into how the studio could be used to add value. The big chorus synths are full of life and a chanted bridge section returns somewhat to the gang vocal approach of Savages - albeit in a more subtle way. Big riffs and solos fill the latter portion of the song, too, meaning that there is a bit of everything on display. Closing things out is Apocalypse, a much heavier piece which returns to the harder sound of the opening few numbers. There is little of the light and shade experimented with throughout the album's second half, with the song instead just being an expansive hard rocker with one of the album's hookiest riffs overall and some excellent verse bass playing. There is nothing complicated about the song at all and I really like how the band just returned to something hard hitting to close things out. For me, Barras is at his best when he is really going for it, writing heavy riffs and big choruses - so Apocalypse is one of my favourite pieces here. It is packed full of energy and it really ends the album on a high - with a snappy chorus and busy riff bringing the best out of the band. Over the last three years I have become a big fan of Barras and Halo Effect has been getting a lot of plays over the past few weeks. It is an album that can be put on at any time and it hits home - and the concise length and lack of any real fat makes it a lean and powerful listen. It reached number five on the charts for a reason and I can see myself playing this a lot over the coming months.

The album was released on 12th April 2024 via Earache Records. Below is the band's promotional video for Hourglass.