Halo (Hinder song)

“Halo” is a song by American rock band Hinder. Released on January 25, 2019, it served as the lead single for the group’s planned seventh studio album.^[1] The album was initially targeted for late 2019 or early 2020.^[2] “Halo” followed the band’s 2017 album The Reign and marked their first independent release after completing their contract with The End Records.^[3]

After releasing The Reign in 2017, Hinder began transitioning away from traditional label structures toward a fully independent model.^[4] In May 2018, the band previewed a 23-second demo of “Halo” on Instagram while announcing that work on their next album had officially begun.^[5]

During an interview with Intrigue Magazine, vocalist Marshal Dutton described the song’s unusual harmonic movement, saying:^[6]

"Halo was a lot of fun to put together. Harmonically, it’s interesting because it changes keys back and forth, and in certain spots they seem to overlap, and the quality becomes ambiguous. I find that interesting about the song in particular because I’m not sure it was 100 percent intentional. As Angus Young would say, it was a happy accident."

Throughout interviews surrounding the single's release, Hanson and Dutton emphasized that “Halo” represented Hinder’s first opportunity to fully control the production and release process without label oversight. They explained that after fulfilling their two-album deal with The End Records and their earlier four-album deal with Republic Records, they wanted to release music on their own terms instead of tailoring songs to radio expectations.^[7][8][9]

“Halo” was written entirely by Marshal Dutton and Cody Hanson and was the final original Hinder single to feature longtime rhythm guitarist Mark King before his departure in 2020.^[10]

The band first teased “Halo” in May 2018 by uploading a short preview of its demo to Instagram, confirming that writing and recording for their seventh album was underway.^[11]

After several days of social media previews and radio interviews promoting the track, “Halo” was officially released on January 25, 2019.^[12] The song was performed live at every date of Hinder’s 2019 “Lucky 7 North American Tour,” which featured Soil, Saving Abel, and Royal Bliss as opening acts, spanning more than 60 shows over three months.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Although “Halo” was intended to lead into a full-length record, the album was eventually shelved.^[17] Drummer Cody Hanson later revealed that the band completed an entire album around 2020–2021 but chose to scrap it because the material felt “dated” and no longer reflected their direction, clarifying why “Halo” remained a standalone single.^[18]

“Halo” continues Hinder’s established post-grunge and hard rock style, maintaining the sonic approach developed on When the Smoke Clears (2015) and The Reign (2017).

The lyrics explore hypocrisy, false virtue, and the collapse of self-righteous personas. The “halo” symbolizes projected moral purity that masks destructive behavior. The song expresses frustration toward hostility and negativity, reflecting the band’s concerns about online toxicity and growing social polarization. In an interview with The Oakland Press, Hanson said:^[19]

"Halo is a song inspired by the current state of the world. We pay attention a lot to things online and just people in general, and people are hateful, man. When you watch interactions with people these days, especially online, it’s getting more and more negative. We thought it was kind of important to address it. It goes out to the holier-than-thou person that everybody’s got in their life, giving them trouble."

“Halo” received generally positive reviews. Sputnikmusic and Hard Rock Daddy praised it as the band’s “catchiest song yet” since the departure of original vocalist Austin John Winkler,^[20] with Hard Rock Daddy comparing its melodic style to early Stone Temple Pilots and the pop-rock sensibilities of Cheap Trick.^[21]

User reactions on Heavy Harmonies were mixed but leaned positive. Many commenters described the song as “solid” and “promising,” viewing it as an improvement over material from When the Smoke Clears and The Reign. Others felt it was stylistically similar to the group’s recent work, while some expressed nostalgia for the Winkler era.^[22]

Credits adapted from Apple Music.^[23]

• Marshal Dutton – lead vocals
• Cody Hanson – drums, backing vocals
• Joe "Blower" Garvey – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Mark King – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Mike Rodden – bass guitar, backing vocals

• Cody Hanson – producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer
• Marshal Dutton – producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer

• Apple Music: Hinder – Halo
• Spotify: Hinder – Halo