Formed in 2001 by OKC guitarist Joe Garvey and drummer Cody Hanson, Hinder has certainly seen some changes in themselves and industry itself in their march through the charts and global tours. In November of 2013 they made their biggest change in parting ways with charismatic front man, Austin Winkler. With Jared Weeks of Saving Abel stepping in for a bit and Nolan Neal singing “Hit the Ground” the focus soon turned to Marshall Dutton, former guitar player, writer and backup vocalist for Dallas based Faktion, who was already “in house” so to speak since 2009 helping write and produce Hinder music.
Already known for writing great lyrics and hooks with Faktion and a country band Drankmore, Dutton seemed a natural fit for the band and moving forward into the next phase they started undertaking in 2015.
Move to 2017 and Hinder puts out their latest full release, The Reign, with Dutton assuming the role of the charismatic front man rather well, taking the music in a familiar yet new direction. You see, in listening to the latest effort from this Oklahoma based band, the style hasn’t changed in putting out radio ready music, but how well they do it I do believe has improved. Many will miss the certainly easy to recognize vocals of the past but as you find yourself hitting rewind on almost every song, you’ll be singing along in no time and simply rediscovering an old friend who went through some rough changes and came out the better for it in the end.
We start off with the title cut and it sets the tone that this is still a rock band and The Reign is a great way to kick off the introduction of Hinders latest effort, The Reign.
Now we shift gears and show off a new and improved “slower side” to the band in Burn It Down where the lyrics simply dive deeper than before and the music simply flows along where Dutton takes the song as he puts his own stamp on Hinder.
Moving along to the working man’s new anthem / theme song, we have King of the Letdown with “I’m broke, I’m proud I’m King of the Letdown” and these there will be a lot of fans and listeners who can relate all to well to the story behind this song.
Remember Me carries the energy forward and your next stop to a slow song is next up with Too Late.
I’ve always been a sucker for a good slow song and this is a “reminisce” waiting to happen for us all we Hinder takes you down your own past and troubled relationships and as the good writers do, they say it in a manner we find it hard to say which makes us love the song all the more for the most personal of reasons. Too Late is certainly one of those songs.
There simply are not a lot of “I’ll skip this song” type songs in The Reign. While it only stands to reason we’ll all find our favorites, it’s what we as fans do, it’s safe to say there’s something in this release for everyone. The band is certainly moving along nicely and are now on their own headline tour with Josh Todd and the Conflict, Adelitas Way and Wayland. It’s a night you won’t want to miss from many good bands playing some great live music and you capping off your evening by finding new reasons to love an old friend in Hinder.
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