For some reason, the track 'Blow Me Away' by Breaking Benjamin has always reminded me of the Halo game series.

*No, it’s not because it was featured in Halo 2. *

In fact, to this day, Halo 2 is still the only Halo game that I haven't played. The halo game that occupied the majority of my adolescence was Halo Reach, as well as a marginal amount of Halo 3. However, I think I might have figured out why I've felt this way all these years.

It’s the instrumentation

It starts with a choir of chanting tenor vocalists, which is a staple of the halo games. It's the part that you always see videos of people chanting together in parking garages and bathrooms that goes 'ohhhhhhh ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhhhhhhhh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'.

The second element of it is the very ethereal, halo sounding percussion used at the beginning of the track. It sounds like some kind of synthesized mix of bell and drum. Maybe even some kind of synth vibraphone? Could be a processed floor tom or kick, or even a bell hit with a mallet. It’s one of those cinematic “impact” synth sounds.

Regardless of how it was made, the entire beginning section sounds like it could be a sample ripped straight out of halo. The combination of ethereal sounding choirs and spacious impact sounds are a recipe for epic halo sound design.

Furthermore, It sounds to me like the choir continues on in the background, throughout most of the track, giving it an epic and unique texture throughout the entire piece, even when it's not at the forefront of the mix.

One last element that could be helping to envoke this texture is the kind of distant, vocoder-sounding background vocals. That synthesized sound to the backing vocals could just be post-processing, however.

What really sealed the deal for me, that I'm not crazy, is this comment. Whilst i was searching through some tabs on ultimate guitar, trying to get some ideas and do some analysis, i saw this comment.

I guess I’m not the only one who gets halo vibes. This user specifically remarks that the intro section's instrumentals are reminiscent of 'Halo Sounds'.

Given that Breaking Benjamin wrote 'Blow Me Away' specifically for the Halo games, it's not a stretch to imagine that the tertiary sound design of the track was sculpted in such a way as to replicate the sound design of the Halo games.

Do I get 'Halo vibes' from 'Blow Me Away' because it was featured in Halo 2. No. Do I get 'Halo vibes' from it, because it was written for Halo 2 and therefore used very similar sound design in order to evoke similar emotions as the Halo score? Probably. Is this needlessly pedantic? Probably.