NIN + Boys Noize Album
Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize announced a surprise collaborative album called Halo 38, which is due April 17 — a notable crossover because Boys Noize also had production ties to the TRON: Ares soundtrack, linking film-score work back into the band’s studio output. If you follow industrial-leaning production, this is a big new release to watch next week. ( )
Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize just dropped one of those announcements that usually leaks first: a full collaborative album called “Halo 38,” due April 17, one week after the news broke on April 9. (kerrang.com) They are releasing it under the shared name Nine Inch Noize, and the timing lines up with their Coachella appearance this weekend under that same name. Coachella’s 2026 festival runs April 10-12 and April 17-19 in Indio, California. (kerrang.com) (coachella.com) The “Halo” part is old Nine Inch Nails language, not a random subtitle. Trent Reznor’s band has used Halo numbers for official releases for decades, so “Halo 38” places this project inside the main catalog instead of treating it like a side experiment. (variety.com) (consequence.net) Boys Noize is not a guest verse here. He is Alexander Ridha, a German electronic producer whose records are built for clubs, while Nine Inch Nails built its reputation on distorted machines, live drums, and Trent Reznor’s industrial rock sound. (variety.com) (electronicgroove.com) This pairing did not come out of nowhere. Variety reports that Ridha’s recent work with Reznor and Atticus Ross started with a reworked version of their “Challengers” score and then expanded into the “Tron: Ares” soundtrack, where he received production and additional production credits on most of the songs. (variety.com) That film connection matters because “Tron: Ares” was already a major Nine Inch Nails assignment. Disney said the movie stars Jared Leto and was released on October 10, 2025, and earlier reporting confirmed Nine Inch Nails handled the score. (movies.disney.com) (variety.com) So the path here is unusually direct: soundtrack work turned into live collaboration, and live collaboration turned into a full album. Multiple reports tie Nine Inch Noize to the “Peel It Back” tour, Coachella 2026, and the “Tron: Ares” sessions rather than a one-off studio file swap. (nin.wiki) (electronicgroove.com) There is still very little public detail about the music itself. The announcement post and the billboard in the California desert gave fans a date, a name, and artwork, but no track list and no advance explanation of whether this leans harder toward songs, instrumentals, or score-style pieces. (consequence.net) (iheart.com) That mystery is part of why people are watching the Coachella set so closely. If Nine Inch Noize shows up onstage before April 17 with new material, the festival becomes the first real clue about what “Halo 38” actually sounds like. (kerrang.com) (brooklynvegan.com)
