A long awaited Nine Inch Nails post
December 22, 2016 9:23 AM   Subscribe

After 3 years, Nine Inch Nails is back with Burning Bright (Field On Fire). [5m50s, possible seizure warning?] This first single is the closing track from the suddenly-announced EP Not The Actual Events, which Trent has described as "an unfriendly fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make".

Trent & Co have been busy of late, working on the movie scores for climate documentary Before The Flood (which yielded A Minute To Breathe, emphatically underscored as NOT NEW NIN when it was announced. They're also scoring Peter Berg's Patriot's Day [some of the score might be in this trailer].

They also have gone back through the old NIN catalog to review and remaster it for a complete vinyl release, including a reexamining of 1999's The Fragile across 4 LPs as an instrumental work. [Still no Fragile 5.1 Surround release, however.]

Reports are there is a full album and tour planned for 2017. #grainofsalt
posted by hippybear (23 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Purchase links for new and old Trent and NIN material are available at nin.com.
posted by hippybear at 9:23 AM on December 22, 2016


I just listened to the whole thing. I love it! Trent has a way of making every album sound unique.
posted by No One Ever Does at 9:35 AM on December 22, 2016


I don't know that I would describe Not The Actual Events as either impenetrable or unfriendly. I'm certainly enjoying it more than Hesitation Marks, and for my money it's the most interesting thing released as NIN since Year Zero. It's very densely layered, and in only 5 songs it manages to incorporate a wide range of sounds and influences. And that 12/8 rhythm in The Idea of You, with what almost sound like real drums.

I ordered the digital + physical component option, and I'm very anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "PROPER PHYSICAL COMPONENT".
posted by curiousgene at 9:38 AM on December 22, 2016


The lyrics were apparently embedded in the mp3s, if that's the package you ordered. I ordered the WAV, myself, but someone was kind enough to dump the lyrics into Pastebin for the rest of us.

Lyrics
posted by curiousgene at 9:40 AM on December 22, 2016


with what almost sound like real drums.

Um, a lot of the drumming on NIN albums is live. Usually played by Trent, but not always. It's often augmented, but the core of it is usually live.
posted by hippybear at 9:40 AM on December 22, 2016


"an unfriendly fairly impenetrable record"

yes hello you have my attention, Trent!
posted by Theta States at 9:42 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Idea Of Me sounds very influenced by Trent working with Saul Williams on the Niggy Tardust album. If you like that song, you might like much of that album.
posted by hippybear at 9:46 AM on December 22, 2016


Live-sounding, muddy-as-eff '70s metal riff, with little signature NIN moments "breaking through". Kinda reminded me of seeing The Damage Manual live years ago, when they ended their set by doing a 15min noisy-dubby-metal jam possibly (and partly successfully) trying to outlast the audience. As an aside, I think that early Slipknot tried something similar on me, but lacked Jah Wobble. In any case, I liked it!

Whilst I'm here disappeared up my own industrial stroke metal bottom, it's worth mentioning an interview I read with Bruce Dickinson when he left Iron Maiden in the early '90s. His Airing Of Grievances included the fact that No Prayer For The Dying sounded like it was recorded in a shed with wet cardboard boxes instead of drums. What I'm thinking is that NIN need to be careful with this new direction, they don't want to go and lose their lead singer do they, eh?

Eh? {\}
posted by comealongpole at 10:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


I don't know that I would describe Not The Actual Events as either impenetrable or unfriendly.

Maybe you got the wrong edit? Someone posted the unfriendly version to YouTube :-)
posted by effbot at 11:53 AM on December 22, 2016


Can someone explain the film clip for me? Without context it just looks like some crappy winamp plug-in.
posted by adept256 at 12:02 PM on December 22, 2016


Can someone explain the film clip for me? Without context it just looks like some crappy winamp plug-in.

I want it to be a stereogram but I'm not very good at getting them to work, though so I can't definitively say it isn't one.
posted by aubilenon at 12:07 PM on December 22, 2016


Wikipedia digging as a result of this, it seems like frequent NIN collaborator "Flood" gets his name from his days as a studio runner, and his exceptional ability to keep up with requests for tea. There was another runner nicknamed "Drought", who was not as able at fulfilling tea requests. Learning this factoid has brightened my day somewhat, I like the idea of a famed and incredibly skilled producer affably hanging on to his name derived from being a tea-boy par excellence many years ago.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:37 PM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


This is freaking awesome, wow! One of the first things I've heard from NIN in a very long time that I loved instantly and didn't have to let grow on me.

I want it to be a stereogram but I'm not very good at getting them to work, though so I can't definitively say it isn't one.

I'm pretty good at stereograms and I don't think it is one, although the screen does appear to split into two identical squares (at least at times). In very quick flashes I do think I see some kind of (not 3d) figure behind the static fwiw.
posted by treepour at 12:46 PM on December 22, 2016


I find myself wondering if it's somehow going to start to be the beginning of another ARG. Year Zero pretty much ate my life for a few months, and I've never forgotten the experience.
posted by hippybear at 12:50 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


The instrumental "The Fragile" excites me more than anything.
posted by davebush at 12:51 PM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men

really, trent, has it come to this? lifting riffs from blue oyster cult?
posted by pyramid termite at 3:00 PM on December 22, 2016


The instrumental "The Fragile" excites me more than anything.
A thousand times this.

The EP itself is fine. I too wouldn't call it "unfriendly" or "fairly impenetrable" either but it's nice to hear Atticus Ross on a NIN record. My favorite "newer" NIN record is still The Slip, though.
posted by bigendian at 4:02 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Cool new track, but I'd advise not playing that video wearing VR googles..
posted by Merlin The Happy Pig at 5:33 PM on December 22, 2016


trent just announced on beats one that there are two major NIN projects in the works for next year. no tour though.
posted by JimBennett at 9:51 PM on December 22, 2016


Um, a lot of the drumming on NIN albums is live. Usually played by Trent, but not always. It's often augmented, but the core of it is usually live.
Yeah, "real" was the wrong word for me to use. "Live" is more what I was getting at. The drums on The Idea of You really sound live. And now that albums credits have been released, I see that Dave Grohl has a credit for drumming on that one, so I guess that explains that.
posted by curiousgene at 9:56 AM on December 23, 2016


Jerome Dillon has been a go-to live drummer for NIN for a while now. Grohl played live drums across most of With Teeth. And The Slip is, I think, the only NIN album that's primarily recorded as a "studio band", with Josh Freese hitting the skins for that project (he also toured with NIN extensively around this time).

Every time I see NIN I hope they will play The Perfect Drug, but it's possible that playing that song might kill the drummer. Maybe if they had two drummers, or a drummer with augmentation.

Either way, I do like NIN with live drumming. One of the things I like about their live shows/recordings is the actual people playing actual things most of the time.
posted by hippybear at 2:07 PM on December 23, 2016


it's possible that playing that song might kill the drummer.

Actual NIN drummers don't think it's that bad, and blame the lack of interest for performing it live on other things.
posted by effbot at 7:03 PM on December 23, 2016


30-minute interview with Trent and Atticus on Beats 1 about Not The Actual Events, worthwhile listen, can be played off the webpage, doesn't require Apple Music or iTunes to play.
posted by hippybear at 10:02 AM on January 7, 2017


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