Welcome To Year Zero
March 31, 2022 4:02 PM Subscribe
Nine Inch Nails' 2007 album Year Zero foretold of a dystopian future, set in 15 years in the future, 2022, where the Religious Right was taking over the country, terrorism inspired mass surveillance, drugs for population control were in the water, and something from beyond the planet is trying to reach out with a message. But let's not start with the music... let's start with the plot [Reddit, top answer has a very good synopsis of the setting and storyline].
That storyline is really not in the album, it's contained in the Year Zero ARG [blog about playing it] which is probably the most "CD booklet on steroids" project ever. Trent intended this to be a single experience.
The timeline of the unveiling of this ARG, and links to basically all of its elements, has been well documented on NINWiki. Basically all of the original websites are dead now, and two projects to preserve the experience also seem to have died. BUT, I have found Example24 [GDocs link, view or download], a .pdf collection (somewhat organized by the 24.x.x system) of nearly everything printable from the game. It's over 300 pages, but it's a really wonderful world building document about times that feel a bit TOO familiar.
Note: these pages are not in order of discovery. Using the timeline would help with using the 24.x.x numbering system to find the page in the book.
Anyway, I guess we can get to the music, finally. It's a series of vignettes by different characters in the Year Zero world. I'll do my best to say what I think each track is about, because there is no solid 1:1 with the ARG and the album. It's all one artwork.
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero:
We'll examine this work from the vinyl release, because it's very specifically broken up into three sides, each sort of as an "act" in the presentation.
Side A: [which I will name The Characters]
HYPERPOWER! Maybe the overture to the album? Sets a tone, certainly.
The Beginning Of The End Describing the religious conversion, self-denigration required in this new Year Zero country. Is it the end of freedom or the end of pacifism and the beginning of the resistance? Or the beginning of the Christian state and the End of having to deal with Those Others? That's up to you to decide.
Survivalism [video] Video plays nicely with the paranoia of the scenario. Probably a Resistance punk anthem or something.
The Good Soldier The internal conflict of a soldier doing his job while he doesn't know what he's fighting for.
Vessel The street drug Opal is, apparently, One Hell Of A Drug.
Me, I'm Not Some soldiers were given pills that sort of fucked up violence with orgasm in their head, and they didn't have a way to reverse it.
Side B: [The Situation]
Capital G The crowd is chanting "greed" during the instrumental break, if that helps.
My Violent Heart More about those soldier drugs, I think. Maybe the first song was about Parepin. I dunno.
The Warning I think this is about The Presence? Or maybe an actual alien visitation. Anyway, shit is going down.
God Given The theocracy of the new Year Zero government was pretty... insistent.
Meet Your Master It seems that community norms were enforced with torture.
Side C: [The Conclusion]
The Greater Good I am really not sure what this is about. Airborne drugging started? New alien contact? It's interesting, though.
The Great Destroyer I think this is a POV from earlier in the storyline, maybe the guy who sets off the bomb in LA? Or maybe a new terror attack.
Another Version Of The Truth We really do need a moment to contemplate after all that, and before the world ends.
In This Twilight Well, we were warned, and now it's all come to the final day.
Zero-Sum And as the aliens wipe us out for being awful, humanity reflects on their share of the blame.
Side D:
laser etching of The Presence and "NINE INCH NAILS / YEAR ZERO"
I guess if you want to have the FULL experience, you can watch this YouTube playlist of a pro-shot/fan-edited concert from the Lights In The Sky tour, one of the more remarkable technological touring feats done so far.
That storyline is really not in the album, it's contained in the Year Zero ARG [blog about playing it] which is probably the most "CD booklet on steroids" project ever. Trent intended this to be a single experience.
The timeline of the unveiling of this ARG, and links to basically all of its elements, has been well documented on NINWiki. Basically all of the original websites are dead now, and two projects to preserve the experience also seem to have died. BUT, I have found Example24 [GDocs link, view or download], a .pdf collection (somewhat organized by the 24.x.x system) of nearly everything printable from the game. It's over 300 pages, but it's a really wonderful world building document about times that feel a bit TOO familiar.
Note: these pages are not in order of discovery. Using the timeline would help with using the 24.x.x numbering system to find the page in the book.
Anyway, I guess we can get to the music, finally. It's a series of vignettes by different characters in the Year Zero world. I'll do my best to say what I think each track is about, because there is no solid 1:1 with the ARG and the album. It's all one artwork.
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero:
We'll examine this work from the vinyl release, because it's very specifically broken up into three sides, each sort of as an "act" in the presentation.
Side A: [which I will name The Characters]
HYPERPOWER! Maybe the overture to the album? Sets a tone, certainly.
The Beginning Of The End Describing the religious conversion, self-denigration required in this new Year Zero country. Is it the end of freedom or the end of pacifism and the beginning of the resistance? Or the beginning of the Christian state and the End of having to deal with Those Others? That's up to you to decide.
Survivalism [video] Video plays nicely with the paranoia of the scenario. Probably a Resistance punk anthem or something.
The Good Soldier The internal conflict of a soldier doing his job while he doesn't know what he's fighting for.
Vessel The street drug Opal is, apparently, One Hell Of A Drug.
Me, I'm Not Some soldiers were given pills that sort of fucked up violence with orgasm in their head, and they didn't have a way to reverse it.
Side B: [The Situation]
Capital G The crowd is chanting "greed" during the instrumental break, if that helps.
My Violent Heart More about those soldier drugs, I think. Maybe the first song was about Parepin. I dunno.
The Warning I think this is about The Presence? Or maybe an actual alien visitation. Anyway, shit is going down.
God Given The theocracy of the new Year Zero government was pretty... insistent.
Meet Your Master It seems that community norms were enforced with torture.
Side C: [The Conclusion]
The Greater Good I am really not sure what this is about. Airborne drugging started? New alien contact? It's interesting, though.
The Great Destroyer I think this is a POV from earlier in the storyline, maybe the guy who sets off the bomb in LA? Or maybe a new terror attack.
Another Version Of The Truth We really do need a moment to contemplate after all that, and before the world ends.
In This Twilight Well, we were warned, and now it's all come to the final day.
Zero-Sum And as the aliens wipe us out for being awful, humanity reflects on their share of the blame.
Side D:
laser etching of The Presence and "NINE INCH NAILS / YEAR ZERO"
I guess if you want to have the FULL experience, you can watch this YouTube playlist of a pro-shot/fan-edited concert from the Lights In The Sky tour, one of the more remarkable technological touring feats done so far.
This is one of my favourite albums. I fully recommend the remixed album as well.
posted by geek anachronism at 5:01 PM on March 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by geek anachronism at 5:01 PM on March 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
It was O.K.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 5:33 PM on March 31, 2022
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 5:33 PM on March 31, 2022
Thanks, Hippybear. Year Zero isn't my favorite NIN album, but I still listen to In This Twilight and Zero Sum regularly.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 5:50 PM on March 31, 2022
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 5:50 PM on March 31, 2022
Thank you for an excellent post.
I’m World’s Biggest NIN Fan (Spotify once honored me with a popup congratulating me for being in the top 1% of listeners). I know it’s not a popular opinion, but Year Zero is one of my faves behind The Fragile and Hesitation Marks.
posted by liet at 6:08 PM on March 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
I’m World’s Biggest NIN Fan (Spotify once honored me with a popup congratulating me for being in the top 1% of listeners). I know it’s not a popular opinion, but Year Zero is one of my faves behind The Fragile and Hesitation Marks.
posted by liet at 6:08 PM on March 31, 2022 [4 favorites]
Year Zero broke The NIN Hotline. My news-blog + article-archive format did not have the architecture to handle the massive amount of information that flooded the world as part of this ARG - which is how NIN.wiki was born. Thankfully, other fans were handling that, while I did my best to kind of keep up.
It's really hard to express how involved the whole thing was - and like any good ARG, it mutated in real time as people found clues that weren't meant to be clues, and the folks behind the game rolled with it and spun off new branches of weirdo information.
+1 for the remix album, which felt like a return to form as far as NIN remix albums went. Fun fact: Trent selected the Pirate Robot Midget remix of My Violent Heart from about a dozen fan remixes downselected from hundreds of fan mixes on ninremixes.com. Trent had been putting multitrack stems out for his stuff for a few years at this point, and fans were eating it up. There was also a real fun fan mix of Capital G, kind of a punk rock with a drum machine take on it, which had been selected in addition to the Pirate Robot Midget mix - but for one reason or another, didn't make the final product.
There was one more person I was pushing to submit a remix for this, based off a pair of amazing fan mixes he'd made from the With Teeth multitracks (edit: found one of them) - but I think he was busy at the time. Years later, when I was revisiting my inbox archive on the topic, I found those emails - it was Peder Mannerfelt, who had since gone on to work with Bjork and Fever Ray, and also doing really interesting solo work. I'd mentioned this to Alessandro Cortini on Twitter, and Peder chimed in saying that those remixes he sent me back then were probably the first bits of music he'd ever put online. Still wish he'd have put something in for Year Zero Remixed.
...and the Lights in the Sky tour was *bonkers*
posted by Leviathant at 6:14 PM on March 31, 2022 [8 favorites]
It's really hard to express how involved the whole thing was - and like any good ARG, it mutated in real time as people found clues that weren't meant to be clues, and the folks behind the game rolled with it and spun off new branches of weirdo information.
+1 for the remix album, which felt like a return to form as far as NIN remix albums went. Fun fact: Trent selected the Pirate Robot Midget remix of My Violent Heart from about a dozen fan remixes downselected from hundreds of fan mixes on ninremixes.com. Trent had been putting multitrack stems out for his stuff for a few years at this point, and fans were eating it up. There was also a real fun fan mix of Capital G, kind of a punk rock with a drum machine take on it, which had been selected in addition to the Pirate Robot Midget mix - but for one reason or another, didn't make the final product.
There was one more person I was pushing to submit a remix for this, based off a pair of amazing fan mixes he'd made from the With Teeth multitracks (edit: found one of them) - but I think he was busy at the time. Years later, when I was revisiting my inbox archive on the topic, I found those emails - it was Peder Mannerfelt, who had since gone on to work with Bjork and Fever Ray, and also doing really interesting solo work. I'd mentioned this to Alessandro Cortini on Twitter, and Peder chimed in saying that those remixes he sent me back then were probably the first bits of music he'd ever put online. Still wish he'd have put something in for Year Zero Remixed.
...and the Lights in the Sky tour was *bonkers*
posted by Leviathant at 6:14 PM on March 31, 2022 [8 favorites]
I know that Year Zero wasn't a huge hit for NIN, but damn if it wasn't refreshing to escape the solipsistic-teenager lyrics that dominate. Every. Other. Single. Album. Sometimes the production and execution carry the albums anyway, but sometimes.... not so much.
Year Zero isn't the NIN album I listen to the most (Disc 1 of the Fragile holds that slot), but it's definitely an impressive accomplishment, and the one I wish he'd used as a springboard to further, wider-ranging topical exploration.
posted by tclark at 6:28 PM on March 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
Year Zero isn't the NIN album I listen to the most (Disc 1 of the Fragile holds that slot), but it's definitely an impressive accomplishment, and the one I wish he'd used as a springboard to further, wider-ranging topical exploration.
posted by tclark at 6:28 PM on March 31, 2022 [2 favorites]
I loved the ARG and was bummed when it ended, but at least it had a good ending.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:20 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:20 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
By the way, I've somehow managed to never see NIN live despite being a fan since high school. Thankfully, that all changes later in April. I'm stoked that I got tickets to see them in Raleigh for their first show of the new tour.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:23 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:23 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've seen them a bunch but am missing out on them this time around. Perhaps next tour!
posted by hippybear at 7:24 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 7:24 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
I actually would disagree with that Reddit post, though- my interpretation was that the Solution Backwards Initiative's plan worked. The present received the future websites and documents, history swerved, and what The Presence wiped out was not humanity but the future that never was.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:25 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:25 PM on March 31, 2022 [1 favorite]
I wanted to say something snarky about Year Zero being the album where Reznor transitioned from industrial to lounge jazz, but my mistake, that was actually Ghosts a year later. Year Zero is a good record.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:27 PM on March 31, 2022
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:27 PM on March 31, 2022
Ghosts I-IV is a good foreshadowing of how he would explore music for his soundtrack work, really. It was totally an experiment and I'm not even sure they knew what they were going to produce when they began the journey. But I do quite like that album.
And without that album, Montero Hill never would have had that beat to buy and we'd not have Lil Was X. And I totally *heart* Lil Was X.
posted by hippybear at 8:34 PM on March 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
And without that album, Montero Hill never would have had that beat to buy and we'd not have Lil Was X. And I totally *heart* Lil Was X.
posted by hippybear at 8:34 PM on March 31, 2022 [3 favorites]
So much detail. I knew nothing about this. Digging in!
posted by samthemander at 12:50 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by samthemander at 12:50 AM on April 1, 2022
Enough with this cheerful escapism!
posted by acb at 6:00 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 6:00 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
For the Oscars last year I wrote an article about Trent Reznor's second act as a film composer.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:29 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 6:29 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
In my mind, the Year Zero world has always been blended with Gilead. There's a bit in Handmaid's Tale where Offred has a brief glimpse of Gilead soldiers on the street. The Good Soldier in particular, makes me think of a side story that leaves Offred's point of view for a bit and follows one of the Gilead soldiers as he goes through his day. I never followed the ARG part of Year Zero so the world-building in my head has always come just from the song lyrics I could follow and the mood they created.
posted by Babblesort at 7:52 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by Babblesort at 7:52 AM on April 1, 2022
section 24.11.1 starts on page 238 of the PDF, and it's a comic about soldiers out in combat. Might be interesting reading for some who like The Good Soldier.
posted by hippybear at 8:07 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by hippybear at 8:07 AM on April 1, 2022
I love this album and I kind of forgot about it. For a good year at least it was constantly playing. I had my own ideas for the story, I knew at some point there was a story behind the album but I like the imagery and plotline I came up with while listening to it. It was so clear there was a story there, but the songs were vague enough to let my own imagination run wild.
I listened through pirated MP3s at first, but ended up buying the CD just got the changing artwork when played. I don’t even remember how it changed!
I think I know what I’m going to be listening to for the next long while. ;)
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:29 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I listened through pirated MP3s at first, but ended up buying the CD just got the changing artwork when played. I don’t even remember how it changed!
I think I know what I’m going to be listening to for the next long while. ;)
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:29 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
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