November 7, 2012

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In early 2009, Trent Reznor announced that Nine Inch Nails were embarking on a 20th anniversary farewell tour, and the band wrapped the year playing intimate venues like New York's Bowery Ballroom and L.A.'s Wiltern Theatre. "I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while," he said. "After some thought, we decided to book a last run of shows across the globe this year."

Since then, Reznor has stayed busy recording with his new band, How to Destroy Angels, writing music for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and scoring The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with composer Atticus Ross. "It's really been an unexpected, weird ride," Reznor tells Rolling Stone. "I'm grateful to have the opportunity to work. I'm just trying to approach things with integrity and try to find things that are interesting to me."

But Nine Inch Nails fans can now rejoice: Reznor tells Rolling Stone that the band is working on new material. In an interview surrounding Black Ops 2, Reznor was asked about the likelihood of new NIN music. "All signs point to yes," he said. Pressed further, he added, "Yeah, there will be new music. There are some things in the works."

Those "things" could also include live performing again. "Yeah, if it feels right, it's a possibility," he says. "I never said that that wasn't going to happen, just that it couldn't go on as it was. Having a few years doing other things, I've enjoyed [them] and I'm enjoying doing How to Destroy Angels, and there will be a place for stuff that falls in the Nine Inch Nails column of things. It's a different kind of work.

"Stay tuned," he adds. "We'll see what happens here."

First, fans can look forward to new music from How to Destroy Angels, Reznor's band with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Ross. The band will release An Omen EP on November 13th, and Reznor promises a full-length record soon. "It's coming out sometime Quarter One of next year," he says. "Music videos will start to creep out pretty soon. You'll hear about some live performances coming up. That's going to happen next year. We're just trying to have fun and try to give it its best shot for people to actually check it out. And that was one of the main reasons we decided to sign with Columbia."

Reznor says to expect a different sound from their 2010 debut EP. "I just listened to it a few weeks ago for the first time in quite a while. Not to pat my own back, but it sounded better than I remembered it sounding . . . What we've done since then is we've really been working on this record in the background, behind Social Network and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. We've found a cohesion that's not as easily identifiable as the things that made it. It feels like we understand more about what this project is that separates it from various other things that we're up to."

Just throwing this out there, but if HTDA was successful then he wouldn't feel the need to continue with NIN. It's interesting to me that artists (particularly aging grunge acts) feel the need to reinvent and when the half-baked reinvention fails, they go back to their old franchise.

Bored!

Spinlight said:

Just throwing this out there, but if HTDA was successful then he wouldn't feel the need to continue with NIN. It's interesting to me that artists (particularly aging grunge acts) feel the need to reinvent and when the half-baked reinvention fails, they go back to their old franchise.

Bored!

but HTDA hasn't really failed yet, has it? or do NIN fans consider it to be uninteresting and just

not good enough?

i'm asking since i'm just a 'casual' nin fan who has all their stuff but never went to their shows

and doesn't really know that much about them at all beyond their music.

i thought the first HTDA ep was kind of boring, uninspired. but i might have to try it again as it

has been gathering dust since it's initial 2 spins.

i'm still quite interested in the HTDA full album. and new NIN stuff is always welcome, i have to

admit.

Another Ghosts volume would be good. He did say that there would be more of them.

Until then there is new HTDA and there is also the newly released bootleg of previously unheard Coil Remixes of NIN tracks titled "Uncoiled." I really recommend it. Essential stuff and quality is amazing.

YES! I knew Trent wouldn't stay "retired" for too long. I always thought of HTDA and the movie soundtracks as side projects.

Sounds like he suffers from the industrial rocker syndrome. Like Al Jourgensen, Ogre and others. At some point they feel "they've moved onto other things" (read: "too old for this shit"), go on a farewell tour and then just do some haphazard projects for a while. Then they realize they're out of cash and it's time for a comeback.

You know, every once in a while I type "Ministry" in Google search and the first thing that comes up is the Wiki page either stating " Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen..." or " Ministry was an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen...", depending on the year.

IstenSzek said:

Spinlight said:

Just throwing this out there, but if HTDA was successful then he wouldn't feel the need to continue with NIN. It's interesting to me that artists (particularly aging grunge acts) feel the need to reinvent and when the half-baked reinvention fails, they go back to their old franchise.

Bored!

but HTDA hasn't really failed yet, has it? or do NIN fans consider it to be uninteresting and just

not good enough?

i'm asking since i'm just a 'casual' nin fan who has all their stuff but never went to their shows

and doesn't really know that much about them at all beyond their music.

i thought the first HTDA ep was kind of boring, uninspired. but i might have to try it again as it

has been gathering dust since it's initial 2 spins.

i'm still quite interested in the HTDA full album. and new NIN stuff is always welcome, i have to

admit.

Well, my interest in NIN began to wane around the release of The Fragile. Great album, IMO, but lacking the drive that was very evident on stellar albums like Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, and The Downward Spiral. Later albums were even worse, IMO, and began degrading into overly-ephemeral audio/noise that simply isn't memorable to me. HTDA is along those same lines.

I can't fault Trent because he has an impressive back catalog, but I believe his creative well has run dry. It happens to all of the legends for various reasons. NIN has a super dedicated fanbase, so I can't really say how HTDA has gone over with that crowd (better to ask MikeyB/Digital Gardener), but it never caught my attention for very long.

Edit: To be fair, I did love With Teeth, but I've read more criticism about that album than not. I, in fact, loved that he went with a retro sound, but the songs are reminiscent of older tracks. For instance, "Only" is basically just a revamped "Down In It", lol.

[Edited 11/8/12 12:58pm]

novabrkr said:

Sounds like he suffers from the industrial rocker syndrome. Like Al Jourgensen, Ogre and others. At some point they feel "they've moved onto other things" (read: "too old for this shit"), go on a farewell tour and then just do some haphazard projects for a while. Then they realize they're out of cash and it's time for a comeback.

You know, every once in a while I type "Ministry" in Google search and the first thing that comes up is the Wiki page either stating " Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen..." or " Ministry was an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen...", depending on the year.

I hope that ain't the case with Reznor... unless he doesn't own copyright?