A beautiful, ugly sound. The second installment in Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' recently announced trilogy of EP's following 2016's Not The Actual Events. Reznor on creating the album - "Certainly, rock is boring. A lot of what's blessed as "the cool thing" feels pretty generic and also feels, a lot of it, like a desperate plea for commercial airplay and success. That combined with just our own worldview and a kind of daydream I was having led to "let's make a record that feels challenging, and exciting to us"... I wanted the music to sound kind of ugly and to sound unfriendly, not suck you in with a sexy hook." NIN certainly are no strangers to creating "unfriendly" sounds, and the uncomfortable energy contained certainly matches these uncertain times more than the majority of their rock contemporaries. From the aggressive energy of the opener "Less Than," to the intimidating "Not Anymore," and the grim closer "The Background World," it is clear NIN are still very much on top of their game.

• printed insert
• music label: The Null Corporation 2017

reviewed by A.B.E. 11/2017