Skip to main content

Nine Inch Nails Release Haunting New Single Ahead of Forthcoming Bad Witch


     Industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails have released a new single: the eerie, saxophone heavy, electro-jazz charged “God Break Down the Door”. This comes ahead of their newly announced Cold and Black and Infinite Tour, in which 80’s alternative icons The Jesus and Mary Chain serve as special guests and in advance of Nails’ ninth studio album, Bad Witch, due out June 22 on Trent Reznor’s The Null Corporation label.

     “God Break Down the Door” plays like a lost David Bowie track off his concept album Outside, and with Nine Inch Nails’ musical growth (2013’s Hesitation Marks had moments of delicious funk and groove), it’s clear that Trent Reznor has long established his legacy and takes his music in any direction he pleases. Vocally, there is an uncanny resemblance to Bowie at times throughout the four-minute tune, which adds an otherworldly feel to things. Whether the vicarious delivery is in fact an homage to Bowie or mere coincidence, there’s no denying he’s an influence on Reznor. He croons over menacing lines of dizzying synths, saxophone and drums. It is not uncharted territory for Reznor, who along with long-time collaborator and now full-time member Atticus Ross continues to explore new musical territory unbounded. If this single is any indication, it is a sign that the rest of the album could be one of NIN’s more mature sounding works.

     Look for Bad Witch June 22 via The Null Corporation. Listen to "God Break Down the Door".

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Portrayal of Guilt and Soft Kill Softly Kill You for Portrayal of Guilt

     This past Wednesday, Texas metal ragers Portrayal of Guilt and Portland sad-rockers Soft Kill released an explosive split through Closed Casket Activities, and man, I’m all for it.      To start things off, Portrayal of Guilt’s song “Sacrificial Rite” is a blistering, vicious, brutal two-minute assault, just like in typical hardcore fashion. It’ll have you punching walls and banging your head on tables, and despite its short length, it has a beautiful dynamic that oddly carries you into the next song, Soft Kill’s ethereal “Tin Foil Drop”.      Soft Kill, dubbed by vocalist/guitarist Toby Grave as a “sad-rock” band (moody shit for all the goths out there), further expand on the descriptor with a spacey, shoegaze-y, atmospheric six-minute track that will leave you in tears. It carries bit of synth-pop and Disintegration-era Cure elements to it. It’s a melancholic, moving track that contrasts Portrayal of Guilt’s opener, ...

Them Are Us Too Make Amends

      The Bay Area’s euphoric dream pop duo Them Are Us Too began in 2012 with schoolmates Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew playing well balanced eighties inspired synth-pop shoegaze. In 2015, they released their debut album, Remain , a gloomy tour de force to incredible acclaim. They built up a dedicated cult following, and that success hyped the anticipation for the follow-up to their big debut. Tragically in 2016, a warehouse fire claimed Askew’s life at 22 years old, putting the band’s career in uncertainty. However, through the ashes of tragedy arose a new album, Amends , the band’s second and final as TAUT (as fans call them) and it is a beautifully haunting piece of work filled with ethereal elegance and atmospherics.      Amends , as Ashlyn describes, is “a collection of songs that would have been the second Them Are Us Too record, an amendment to our catalog cut short, a final gift to family, friends, and fans.” Amends is a celeb...

The Cure: Thirty Years of Disintegration

     Iconic goth-rock band The Cure are having a very big 2019. Not only were they inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by none other than industrial-goth symbol Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, their emblematic masterpiece, Disintegration , turned 30 years old and they are celebrating by touring the world and playing the album in its entirety. What a wow!      Disintegration is one of those albums that has grown bigger and better over time since its release. It is the pinnacle of the band’s growth over the previous decade, a milestone in their career, and, most importantly, the record that beautifully captures the band’s creative powers at its peak. It is inarguably THE quintessential goth-rock album of all time ( Pornography , another bleak Cure release, is number two). Characterized by a significant use of synthesizers and keyboards, slow and droning guitar progressions awash with chorus and flange effects (a signature sound for the band),...