Topic: NIN -- Year Zero album w/ some MysterD Impressions in the thread

[MysterD]

EDIT -- 4/12/2007:
The entire Year Zero album is NOW on their MySpace page, which comes out next week (Tues, 4/17/2007).

ORIGINAL POST:
Currently on NIN's MySpace, two tracks from their upcoming album Year Zero are available to listen to -- Survivalism (their current lead single for this Year Zero album) and the awesome My Violent Heart

Due out April 17th, NIN's next album Year Zero -- click here for the track listing

track listing:

01 hyperpower!
02 the beginning of the end
03 survivalism
04 the good soldier
05 vessel
06 me, i'm not
07 capital g
08 my violent heart
09 the warning
10 god given
11 meet your master
12 the greater good
13 the great destroyer
14 another version of the truth
15 in this twilight
16 zero-sum

[MysterD]

I want to *know* what Que thinks of those two tracks -- Animalism and My Violent Heart.
Que, where are you???

I bet he'll be FIRST in line on April 17th for this album.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, why do you say that?  I'm not nearly the biggest NIN fan here.  I can think of at least 5 people that are bigger into them than I am.  My Violent Heart sounds pretty cool.  Animalism isn't on their myspace.  Anyway... I'm just amused by all the comments directed at the guy who thinks Trent is a sellout.  I don't think his music sounds much different than it ever did, to be honest, though I did like some of the older stuff better.  And then everyone tells the guy to go listen to mainstream music or whatever, as though NIN wasn't also unbelievably mainstream.  Stupid goth kids make me laugh.

Anywho... could be cool.  I actually kind of liked the last album.  Wasn't in love with it, but I dug it well enough to steal it from Julia a couple times.

[MysterD]

Whoops...the song is Survivalism, not Animalism.
My screw-up.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Both of those songs on the My Space page were pretty cool, so I'll definitely have to give this a listen to when the album comes out.  I really liked My Violent Heart.

[poomcgoo]

Holy shit the marketing campaign for this thing is awesome.

[MysterD]

I really liked My Violent Heart.

Ditto.

[MysterD]

Me, I'm Not, which is one of the planned tracks for Year Zero, has been added to their tracklist of songs to listen to, on their MySpace page.

It's pretty good, by the way.

Give it a listen.

[poomcgoo]

Have any of you been following what Reznor's doing with this?  He's leaking the tracks himself by hiding USB flash drives in the bathrooms at his shows.  People find them, and theres a new track on each one, along with other weird files that have hidden messages.  Whoever he's working with knows fucking viral marketing, though, because it's really crazy how much thought went into this.  On the T-Shirts being sold at his shows, some of the letters were bolded randomly as well, and someone figured to type it into the address bar in Firefox (or IE, but nobody who would think to hit the computers would be dumb enough to use IE).  There are a ton of weird websites that are up with links to even weirder message boards, sound clips, and phone numbers on which you can hear either clips of the new tracks, or freaky sound clips of people getting shot or something.  It's pretty wild.

EDIT: perhaps the coolest part is the hidden image in "My Violent Heart."  There is a weird static noise at the end of the song if you've listened to it, and someone thought to throw it into a spectrograph to find that the wavelengths of the static created the image of a hand reaching down from the sky (maybe in reference to the song "The Wretched").  Whatever the case, it's awesome.

[MysterD]

"In The Twilight" from Year Zero is now in rotation on NIN's MySpace page, BTW

[MysterD]

The entire new NIN album Year Zero is currently on their MySpace page.

GO LISTEN!!!!

[NatchDan]

The "Year Zero Alternate Reality Game" that utilises the spectrograph images (actually of something called "the Presence") is in full, unstoppable and behemoth-like swing. Check it out. I thought the album was pretty lacklustre, myself, and this is from a long-time NIN fan, but this campaign is something else.

[beo]

i love nin, so will have to buy the album just for the sake of it, but shit - all the extra stuff. wow. this is so fucking cool.

oh yeah, also got the freebie UK only year zero vinyl box sent through the other day. guess i better get the vinyl to put in it. hmm... i wonder if there are any subversive hidden messages in/on the box...

[MysterD]

I've liked what I've heard from the album on the NIN MySpace page.
I'll be getting this one tomorrow, definitely.

Seems EW likes this album

EDIT on 4/17/2007
---------------------
Yes, I have purchased the album!

Gotten through the first 7 tracks, so far.
So far, so good.

The CD came as a black CD saying "Year Zero" on it.

But, after taking the CD out of my DVD drive, it reveals the real CD cover -- it's white now and says "NIN" and "Year Zero" on it. And, now there's a bunch of binary numbers on it all over the disc, too. I put the disc away, back in its case.


EDIT, some few hours later on 4/17/2007
-----------------------------------------
I just finished listening to the album. So, I opened my case to put the booklet away; and I noticed the CD itself is jet black again.

Ummmm.....WTF?

Does this CD change colors or something???

Anyways, the CD's pretty good. It is out there, to say the least.

In most of the tracks, it seems like Trent is playing multiple roles here, in the first person perspective. Here's some examples...

One song, the lyrics sound like he's an angry, pissed-off voter who feels he/she for the wrong leader -- that song's "Capital G."

On "God Given," he sounds like a religious fanatic.

"Meet Your Master" sounds like he could be a terrorist.

On "The Good Soldier," the lyrics sounds like a soldier that starting to question everything, after everything he has seen and done. The soldier is starting to lose it, basically.

"The Greater Good" sounds like some sort of subliminal message bring fed into someone's head.

[NatchDan]

Heat sensitive, I guess?

[MysterD]

Yep, it is.

Man, the things you can find out on Wikipedia...

[nickclone]

I just got this album. I'm sorry, but it sucks.

[MysterD]

I just got this album. I'm sorry, but it sucks.

Dude, our of curiosity, why didn't you listen to the entire album on their MySpace page before going out and purchasing it? It's been up on their page for at least a week or so -- and it still is. I made sure I got the link up to it, as soon as I hear about the news.

I really like that artists have been previewing their entire albums on MySpace or any other place on the Net, ahead of time for you to stream to listen to. Sometimes, it can get your attention to an artist and their album that you might not've bought in the first place.

And, also it sure saved me a few bucks, from buying albums I wasn't too fond of, but I probably would've bought originally b/c of who the artist is. For example, I planned on buying "Idlewild" b/c it is OutKast, but after hearing the disappointing album, I said "Disappointing. I'm not buying this anytime soon."

[nickclone]

I no, I didn't buy it so I'm not too upset about it. I was just hoping that Reznor would do better than that. I don't buy albums anymore, the last one I bought was about two years ago. It was a Brazilian jazz album by a guy name Praful.

[NatchDan]

I'm with nick, this album is really disappointing to me. I might give it a couple more listens to see if it grows on me.

[beo]

heh, it really freaked me out when i realised the disk had changed colour. i was a little stoned and couldn't be sure if my memory was playing tricks as to the disks original colour. very cool though.

as for the music, i'm loving it - although i am utter die-hard nin, so my opinion may not be indicative of actual greatness. i wouldn't say it's reznor's finest work, but there are some awesome tracks and the more ambient stuff creates a great atmosphere. i think you can get a lot more out of it if you read into the alternate future reality the album is based around. the references to the religion-based military units, performance enhancing / mood changing drugs, and police state brutality are much clearer and more welcome when you understand the context. that being said, if you plain don't like the music, i guess it isn't going to change that.

i'm really enjoying the entire thing, but i adore the final track on the album - it's mainly spoken word, but the buildup and the simple, minimal chorus work really well at portraying the final moment, the world after ruin. the sheer aggresiveness of survivalism is fantastic too.

[MysterD]

I'm w/ Beo...Zero-Sum is great.

Here's my list of stand-out tracks that I'm really digging right now (in order of their appearance on the album):
1. Hyperpower! (Instrumental)
2. The Beginning of the End
3. Survivalism
4. The Good Soldier
5. Vessel
6. Me, I'm Not
7. Capital G
8. My Violent Heart
14. Another Version of the Truth (Instrumental)
15. In This Twilight
16. Zero Sum

[ScaryTooth]

I'm really digging this album. All the tracks are good. I didn't like Trent's last album all that much. This totally makes up for it.

I really like "Capital G", and "The Good Soldier".

"Gun----fire in the street----where we used to meet----echoes out a beat, and the bass goes BOOM*guitar kicks in*".

Love that part.

[Quemaqua]

Sounds like NIN.  *Shrug*

[MysterD]

I'm really digging this album. All the tracks are good. I didn't like Trent's last album all that much. This totally makes up for it.

I really liked "With Teeth" (album).

I really like "Capital G", and "The Good Soldier".

"Gun----fire in the street----where we used to meet----echoes out a beat, and the bass goes BOOM*guitar kicks in*".

Love that part.

Yeah, that part rocks -- "The Good Soldier" is a very good song.

I always like when Trent can go from quite quiet to insanely loud (and vice versa) in a flash -- kind of like what he did on "With Teeth" (the song) on that same-titled album.

[NatchDan]

hay guyz put this through a spectrograph!

(It has to be a .wav, mp3 compression ruins it.)

As you may have gathered, especially if you do put that through a spectrograph, I've been exploring hidden audio messages and how to create them. It's pretty cool.