How To Destroy Angels have been on the verge of releasing their debut full-length album for a couple of years now, and we’re finally approaching touchdown. The post-Nine Inch Nails industrial group have revealed the details surrounding their upcoming record Welcome Oblivion. The album art (above) definitely reflects the glitchy aesthetic themes the band have been using, and certainly invokes general spookiness — Slenderman and what have you. The music’s atmosphere has definitely reflected that sort of suspenseful feeling in the past, so one could assume the rest of the album will be significantly dark. Yes, good.
A new single from Welcome Oblivion titled ‘How Long?’ has been made available with an accompanying video, which NPR calls “terrifying.” It’s not really as bad as all that, but I can see it; a lot of the imagery in this dystopian short is a touch unsettling. Watch it below:
The tracklist for Welcome Oblivion is as follows:
01 The wake-up
02 Keep it together
03 And the sky began to scream
04 Welcome oblivion
05 Ice age
06 On the wing
07 Too late, all gone
08 How long?
09 Strings and attractors
10 We fade away
11 Recursive self-improvement
12 The loop closes
13 Hallowed ground
Pre-orders will be going live mid-February, including vinyl. Welcome Oblivion is due out March 5th.
The new How To Destroy Angels EP An Omen, if you haven’t heard it, is spectacular. The Nine Inch Nails spinoff of sorts captures a moody atmosphere with as much depth as there is restraint. The EP not only builds on the expected and established sound, but makes some expansion as well. Case in point: the track ‘Ice Age‘ takes a more folk-like pace and timbre, perhaps something one would hear on the Hunger Games soundtrack, given the past/future aural collision. Seriously, industrial folk needs to become a thing.
The new video for the track is a performance video, but the group always has interesting and well-shot performance videos. You can view the video below:
Both of my most anticipated upcoming releases are due out next week, and coincidentally enough, they’re both perfect for those looking for something more laid back and atmospheric. Deftones‘ new full-length album Koi No Yokan and How To Destroy Angels‘ An Omen EP are now available for streaming across the web for advance listening pleasure for those who enjoy their rock more on the side of low-key ambiance.
Deftones’ Koi No Yokan has been getting a lot of buzz online, and while it’s without a doubt a brilliant record, it doesn’t capture me as immediately as Diamond Eyes did. Perhaps it’s more of a grower. It’s Deftones though, so of course it’s going to get its fair shake. The new HTDA EP is exactly what I hoped it would be; it not only continues the group’s established sound, but it offers enough in the way of new and diverse tones to make An Omen an engaging listen. Both releases are exciting, and you need to take time in the next week to listen to both.
Koi No Yokan and An Omen are out November 13th on Reprise/Warner Bros. and Columbia Records respectively.
Trent Reznor is a busy guy. He is constantly adding new business ventures onto his repertoire, as well as keeping up with multiple music projects, from his side project with his wife, How to Destroy Angels, and his increasing work on movie scores, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that he just had a kid, and he’s expecting another one very soon. But one project that he has let slip through the cracks is the one that has made him the most bank, Nine Inch Nails. It’s been nearly half a decade since the release of Halo 27, The Slip, and with the 2009 ‘Farewell Tour’, many of us believe that Nine Inch Nails had seen its final days.
However, Reznor recently talked to Rollingstones.com, and in the interview he discussed not only touring with Nine Inch Nails again, but also the fact that new music for the project is in the works. Reznor was asked by Rollingstones about the possibility of new music and he responded, “All signs point to yes… Yeah, there will be new music. There are some things in the works.” Reznor also went on to say that there was a possibility of a new NIN tour as long as it “feels right.”
Right now Reznor is preparing for the release of How to Destroy Angel’s new EP, An Omen, on November 13th, as well as a possible full length as soon as quarter one of 2013. Regarding How to Destroy Angels Reznor had this to say, “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.”
All of this is very exciting. One can only guess how hard it must be juggling all these various projects, but being one of the biggest names in rock music right now comes with some downsides, though it is obviously a great surprise to hear about new NIN, and I’m sure the rest of the community will welcome its release like the second coming of Christ.
You can read the full article on Reznor over at Rollingstones.com, and be sure to check back in with Heavy Blog, as I’m sure we’ll be covering this as more news develops. Cheers!
A few weeks ago, atmospheric industrial Nine Inch Nails spin-off of sorts How To Destroy Angels released a new single from their upcoming An Omen EP titled ‘Keep It Together.’ Now, Pitchfork has unveiled an in-studio video of the group performing the track, and it’s wonderfully shot. If the band never gets around to touring (which wouldn’t be a surprise, considering Trent Reznor and Mariqueen Maandig are new parents), I’d be content with a DVD of them performing in their marvelous studio.
There’s so much going on this week that I couldn’t possibly fit in the schedule so far, so excuse me if I use today as a day for catching up on the important news that I’ve missed. Earlier this week, the post-Nine Inch Nails spinoff group How To Destroy Angels have released their new single ‘Keep It Together.’ Disregard our site’s name for a second (since when do we live by the ‘heavy all day’ motto, anyway?) and float off to this poppy and ethereal industrial track below:
The group’s new EP An Omen is due out November 13th, but we can expect a full-length album by early 2013!
If feels like it’s been forever since the Nine Inch Nails spinoff project How To Destroy Angels (featuring Trent Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig, Atticus Ross, and now Rob Sheridan) released their self titled debut EP. Two years and being left with only a handful of songs and subsequently being put on the back burner for Reznor and Ross’ soundtrack work, but now the band is back with a couple of new releases planned, starting with a new EP this November!
Here’s the announcement made by Trent Reznor via Facebook:
Sorry for the radio silence lately… I’ve been busy! There’s a number of things to be revealed over the coming months. Some you may expect, others you may not. Patience, my friends.
Today’s news is about my band How To Destroy Angels.
I’m happy to announce we’ve formally partnered with Columbia Records for our next series of releases. The first of these will be available in November and it’s called An Omen EP. As you may have guessed, it’s an EP. It contains six songs, some of which are from our full-length LP which is coming early next year.
We are making some videos, we are going to be performing live, and that’s all the details I have for now on those matters.
The wait for an upcoming album can be excruciating thing, and it’s made that much more difficult by the little trickles of information that are released by the band members via the various social network sites – but you just have suck it up and bear the weight of the wait.
Just this past weekend, the prolific musician Trent Reznor made known to the general masses that he was nearing completion on the debut full-length album by How To Destroy Angels, the side project between him, his wife Mariqueen Maandig, Rob Sheridan, and friend/frequent collaborator Atticus Ross. The group released their first EP in the summer of 2010 to some mixed reviews, and I was under the impression that the EP was a one time thing. Shows how much I know, right?
Reznor has always been an exciting musician. He seems to be one of the ones who really wants to look out for his fans, which is awesome. I haven’t listened to all of his music, but I did enjoy the HTDA EP, and I have very high expectations for this upcoming album. We’ll keep you all informed as news is released. Cheers!
If it wasn’t already obvious, I love anything related to Trent Reznor. Nine Inch Nails, How To Destroy Angels, The Social Network film score with Atticus Ross; Trent’s been on a roll since he’s kicked drugs, going from depressingly goth to a forward thinking hero of geeks everywhere.
I’ll go as far as saying Year Zero is my favorite Nine Inch Nails record ever. Everything about this album was perfect: the concept was interesting, featuring an enthralling and brilliantly executed viral marketing campaign/alternate reality game. Not to mention, the music was absolutely amazing.
Not long after the album’s release, Trent threw around ideas about making Year Zero into some sort of miniseries or even a film, but nothing ever panned out and talk of the project died out. That was of course, until Trent spoke to the LA Times, saying that he is moving forward with the Year Zero miniseries. I think my heart suddenly picked up the pace.
“We are in [the development phase of] pre-production with HBO and BBC [Worldwide Productions] to do a miniseries,” Reznor said Monday. “It’s exciting. I probably shouldn’t say too much about it except that I understand that there’s a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It’s been an interesting and very educational process and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago and now we’re writing drafts back and forth. So it’s very much alive and incubating at the moment.”
Everything about this shows heaps of promise. HBO have, arguably, the best original programming around, with Bored To Death, Eastbound and Down, and Boardwalk Empire dominating my weekend DVR schedule. Add to that, a series based on one of my favorite concept albums of all time, and you have something worth turning on the TV for. The show airing on HBO means the writers have free range in terms of content; it’s not like HBO are likely to censor anything. And assuming Trent is closely involved with the show’s creation, the series adaptation will likely stay true to the record’s concept.
It really goes without saying, but it would be a bit disappointing if Trent doesn’t personally score the show. Obviously, the building blocks are all there, with both Year Zero and the remix album. It isn’t like Trent to ever half-ass anything, and judging by The Social Network, he can certainly create a soundtrack. Hell, best case scenario: perhaps this could bring about the oft thought about Year Zero 2? One could only hope my wild speculations could come to fruition.
I’ll leave you with the video for the album’s third track, “Survivalism.” I couldn’t find the uncensored video. Apparently YouTube won’t keep the version with gay sex in it. Go figure.
The much talked about How To Destroy Angels project featuring Trent Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross have a release date for their debut EP: Next week, June 1st. And not only that, in recent Reznor standard, there will be a free downloadable version available
We’re releasing our debut 6-track EP as a FREE download on June 1st. Pre-order now and get one track, “The Believers,” immediately. You’ll then be automatically emailed on June 1st as soon as the full EP download is ready. The EP will be delivered as high-quality DRM-free MP3s.
For $2, you can pre-order the HD package, which adds options for lossless audio (24-bit 44.1kHz WAV and 16-bit FLAC and Apple Lossless) and the music video for “The Space in Between” in 1080p Quicktime.
There are other packages available, including limited shirts and physical releases. The store is currently experiencing some high traffic loads, so as of the time of me writing this post, the page only loads about half the time, with the other half being just text and an audio player where you can stream “The Believers.” Also, according to the HTDA Twitter, vinyl will be available at some point, with a date to be announced. I’m going to be hitting that up for sure.
Here’s the track list for the EP:
01 – “The Space In Between”
02 – “Parasite”
03 – “Fur-Lined”
04 – “BBB”
05 – “The Believers”
06 – “A Drowning”
Again, free download of the EP next week, with the physical CD release available July 6th on Null Records. I can’t wait!
Fuck yeah, Trent knows how to please the fans.
