Don’t file those year-end lists just yet. Okay, we already did, but such is the music industry in 2016 — but even after comprehensive year end coverage, there’s still time for new music to drop just before the Dec. 31 buzzer. Nine Inch Nails announced a new EP last week and now they’ve shared a track from Not the Actual Events, a day ahead of its Dec. 23 release date.
Below, take a listen to “Burning Bright (Field on Fire),” a sampling from the project Trent Reznor and newly-minted “official bandmate” Atticus Ross have called “unfriendly” and “fairly impenetrable.” On it, Reznor hardly sings — mostly chants and yells — over a churning, mechanized beat that zaps just about all the melodicism present on “Came Back Haunted,” the lead single from NIN’s last album, 2013’s Hesitation Marks. They’ve described this one quite well.
In addition to the new EP, Nine Inch Nails is rolling out a grand scale re-issue campaign of its back catalog as 2016 draws to a close. Find more details on that from Billboard’s previous Nine Inch Nails story.