IN REVIEW: Nine Inch Nails - "Not the Actual Events"
It can't be coincidental that the cover of the newly released EP from Nine Inch Nails bears striking resemblance to that of the deluxe edition of And All That Could Have Been , the live album NIN released in 2002. That tour was for the 1999 album The Fragile , a vast and exploratory record that Trent Reznor and frequent collaborator turned full-time NIN member Atticus Ross have been listening to a lot lately; a reimagined version of that record was constructed as part of the massive NIN resissue campaign set to launch in 2017 (alongside, presumably, a new album). Not to say that the five new songs handed in to fulfill Reznor's promise of new NIN in 2016 completely mimic the music from The Fragile , but much of the mood and tone of that album is present on Not the Actual Events . Burning Bright (Field On Fire) is the closest cousin to The Day the World Went Away we're ever likely to get, while the plodding, percussive beat that buoys centerpiece She's Gone Away ca...