ARTIST: How To Destroy Angels
ALBUM TITLE: How To Destroy Angels
RECORD LABEL: Null Corporation (Self-Released)
RELEASED: June 1

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

So anyone reading this who actually believed Trent Reznor when he said he was taking a long break from music, go put on your dunce hat and sit in the corner for being ridiculous. You are a ridiculous person, now you get time out. For the rest of us waiting for his next move, it’s here, and it’s free (more on that ‘free’ bit later…).

How To Destroy Angels is the Nine Inch Nails frontman’s latest musical project. Consisting of himself and longtime collaborator/bandmate Atticus Ross, along with Reznor’s wife, Mariqueen Maandig, handling vocals, it is the next evolutionary step from Nails’ last album, The Slip, mixed with some of Year Zero’s more abrasive beat-driven moments.

The eponymous six song EP gives a brief taste of what to expect from the band. While I could spout off a couple of paragraphs describing the music, that wouldn’t do the service that saying that this sounds pretty much like latter day Nine Inch Nails with a slight pinch of Portishead thrown in for good measure. Whether she was trying to or not, Maandig sounds eerily like a female version of Reznor when he does his quiet, contemplative singing style.

Photo from wikipedia.org

Haunting keyboard lines cuddle up against pulsating, sometimes danceable beats, and Maandig wisely plays to her strengths, giving a breathy, subdued performance. The EP’s pacing is done so in a manner that builds up tension, peaking at the disco-esque “Fur Lined”, only to gradually phase out with the piano and static laden “A Drowning”.

It will be hard for Reznor to ever completely ditch comparisons to NIN, especially when he’s still making music that falls in line with his former band, but I’m of the opinion that it’s better that an artist does what he does well rather than fail at something different just for the sake of looking or sounding different.

While rumors abound that The Slip wasn’t actually the final, er, nail in the coffin, and that NIN will continue as a studio-only project, at least we have something new to enjoy from the man who is always keeping his fans guessing his next move.

Adopting a status quo that he’s been using since his record deal with Interscope  disintegrated, the EP is free and will have a domestic release on cd on July 6, with a vinyl release coming in the near future. To get the album for free, go here. All you have to do is enter your email address. For audiophiles, $2 will get the EP in your choice of three forms of lossless audio (24-bit 44.1kHz WAV, 16-bit FLAC, Apple Lossless), as well as a music video for “The Space in Between”, or you can buy some merch and get the hi-def version for free.

RATING: 9/10

For more information, visit their website here.

Front page photo from myspace.com.