Year Zero

Halo 24: Year Zero

Year Zero (also known as Halo 24 or Year Zero: Zero-Gen-Ten in Japan) is the sixth studio album by Nine Inch Nails, due for release on April 13, 2007 in the UK and Europe, and April 17, 2007 worldwide, by Interscope Records. It was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor in collaboration with Alan Moulder and engineer Atticus Ross, both of whom worked in a similar capacity on Nine Inch Nails' previous major studio release, With Teeth. Mastering was done by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner.

In a 2005 interview with Kerrang!, Reznor expressed his intentions to write material for a new release during the With Teeth tour, and it was confirmed that he was working on it by September 2006. Year Zero began its mixing stage in January of 2007, and Reznor stated on his Spiral blog that the album was finished as of February 5, 2007.

A string of mysterious websites are being discovered around the internet related to the album. Learn more at the Year Zero Research page.

Some time late April 3rd or April 4th, Year Zero was made available to listen to through a flash player. The album has also leaked on the Internet around the same date.

Trent on Year Zero

"This record began as an experiment with noise on a laptop in a bus on tour somewhere. That sound led to a daydream about the end of the world. That daydream stuck with me and over time revealed itself to be much more. I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don't. This record is the latter. Once I tuned into it, everything fell into place... as if it were meant to be. With a framework established, the songs were very easy to write. Things started happening in my "real" life that blurred the lines of what was fiction and what wasn't. The record turned out to be more than a just a record in scale, as you will see over time.

Part one is year zero. Concept record. Sixteen tracks. All written and performed by me, produced / programmed by me and Atticus Ross, mixed by Alan Moulder, mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner. Release date: April 17, 2007.

What's it about? Well, it takes place about fifteen years in the future. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you'll have an idea of the backdrop. The world has reached the breaking point - politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, "year zero" examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth. How does it sound? You will hear for yourself soon enough, but given the point of this document is to provide information...

This record is much more of a "sound collage" than recent efforts from me.

A lot of it was improvised.

It is very tedious describing your own music.

It's not just music.

It's probably too long, but it felt like the right thing to do to paint the complete picture.

It will sound different after a few listens.

You can think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting.

You can dance to a lot of it.

You can fuck to a lot of it (maybe all of it depending on what you're into)[1]."

Track listing

1. "Hyperpower!" – 1:42
2. "The Beginning Of The End" – 2:47
3. "Survivalism" – 4:23
4. "The Good Soldier" – 3:23
5. "Vessel" – 4:53
6. "Me, I'm Not" – 4:52
7. "Capital G" – 3:50
8. "My Violent Heart" – 4:19
9. "The Warning" – 3:38
10. "God Given" – 3:50
11. "Meet Your Master" – 4:08
12. "The Greater Good" – 4:52
13. "The Great Destroyer" – 3:17
14. "Another Version Of The Truth" – 4:09
15. "In This Twilight" – 3:33
16. "Zero-Sum" – 6:14

Year Zero Research

• Year Zero Research