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, released 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.

Trent Reznor 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

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

Album Credits

Writing and performance: Trent Reznor
Production: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Mix: Alan Moulder
Engineering: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder, Brett Bachemin, Doug Trantow, Alan Mason
Recorded all over the world
Mixed at Chalice Studios (Los Angeles, CA)
"Hyperpower!" drums and "Capital G" drums/brass/winds recorded at Capitol Studios (Hollywood, CA) with assistant engineer Steve Genewick
Mastering: Brian Gardener at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Hollywood, CA)

World building: Trent Reznor, Rob Sheridan
World integration and enhancement: 42, Alex Lieu, Jordan Weisman, Sean Stewart, Elan Lee, Johnny Rodriguez, Susan Bonds

Art direction: Rob Sheridan, Trent Reznor

"The Presence," "The Great Divide," "The Scorched Earth" by Hydraulx
Artist: Matthew Santoro
"The Hand Of Faith," "The Hand Of Desperation" by Rob Sheridan
Hair and makeup: Cori Bardo

Management: Rebel Waltz, Inc.

Booking: William Morris Agency
Business management: Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman
Legal: David Altschul, Zia Modabber
Sounding board: Marc Geiger
Coordination: Brett Bachemin
Assistance: Shaynee Lee Gordy

Thank you very much: Tiffany Andrews, Thavius Beck, Jeremy Berman, Brandi Booth, Steve "Coco" Brandon, Gus Brandt, Andrew "Hans" Buscher, Brad Child, Trevor Cole, Willie Cole, Alessandro Cortini, Jerome Crooks, CX Kidtronik, Zack de la Rocha, Robert Dorian, Vanessa Freebairn-Smith, Josh Freese, Valerie Geller, Andrew Grad, Jeff Greenberg, Josh Homme, Alissa Juarez, Pete Keppier, Darren Kroupa, Ana Lenchantin, Tamar Levine, Marie Lewis, Chandra Lynn, Jackie McPherson, Jessyca Estrada Meyer, Dustin Mosley, Pablo Motta, Jamie Myers, April Napier, Sara Newkirk, Aaron North, Valerie Pilinski, Nyke Prince, Michael Prowda, Stephen Rehage, Martin St. Pierre, Claudia Sarne, Chris Schleyer, The Solutions Backwards Initiative, Mark Stephen, Michael Sullivan, Todd Tiedemann, John Van Eaton, Jeordie White, Saul Williams, Irit Zarutsky
Ableton, Activision, Analogue Haven, Big City Music, DigiDesign, Guitar Center Hollywood, Izotope, Soundtoys, Line 5, Ohm Force, Metasonix, Native Instruments, The NIN Hotline, Nintendo of America, Rock-It Cargo, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.

Special thanks to Jimmy Iovine and everyone at Interscope.

Thank you for the extra effort: Eric Fermin, Larry Tull

Administered by Leaving Hope Music, Inc.

Highlighted Characters in CD Booklet

Within the printed lyrics there are several characters that a printed in a different color. They Spell out:

1. Hyperpower! [none... instrumental]
2. The Beginning Of The End ["five seven"]
3. Survivalism [none]
4. The Good Soldier ["seven five"]
5. Vessel ["seven three"]
6. Me, I'm Not ["seven five"]
7. Capital G ["seven two"]
8. My Violent Heart ["seven 0"]
9. The Warning ["two 0"]
10. God Given ["five three"]
11. Meet Your Master ["three a"]... was hard to read, "a" might not be one..
12. The Greater Good ["three"]
13. The Great Destroyer ["three nine"]
14. Another Version Of The Truth [none... instrumental]
15. In This Twilight ["three seven"]
16. Zero-Sum ["five seven"]

Regarding the leak

On April 1, 2007 a bootleg recording of the Chicago, Illinois listening party of March 18, 2007 surfaced on several peer-to-peer networks. The quality of the recording is very low and it is apparent that whoever made the recording did not have very good sound capturing equipment, presumably a cellphone.

On April 4, 2007 a high-quality leak of the promotional disc supplied to listening parties was also leaked onto peer-to-peer networks. Perhaps to counteract and discourage any piracy of the leak, the entire album was made available for free streaming on the album's official website later that afternoon. Shortly after the stream was made available, high-quality leaks found their way to various sites and P2P networks.

Perhaps in another response to the leak, Reznor commissioned Q101 in Chicago to play the entire album on their radio station.

It is widely regarded however that Reznor himself was responsible for leaking the album as a result of his unappreciation for RIAA's Cease & Desist warrants issued to various websites that hosted free downloads of the 4 USB "leaks". Reznor's own involvement with the leak, however, will always be speculation at best due to his own legal liability.

Things Found in Booklet

Survivalism- (on the police's shields) 17593 and 314547 (on right soldier's helmet) Control
Vessel- (in the blur that goes through the last lines and upside down) 13971
The Warning-(same page as the lyrics, just above where it blacks out) 314697 (on reverse near far edge)13971
God Given-(near base of statue) 174639
Meet Your Master- Strange symbol the resembles the Viability Index picture
The Greater Good- (in small pink box) 71364
The Great Destroyer- (upside down in the white area near the inside middle) 365697
Another Version of the Truth- Http:// found before the name of song