In a 2005 interview with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrang%21 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 internetrelated 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.