Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 2007
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Length
16 tracks
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 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. It was the band's last album for Interscope, following Reznor's departure the same year due to a dispute regarding overseas pricing.
A subsection of nin.com, yearzero.nin.com, was created and contained various things Year Zero-related. A companion piece to the album with remixes of nearly every track was released as Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D on November 20, 2007.
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 blog on The Spiral that the album was finished as of February 5, 2007. The album marks a new style of lyric writing for Reznor: "…for the first time in my life, I wanted to break away from the idea of opening up my journal and transferring that into song lyrics. And I really thought about what was at the forefront of my concern, and, at the state I'm at right now, at the age I'm at, just the state of being an American citizen, a lot of concern I have about the direction the country's headed in, and uh, kind of the erosion of freedoms that seems like we're experiencing, and the way we treat the world and our own citizens felt like something I needed to comment on."
Later, Reznor gave more details about its creation: "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 was 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)."
In advance of the album's release, URLs were hidden in tour t-shirts, music- and image-filled USB drives were 'found' at concerts, and dozens of websites have been packed with conspiracy stories that all involve the year 2022 or 'Year Zero.' Each clue is part of a cohesive whole, requiring a listener to follow an exhaustive web trail to grasp the entire tale. Focusing specifically on the music, "The Beginning of the End," the powerful first vocal track, is like the sonic and lyrical equivalent of an emotional ascension to a rollercoaster's peak, with the last few cacophonic seconds equaling the fall of individual freedoms. "Survivalism," Year Zero's first single, follows with guest vocalist/Slam artist Saul Williams pumping up the passion in its urgent chorus. While still industrial in genre, it's clear that Trent Reznor's musical evolution finds him bringing more mellow songs to the mix than he has on previous discs ("The Good Soldier," "The Greater Good," "In This Twilight") as well as an increased number of funk-affected rhythms, specifically in standout tracks "Capitol G" and "Me, I'm Not." Devotees of NIN's harder sound will appreciate the metallic crunch of "My Violent Heart" and "Meet Your Master." On the whole, the Nine Inch Nails we hear on Year Zero is less focused on producing heavy music and more focused on delivering its heavy, conspiratorial doomsday message.
An alternate reality game was constructed by Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan, then run in partnership with and developed by 42 Entertainment to provide listeners with a greater understanding of the album's concept. Reznor paid for the ARG himself, trying to keep it a secret from his record company as much as possible, stating: "What you are now starting to experience IS 'year zero'. It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form… and we're just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride." The game ran from roughly February 12, 2007 to May 2007, beginning when a string of mysterious websites was discovered around the internet related to the album; the game has since been nominated for two Webby Awards.
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 rumored, 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.
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