Listen To New NINE INCH NAILS Song 'Burning Bright (Field On Fire)'

After hinting last week that he might get some new NINE INCH NAILS music out before the year’s end as promised, Trent Reznor is making good on his word. A new five-song NINE INCH NAILS EP called “Not The Actual Events” has just been released digitally, on one-sided vinyl and as a “physical component.”

The fifth and final song from “Not The Actual Events” — a track called “Burning Bright (Field On Fire)” — can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.

Reznor said about the disc: “It’s an unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make. It’s an EP because that ended up being the proper length to tell that story.” The statement added that the EP will be “unrecognizable” from Reznor‘s recent soundtrack work with collaborator Atticus Ross, who is now a full-time NIN member.

“Not The Actual Events” track listing:

01. BranchesBones
02. Dear World,
03. She’s Gone Away
04. The Idea Of You
05. Burning Bright (Field On Fire)

Although the band’s web site doesn’t explain exactly what the “physical component” is, the image looks like a black rectangle.

The web site offers only a vague description that reads: “The intention of this record is for it to exist in the physical world, just like you. Choosing this package gets you the digital files and we will ship the proper physical component to your house for you to deal with.” The physical product will be out the week of January 1.

NINE INCH NAILS also announced the release of the four-LP vinyl set “The Fragile: Deviations 1”. This “unique version” of the 1999 album contains 37 instrumental, alternate and unreleased songs, many of which reportedly have never been released elsewhere. It’s due out in spring of 2017.

Reznor said about this set: “‘The Fragile’ occupies a very interesting and intimate place in my heart. I was going through a turbulent time in my life when making it and revisiting it has become a form of therapy for me.”

Reznor explained a while back that “The Fragile” was the culmination of a series of records that charted his mental state at the time. “I can look back now with clarity and see my first album was kind of ‘me against the world,'” he said. “And the second EP and then ‘Downward Spiral’ and ‘The Fragile’, self-loathing kind of entered the picture, and that also what was happening in my own head.”

For the new version of “The Fragile”, Reznor said, “As an experiment, I removed all the vocals from the record and found it became a truly changed experience that worked on a different yet compelling level… The result paints a complimentary but different picture we wanted to share.”

Reznor also revealed that he will issue “definitive editions” of all of NIN‘s major releases on vinyl starting next year.