I guess it speaks to NIN at large in the past decade, but I hate how music videos have really all but stopped being a thing with NIN, and I'd love to see proper videos for stuff from NTAE. Something I've always liked about Broken was how every single main song from it had its own dedicated video and I'd love to see what they could make out of a Branches/Bones + Dear World video or a She's Gone Away video.
I wouldn't say it's stopped being a thing, at least not yet. I feel like Trent and Atticus probably felt that the EP speaks for itself, hence the lack of videos for it (the static video for "Burning Bright (Field On Fire)" seems to say "read whatever you want into this"). Hesitation Marks had a video (two if you count the unreleased video for "Everything"), so I don't think they've given up on the idea of doing them, but perhaps they were simply content to leave the EP be and not worry too much about promoting it.
The fact that there's been zero promotion for the EP makes me think more & more that a proper full-length with actual promotion is headed our way sooner rather than later. Maybe wishful thinking, but that's where I'm at.
Nottheactualevents.com currently has the words "fuck ody" on it now...
99% sure that this site has nothing to do with NIN (see my previous post here)
Last edited by arsenic; 04-16-2017 at 03:30 AM.
^^^Yeah, you could easily be right. Crazy that TR wouldn't snap up the domain name of his new album though. That's like Marketing 101.
i just love that it has the burning bright video embedded on it, behind the semi-opaque graphics
a friend forwarded a video of this goth chick lighting candles and opening this up with looming music. 1994 is alive and well.
God, this EP is just so fucking good -- the sound, the vocals, the production, the artwork, the everything. It's one of the best things they've ever done. The Idea of You and Burn Bright are perfect representations everything that sucked me into this band in the first place. They're gigantic, they're menacing, they're terrifying, they're defiant, and they're absolutely beautiful. It's all just so damn good. Easily my favorite thing they've released since Year Zero, and I feel way more comfortable saying that now that it's been a few months.
I'd also like to bring up that somehow this EP features Trent best vocal best performance in the entire discography, I don't know how the fuck he did that, but his voice never sounded this good, I had no idea he could still scream like this.
Not The Actual Events is really one of his best work. I personaly like it even more than Broken EP.
I'm with you there. It's way more dynamic and overall compelling than Broken despite being even shorter than Broken. I've always felt that the seething anxiety beneath the surface that come to the forefront in songs like Help Me I'm In Hell were more sincere rather than the in-your-face look-how-industrial-I-am-guys sound that songs like Gave Up put off (and Trent himself has since said felt less-than-authentic), whereas everything on NTAE feels very authentic and true to the general themes Trent's been exploring for ages now -- identity, age, isolation, feeling forgotten and only being noticed when you're at your most destructive, repetition, running out of things to say, inevitability, inability to escape from fate, separate selves and accountability for a version of yourself that doesn't feel "real," etc. It packs a whole lot into a really small space without ever feeling like it's trying to cover too much ground. It's just superb.
I've been listening to this EP regularly. I wasn't disapointed with Ghosts, Slip or Hesitation Marks, but they didn't stand out. It's not something I go back to a lot.
Dear World and The Idea of You are still my favorites.
@HWB @kleiner352
In spite of my obsession, adoration and awe over Broken, your comments favoring and extolling Not The Actual Events certainly made my day.
It's not just with Nine Inch Nails, but sometimes it seems like a mandatory unsaid/unwritten rule to always appreciate the older works a lot more than the newer ones. Granted, Broken's overall legendary status is still very well deserved and earned.
But it is a treat to see such opinions "Break through the surface and breath."
As for me, I'm certainly still very much satisfied myself, especially considering that the wait for it was only 3 years since Hesitation Marks came out. (Not to mention having the delivery of the physical component being actually fulfilled nonetheless.)
Nostalgia is a great way to blind people, the older stuff is the more immune to criticism it has become, it is alreadly accepted into the culture as a master piece and no one dares to question it.
Pretty Hate Machine isn't the best record by NIN by far for example, but normies would tell you that Pretty Hate Machine is "one of de best records from NIN alongside TDS and The Fraggle XDD" for no particular reason, when they say it I doubt they actually mean it with their own heads. Especially considering how different it is from those two albums
I hate how old music has become criticism free, it seems that by default older = better which is tiring me out. I am getting sick of "born in the wrong generation" thing too.
What Trent has done is impressive and mind blowing, it has been so many years since The Downward Spiral and to release something that actually is just as agressive, dirty and uncomfortable as that record is something that few months ago many of us would see as impossible, unreacheble task to give us such feeling ever again. This has been the biggest surprise Trent has ever done.
This record is so good in ways that shouldn't even be possible, how the fuck is Trent's voice and vocal delivery so good? How the fuck can he scream like that suddenly? How? How is he doing that?
Don't get me wrong I absolutely loved Hesitation Marks, but what is so surprising here is the fact that Hesitatio Marks is followed up by this.
"I am stronger than I have ever been in my decline" is very true, I can't imagine Trent from the past singing Burning Bright at all.
Last edited by HWB; 04-22-2017 at 05:40 AM.
Agree^^^! I still can't get over that this record was preceded by hesitation marks. The records are polar opposites.
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I can STILL throw this sonofabitch on every other day, every few days or so and I feel no particular urge to stop. I'm not tired of it. It's got some incredible staying power.
Sooooooo ... you guys received your vinyl copies I'm assuming?
During dear world, whenever the vocal refrain "i bet you didn't notice" is playing i always begin to hear "i bet youre listening" because of the the whispering behind the "i bet you didn't even notice" sound.
Last edited by Detunez; 05-05-2017 at 11:27 AM. Reason: its an odd habbit of me, typo fast, post, OH FUCKBALLS! edit!
Burning Bright feels like everything Black Noise was building towards at the end of Hesitation Marks before being cut off and swallowed whole.
It's almost six months later and I still feel so satisfied by this EP and find new things to love about it on every listen. I hope that Trent, Atticus and Friends, if they've been following fan reaction at all, have seen how much everyone here has gushed over it, because it's wonderful. Somehow there's more to chew on in this densely-packed thing of brevity than in the entirety of something like Hesitation Marks or The Slip (and I've always been a big proponent of HM overall). It's brilliant.