I'm a huge fan of this trilogy and think it's as interesting and good as anything Trent's ever done potentially but I expect nothing more than another EP out of it. As cool as the reworked full album idea sounds, I feel like once they're done with this material they'll naturally want to move onto something else rather than obsess back over it, and it sounds a lot like the kind of "cool concept that I'm overpromising on right now because it has my imagination going in this particular instance" vibe that so many of the abandoned NIN projects have had (the With Teeth special packaging and essay, the Fragile surround mix, the Tension blu-ray that overgrew into a multi-film project that then got shelved, etc.). If we get it I'll be thrilled and surprised but if not I won't be shocked at all.
I'm hoping the next EP blends the sound of the past two together. Each one felt like a great presentation of a specific side of NIN and to combine the two would be really interesting.
After hearing that last radio interview where TR mentioned that the 3rd EP was taking longer to make and for it to reveal itself than they had initially anticipated, I think you are right. And I think you hit the nail on the head as far as TR being excited in the moment when announcing projects that fizzle out or just never come to fruition (like the examples you provided and, you know, Tapeworm). But even if the rearranged album-format idea he suggested last year doesn't become a reality and they instead decide to focus their efforts and energies on the future and the next evolution of NIN, I'm even more excited to see what that will be, so bring it on! After the breath of fresh air that these two EPs have been, I'm VERY excited to see what a new NIN album could sound like in 2019 (or 2021)!
I agree. I'd be fascinated to hear an in-depth interview with Trent and Atticus once this whole project has come to an end. Maybe they've even been filming it for a documentary or something? (bit of wishful thinking there) - But yes, it would of course be interesting to see how a combined album would pan out, but I full expect things to come to an end once the third EP does arrive. On the first point made there - I really do believe that creatively Nine Inch Nails is in a really good place right now, and the two EPs have panned out so much better than I think anyone expected. I just hope that in doing things this way they haven't put too much pressure on themselves because there are (I think) some rather high expectations for how things project will be concluded.
From what has been said they are trying to keep a looseness to this period of recording, which has - on record - been really successful, but I still don't understand what has happened with any potential ARG type event. It seems to me that there was supposed to be something happening, but either it fell through entirely, ended up being a touch too ambitious, or just as likely was intended to be frustratingly vague just to wind people up and maintain interest but with no real outcome planned. Personally I'm not bothered about 'playing the game', but I am fascinated in the ideas behind it all.
Regardless - here's hoping we definitely do have something new by June. Tell you what though - I'd be stoked if they do knock something out at the early shows before it's actually released. When was the last time Nine Inch Nails played new material before it had been officially released? Back to Year Zero I guess.
TR/NIN has always tried to do cool things with new tech. I wonder if he would ever consider VR as a way of interacting with the overall experience. I mean we have all seen music videos, Closure, flipped through booklets, flipped through (ghost) books, browsed websites, watch their CD change colour, got dust on our hands, NIN APP, some lucky people got survival boxes, logarithmic spectrometer image... etc...
Imagine if there was a VR experience for something upcoming? Imagine how creepy a 'CBH' VR experience would be...
^^
It's probably only a matter of time before concerts start being filmed and streamed in VR.
i fucking hate VR and augmented reality. i realize this is an old man yells at cloud moment, but as someone who works with audio/video for my day job, and really appreciates a good sound system and a great television, i just can't stand that shit. i also think 3D is mostly stupid. until i can walk on to a holodeck and actually interact with everything in the simulated environment, i don't give a shit.
/rant
Well, that's kind of like saying Pulp Fiction isn't a movie because the scenes aren't shown in the order they happened. The broadest definition of "concept album" is ""an album in which its tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually," which can be applied to almost any NIN album and arguably the majority of albums out there. So all I'm saying is that most people who use the term "concept album" are referring to the very small number of albums where the songs work together to tell a specific story, i.e. Tommy or Outside where characters and plot points are referenced within the songs. You could even go so far as to say Year Zero doesn't qualify for the strictest definition of the term, as the songs don't really reference the narrative directly (rather the narrative serves more as a backdrop to a collection of songs inspired by it), but that's obviously getting needlessly strict with the definition.
So again, I think when people ask "will this trilogy combine to be a concept album?," the question is not about whether the songs will all work together thematically (which it's already obvious they do - I like the way Zane Lowe said the first two EP's "talk to each other"), but rather the question is whether or not the third EP will fill in the blanks to tell a clear story. It's unlikely 5 or 6 songs could do that on their own, but the ARG/YZ references surrounding Add Violence suggest we might at the very least get a website or some other supplemental material to flesh out the narrative.
I would expect an announcement about “EP3” late April or early May.
Yeah... as much as I want it to come out in a couple of weeks, June seems more likely.
We got the AV single a week before the release. So we might get a song or two released a week before 6/13. Earlier could also be a possibility depending on what happens. Trent mentioned in an interview for AV that he released that single the moment it was done being mixed and explained he doesn't pre-plan releases and just puts them out as they're done. So really it could drop any time between now and June. Who knows.
I totally get you with having to constantly check back. We have actually had an announcement that the EP will "probably" be out sometime before the shows in London, although that's not particularly specific.
We should get some kind of news within the next 6 weeks. I hope we won't have another With Teeth situation where the album came out after the initial club tour. That was exciting but it was also weird to try to digest the live versions of the songs before absorbing the studio versions.
Calling it now, it'll be out on my birthday May 30th because Trent loves me...
Guys.
June.
Since we know EP3 will be out in the next two months, I can handle this wait. What I can't stand is when there's no timeline, no info, and TR is vague about EVERYTHING he's working on.
6/7/2018 4:01 AM Pacific