Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been dwelling double lives for an excellent whereas now. Ever because the duo composed the rating for David Fincher’s The Social Community in 2010, they rapidly turned two of essentially the most in-demand musicians in Hollywood and TV – accompanying every thing from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PBS documentary Vietnam to the extra unbelievable likes of Disney-Pixar’s Soul. Parallel to this, after all, has been 9 Inch Nails’ storied musical legacy persevering with to stay (T)rent-free within the minds of youthful musicians.
Latest years have seen their affect change into so pervasive we’ve had 5 Seconds Of Summer time pay homage and Miley Cyrus overlaying Head Like A Gap. Halsey even recruited Trent and Atticus to supply the superb If I Can’t Have Love, I Need Energy.
What’s so thrilling proper now, nonetheless, is that these twin lives are lastly converging as TRON: Ares pulls the double shift of all double-shifts. Right here we’ve got a soundtrack to a blockbuster film and the primary new 9 Inch Nails album in 5 years all rolled into one. No strain.
Lead single As Alive As You Want Me To Be – one among 4 songs to function Trent’s singing – served as a superb declaration of intent. A world aside from the place NIN left off with 2020’s Ghosts VI: Locusts instrumental document and, say, the beautiful orchestration of 2024’s Queer soundtrack, it’s a digital firestorm of a track. Equally spectacular is simply how simply its lyrics dialling into TRON: Ares’ plot strands regarding synthetic life match into the broader NIN canon of alienation.
Astounding moments like this pile up. Goal Recognized’s stalking instrumental is a masterclass in tension-mounting dread, whereas A Query Of Belief would be the good soundtrack on your subsequent journey to the native fetish membership. Even if you suppose they is perhaps about to make a misstep when Infiltrator begins a bit too upbeat, some low-end pulsing synth throbs re-set the track’s coordinates squarely again to terror city.
