Bleed-through

'Bleed-through' (also referred to as 'bleedthrough' or 'bleed through') will be the name of the new album by Nine Inch Nails. It will be their fourth full studio album, the most recent of which was 1999's 'The Fragile.' It is Halo 18, being the 18th official NiN release, and little is known of it aside from its title (and even that is somewhat uncertain.)

While it was originally intended to be released by August 2004, it now looks unlikely that it will be released before Christmas. It will likely be released in late 2004, or early 2005. Trent Reznor, the genius behind Nine Inch Nails, is known for working on a 5 year cycle; and his fans are remarkable in that they are willing to wait such a long time between albums, making do with remixes and singles in the time between.

Reznor has described the new record as "minimal" and "brutal," and being far different from any NiN release to date. His approach to making it so different is to record it without using chords, and without any instrumental tracks. "It's more song-oriented than 1999's [The Fragile]," claimed Reznor. "It's much more lean. It's going to be twelve good punches in the face - no fillers, no instrumentals, just straight to the point."

Reznor also plans to take a less-edited approach to recording this new album. On the official Nine Inch Nails website (www.nin.com) he states 'Editing and correcting is avoided if possible, whole "takes" are encouraged as opposed to looping...' When asked why he chose not to include instrumentals, his response was that 'the dedicated instrumental side of Nine Inch Nails may be evolving into its own thing. I'm not sure yet.' A prospect that has excited a great many of his fans.

The descriptions of the new album sound as if it is a return to the more aggressive sounds of 1992's 'Broken' and 1994's 'The Downward Spiral', and the descriptions have evoked mixed feelings in the NiN fanbase. All of the material was written by Trent, and Atticus Ross aided in the arranging/programming process. When asked for a more specific release date all Reznor could say was 'as my good friends at id software say... "When it's done."'