Nine Inch Nails share "God Break Down The Door"

Nine Inch Nails recently revealed that they’d be completing the trilogy that began with 2016’s Not The Actual Events and 2017’s Add Violence with Bad Witch on June 22. Now, the first taste of the new record is here: “God Break Down The Door.” It’s a dark, out-there song with a pounding rhythm section, a more crooning vocal from Trent Reznor than usual, and a nice helping of sax.

NIN premiered the song on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show and Trent spoke to Zane about Bad Witch, which was supposed to be an EP like Not The Actual Events and Add Violence, but grew into an LP. Trent said:

Let me drop some cryptic information on you. The idea of this three EP thing was all too find truth in us figuring out who we are now and how we fit into the world. The first E.P. Not the Actual Events was meant to be a personal angry self-destructive of reflection on that question and defining how I feel in a world, it feels stranger, part of that’s aging. Part of that’s because the world is getting weirder. Finding your place in a world that looks different every day little bit changes and reacting to that in the first EP through anger and self-destruction and sitting alone setting a match to your life.

The second E.P. Add Violence was meant to the same question. But looking for answers externally. Maybe it’s because of this and there’s comfort in that. Maybe there’s a reason things feel kind of crazy and it’s not that I’m insane that I’m in a situation that’s insane.

There was the third EP which has grown into an LP (Bad Witch.) It was coming to one final look at that question from rejecting what the number two says that it wasn’t an easy answer. It’s not it’s not we I can’t point at that as a formula and that’s what it was. And that the entire system has a much more bleak and pessimistic outlook and I want to say too much because it gives away kind of the what the thing is. But it wasn’t necessarily what we thought it was going to be when we started. I thought it was going to go more science fiction. I don’t really want to overwhelm you with cleverness and deep diving and part of that felt like an arms race and it also felt like a cop out.

As mentioned, Nine Inch Nails are also going on a fall tour with the legendary Jesus & Mary Chain opening, and Trent also talked to Zane about how NIN opened for JAMC back in the day:

TRENT REZNOR: We were thinking about bands to tour with and I’ve always loved Jesus & Mary Chain. I’ve got some history with them. The first real tour we ever played as Nine Inch Nails we opened for them. The good place in my heart of the good old days when life was simpler. They were cool. I love Jesus & Mary Chain, always had. The years before that, when Psycho Candy was out, they played the Fantasy Theater in Cleveland. We were rehearsing in the Fantasy, the upstairs is a nightclub. My manager at the time, his girlfriend ran the club and that’s where we would rehearse and we would hang out. The night of the Jesus & Mary Chain show, This is where they were only guaranteed to play eight minutes. You remember way back. They were frantic, they were about to go on we were upstairs just finishing rehearsal in a closed nightclub. And Michelle the owner, says “quick quick quick emergency, you guys have a drumstick? They only brought two and they’ve lost one and they’re not going on if they can’t find one.” We did have a drumstick. So we saved the show.

ZANE LOWE: Have you ever told that story.

TRENT REZNOR: Maybe I have. They also played the longest they’d ever played, it was I think 12 minutes.

The tour includes two-night stands at Colorado’s Red Rocks (9/18 & 9/19), NYC’s Radio City Music Hall (10/13 & 10/14), Boston’s Boch Center (10/19 & 10/20), Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom (10/25 & 10/26), and more, plus a four-night stand at LA’s Palladium (12/7, 12/8, 12/11 & 12/12). The only way to get tickets is in person at the box office this Saturday (5/19) (and Sunday, 5/20 at the Denver Coliseum box office for Red Rocks). More info on the tickets HERE.

NIN also added openers to the tour (in addition to JAMC, who are on all dates). Support varies by date and includes TOBACCO, Kite Base, Daniel Avery, Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor), Death in Vegas and HMLTD. All dates are listed, with who opens which date, below.

Listen to the new NIN song:

Nine Inch Nails — 2018 Tour Dates
06/13 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
06/15 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
06/16 Las Vegas, NV The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
06/22 London Meltdown Festival
06/24 London Royal Albert Hall
06/25 Paris Olympia
06/27 Amsterdam AFAS
06/29 St Gallen Open Air Fest
06/30 Prague Aerodrome Festival
07/02 Berlin Zitadelle
07/04 Roskilde DK Roskilde Festival
07/06 Belfort Eurokennes Festival
07/08 Werchter Rock Werchter Festival
07/09 Montreux Montreux Jazz Festival
07/12 Lisbon NOS Alive Festival
07/14 Madrid Mad Cool Festival
08/14 Bangkok Moonstar Studio
08/17 Tokyo Sonic Mania Festival
08/19 Osaka Summer Sonic Festival
09/22 San Antonio, TX River City Rockfest
09/13 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre TOBACCO
09/14 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre TOBACCO
09/18 Morrison, CO Red Rocks TOBACCO
09/19 Morrison, CO Red Rocks TOBACCO
09/24 Memphis, TN Orpheum Theater TOBACCO
09/26 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre TOBACCO
09/27 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre TOBACCO
09/29 Nashville, TN Ascend Amphitheater TOBACCO
10/09 Washington, DC The Anthem Kite Base
10/13 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall Kite Base
10/14 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall Daniel Avery
10/19 Boston, MA Boch Center Daniel Avery
10/20 Boston, MA Boch Center Daniel Avery
10/22 Detroit, MI Fox Theater Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor)
10/23 Detroit, MI Fox Theater Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor)
10/25 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor)
10/26 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom Death in Vegas
11/23 New Orleans, LA Saenger Theatre Kite Base
11/24 New Orleans, LA Saenger Theatre Kite Base
11/27 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory Daniel Avery
11/28 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory Daniel Avery
12/03 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Auditorium HMLTD
12/07 Los Angeles, CA Palladium Death in Vegas
12/08 Los Angeles, CA Palladium Death in Vegas
12/11 Los Angeles, CA Palladium HMLTD
12/12 Los Angeles, CA Palladium HMLTD

9/13 – 12/12: with The Jesus and Mary Chain