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Nine Inch Nails Concept Album Builds Story With Websites From The Future

anotherversionofthetruth.com — A set of websites have emerged in support of the new Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero". The first of the sites was discovered by fans who noticed highlighted letters on the back of a nine inch nails shirt for a tour that kicked off this weekend. This led to the discovery of various IP addresses and an entire story of the future built through sites.

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  • analogvoid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+139more info from echoingthesound.org

    a group called "42 Entertainment" was hired by Trent to do some marketing stuff.

    They have set up the following web sites (so far):
    http://iamtryingtobelieve.com
    - first discovered. about some weird chemical or something. probably metaphorical.

    http://bethehammer.net/
    - appears to be a resistance site.

    http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/
    - click and drag. Has two audio files:
    - http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/opalo.mp3
    - http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/ballgameOver.mp3
    -also has one forum: http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/forum.htm

    http://105thairbornecrusaders.com/
    - soldiers of God under the US Flag

    http://churchofplano.com/
    - Church site.

    http://deadcop-opal.com/
    - Yet to be set up.
    • CancerBomb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31A link to the thread explaining this in above referenced site:

      http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=20265&sid=f23daf9eac511945a7971825d9ec181b
    • AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31the churchofplano one says "Sunday, February 13th" on it, the next feb, 13th on a sunday is 2011

      very strange stuff
    • AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22sorry for double post, but it's either 2011, 2022, 2028 or 2033
    • CraigB12, on 10/12/2007, -77/+5Awsome camgirl video to Closer by NIN (NSFW)

      http://www.pornotube.com/media.php?m=11187
    • treed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Just found this: http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/citizen_unknown/

      Although this is more interesting:

      http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/
    • VipeNess, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13yeah well... if you liked donnie darko... you can check out his new movie, which the website is a mystery itself...

      http://southlandtales.com/
    • bat-21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3First the seed0 stuff and now this. Trent's on some mad tear.
    • timdorr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26BTW, 42 Entertainment is the same company that did I Love Bees for Halo 2.
    • zzepperr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3At the end of the mp3's there is Morse code in the white noise. My code is pretty rusty, but I think it is "24.10.3". Whatever that means.

      Cool stuff.
    • moglenstar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@zzepperr:

      perhaps 24.10.8?

      if you select the whole page on http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/ that text is at the bottom, below the flash :)

      looks like a release date to me, but if it is.. 24th/october/2008 seems a long way away :(
    • Vision2098, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1So... is this a true ARG or just an elaborate puzzle hiding a release date?
    • sych0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Guys, the release date has already been announced on nin.com. April 17th

      http://www.nin.com/current/index.html
    • RogerH, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1It sounds like morse code at the end of the "ballgame over" mp3. Anyone fluent?
    • petroK, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2ARG FTW!!!!1!
    • Billdozer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5on the 'bethehammer' site, if you highlight all of the text under 'killing' you can see some green text overlayed that reads 24.10.7.
    • Billdozer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5also at this site

      http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/#

      If you try to click the links, an error pops up with another similar number (24.10.4)

      Though I'm sure most of you smarty pants people have already realized this. w00t!
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14The numbers you guys are coming up with are Bible verses, not dates relating to anything in the real world.
      The new album (Year Zero) is a concept album based upon a bleak 1984-esque future, and all of these websites revolve around the concept of the album.

      I'm getting very excited.
    • xGORDOx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm guessing it is Trent's own "Brave New World", or so it would seem based on the context of all the sites.
      Anyone agree?
    • distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5OP missed an MP3: http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/nohurry.mp3
    • Pharamond2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Two things:
      1) I don't think Trent Reznor is claiming that he's the first person to come up with an idea like this.
      2) If people want to get all technical over the definition of "industrial" music, I think throbbing Gristle probably gets the props for starting it. Reznor begrudgingly accepts that people call NIN "industrial" even though he and real industrial artists say it's not.

      And hey guys, this stuff is fun and thought provoking. Let people play.
    • spliffy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1not to discredit trent, but not only did he not start industrial music like he has never claimed to have, he "directly lifted" multiple songs for his first record. skinny puppy (dig it) and depche mode come to mind.
    • alteratti, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@CraigB12
      why would you even bother to do that?
    • timbtwisted, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5To those Industrial music fans out there that seem to be outraged by the attention Trent gets you can all settle down. For one Trent has never said that he started Industrial and I don't rcall him ever calling his music Industrial either. He enjoys the mixing and assemling layers to his music, it's as simple as that. Anything else said connecting NIN to industrial music has been said by others. Trent has been influenced by Industrial bands though. I am really excited to hear this album though, sounds like it's a departure from anything he's done in the past.
    • bmeckel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1creppy stuff, but too bad their all set up by the ad agency
    • MeatBiProduct, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1all this hype for another album that will fall flat on its face. poor trent - after pretty hate machine you really lost perspective.
    • joymode, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1
      "found in men's bathroom, stall 4, coliseum, lisbon, portugal
      another version of the truth .com

      "I went to concert in Lisbon and found a flash drive on the men's bathroom in the stall.
      I went home, noticed it had a code and found out that it was part of this game! "



      http://www.sendspace.com/file/0jsdw9
    • l0tharnt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.ninwiki.com/Year_Zero_Bible_References
  • ntransit, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16Very cool. I recommend everyone check this out.
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -283/+11Well I would, but Nine Inch Nails is a good demonstration on how ***** music is, and how talentless mainstream music is.
    • ahhell, on 10/12/2007, -23/+68NIN is mainstream music???
    • creep303, on 10/12/2007, -8/+88@EricCiccone

      And I suppose YOU have done something as productive, artistic and enigmatic in the last 15-16 years to warrant such a comment?

      By no means am I a hardcore Nine Inch Nails fan, but when I see comments by people like you who have the grandiose end-all-be-all opinion on the internet to movies, music, tech, etc etc, it really makes me wish people would back up their claims with either substantial proof or logical reasoning.

      But then again, you're shrouded by the ever so comforting anonymity of the Internet, thus giving you the most valued and final opinion about anything, ever.
    • Frozenpython, on 10/12/2007, -4/+56Wow EricCiccone... You obviously have no idea WTF you are talking about....
    • schnoggi, on 10/12/2007, -114/+8oh suck it, NIN is such played out demographically-targeted fluff. who cares...ooooh! they got viral marketing right! yawn.
      so radical....so intense...do that thing where you stick out your bottom teeth and growl like a monster, wow so cool. we'll never understand your pain. so deep.

      digg me down twits.
    • TheKricket, on 10/12/2007, -5/+110lets see - the guy bitching about mainstream music has the friggin grateful dead skull as his avatar...

      sweet irony...
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -3/+68"Your god is dead and no one cares. If there is a hell I'll see you there."

      Top 40.
    • merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -42/+25"NIN is mainstream music???"

      Yes. Anything that gets play on MTV and clearchannel is mainstream.
    • FishPoisonCon, on 10/12/2007, -17/+33"NIN is mainstream music???"

      uh.. ya... this hasn't been argued since i was in 9th grade (that's 1994, btw)
    • StatusWoe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33There is such a thing as collateral fanage, this goes for a lot of artists.

      If you make good music, people who like it will tell other people,,, these other people may suck and eventually if enough people like it you are labeled commercial and immediately lose any sort of credibility on the Internet except for people who actually like music and not just the sense of self worth that comes with being "underground".

      P.S. I'm not personally much of a NIN fan, I just hate ppl that trash music just for being commercially-known.
    • TheWalkingDude, on 10/12/2007, -29/+9I like NIN, I just hope they don't go heavy with the political messages. Part of the reason I listen to music is to escape that.
    • crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -6/+24bleh, ***** replying to that asshat. digg me down.
    • eamonchaney, on 10/12/2007, -11/+41Trent is God. And I am not talking about his radio *****. When he released The Fragile everyone got pissed off because it wasn't hard rocking like Head like a hole, or Wish or Closer. But these are only the initial offered lollypop of a man about to throw you into the back of his van and show you what he is really about: Hurt, Ringfinger, Ruiner, A Violet Fluid and the vast majority of the Fragile. This album is not the Trent that made it to MTV and radio. This is the man you / I fell in love with after we bought the cd and listened to it so much we could enjoy it without the presence of stereos.

      Big deal if it's a viral campaign, at least at the end of it we're not going to get a F'n Nickelback P.O.S. CD. You know it will be good.

      (was that a little too dark up there?)
    • PresidentSoup, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@EricCiccone

      Opinions are like assholes.

      @TheWalkingDude

      Ever look at the lyrics to "Hand that feeds" ?
    • gallagherFTW, on 10/12/2007, -9/+31The Fragile is their best album eamonchaney. It's nice to see good 90s acts like NIN still together...especially now that the Smashing Pumpkins new album is coming out 07-07-07. Digg me up if you fancy 90s alternative :)
    • EricCiccone, on 10/12/2007, -51/+1@creep303

      Actually as a musician I know I am contributing more to music by: writing lyrics that have depth, subtlety, and meaning, creating music that does not remain in a single key nor count, and improvising songs.

      Thats alot more than what Nine Inch Nails can say for themselves.
    • joeshlub, on 10/12/2007, -17/+12Calling NIN mainstream is definitly just trolling. Trent created the entire genre of industrial metal, and while some singles of his have gotten quite some popularity, his body of work is absolutely massive.

      Most of his music would never touch the airwaves. Listening to NIN doesn't mean that you heard "Only" on your local rock station. It means actually delving into over a decade of musical exploration.
    • ativke, on 10/12/2007, -19/+4Al Jourgensen made "industrial metal" while Trent was still gaying it up with ***** like Purest Feeling.
    • TheKricket, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13wow - only an arrogant self-serving prick would ever refer to his/her own body of work as having "depth, subtlety, and meaning" - boy, someone is REALLY high on themselves...

      or just plain high - "its like, woah dude, my music really means something - people totally feel it, man - i mean, really..."
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Trent didn't... Ministry did. When NINs first album Pretty Hate Machine came out, which was more of a dark synthpop album, Ministry had already "created" the genre of industrial metal about a year earlier.
      That said.. if NIN is mainstream, then I guess Nirvana was too. Didn't you hate how commercial and fake their material was? /sarcasm
    • bat-21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13First, someone should tie EricCiccone to a chair and make him watch Broken over and over again.
      Second, no one person or group is responsible for industrial. It evolved from the punk movement and electronica (ex. Kraftwerk, Wendy Carlos) that were emerging at the same time in the 1970s.
    • Netmindstorm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Let's not forget one of Ministry's early albums "With Sympathy" (I know they wanted to): http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=8438
    • SPLASTiK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3NIN isn't mainstream? Maybe not so much anymore... but even Trent Reznor was in TIME Magazine as one of the USA's most influential people in the 90's... Not to mention that 10+ million albums they've sold and several top 10 albums on the US Charts...

      They may not be mainstream in the Britney Spears sense but they sure as hell aren't an "underground" band. You can even buy their albums at Wal-Mart...
    • Misogyny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4NIN didn't create Industrial music, but neither did Ministry. Go back a little farther and check out Skinny Puppy and farther yet, Throbbing Gristle. Enjoy.
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I was referring to industrial metal. I know Ministry didn't "create" industrial, or even industrial metal for that matter... but they were among the first bands to be indentified with that genre.. Obviously there were other bands in that era that helped developed the sound, but if you can show me an album before The Land of Rape and Honey that indentied as industrial metal, then I will have to look into it. :)
    • spliffy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4@raithetarkon

      both nirvana and nine inch nails made the decision to promote their music to the masses when they signed on a major label. yes that makes them both "commerical and mainstream".
    • LACHRYMIST, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4"Actually as a musician I know I am contributing more to music by: writing lyrics that have depth, subtlety, and meaning, creating music that does not remain in a single key nor count, and improvising songs."

      I bet its people like "EricCiccone" who get kicked off American Idol and cry on TV.
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@spliffy
      In that sense I would agree that they are "commercial and mainstream". My reaction was largely in response to the attitudes of EricCoccone, who seemed to suggest that NIN was on par with groups like simple plan because they were both mainstream. He seemed to think that mainstream music is by default totally void of artistic value when in reality it depends on the artist.
    • BoyWithBigHands, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@ EricCiccone -

      PLEASE, OH PLEASE - I'm begging you to link some of your brilliant music for all of us to hear. I know we'd all love to hear the brilliance that is EricCiccone, and with the internets being such a useful tool for disseminating music these days, pllllllease share with us.

      your lyrics have depth and meaning...which should have been taken for granted, since judging from your icon Jerry Garcia is your big influence ("Truckin" anyone? lyrical genius.)...

      and musically you're able to shift time signatures AND modulate from one key to another?????? incredible. i've only once before heard of such a thing. i had a friend back in high school that could do that used to be able to do that on the piano; he's since been raptured off the face of the earth so as not to make others feel small.

      hell, i bet you can even read music!

      please. i'm begging you. you've spoken up about your greatness with the benefit of anonymity; let us hear some of your music. there's no excuses - even if you don't have a site, myspace is free. upload a few for us. i'd love to hear ya get from one key to another, or if we're lucky, play in an odd time signature. blow our minds.

    • g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2KMFDM founded Industrial. Not that Al Jourgensen and Trent Rezner were too far behind.
    • celtickuja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@EricCiccone

      "writing lyrics that have depth, subtlety, and meaning" That's all a matter of perspective
      "creating music that does not remain in a single key nor count" A song can change key 3 times and time signature 5 times and still be crap
      "and improvising songs." We're talking about someone I'm sure you've never seen live, so you wouldn't know an ounce of their improvisational skills
      "Thats alot more than what Nine Inch Nails can say for themselves." How much NIN have you REALLY listened too? Enough to truly make that claim? I doubt it.
  • zero01101, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22this is by far the most interesting crap i've read/heard/been freaked out by in weeks.
    so engrossing.
    ballgameover.mp3 + intense midwest blizzard = creeeeepy.
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Same here. I'm in DC and it's snowing/sleeting like a mofo. I listened to the same mp3 and at the end the normal cop sirens that you hear in DC blended with the mp3 and I couldn't tell where one started and the other ended. I actually thought the sirens were on the mp3 until I realized the mp3 had ended... 2 minutes before.

      As for the album: I. Can't. Wait.
  • TheKricket, on 10/12/2007, -6/+46as if i wasnt creaming my pants enough just hearing that trent and co. were coming out with a new album

    finally - someone gets this "viral marketing campaign stuff" right...
    • sych0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14in under 5 years no less :)

      Im psyched
  • ericthegreat, on 10/12/2007, -19/+2Sweet! I didn't even know he was touring again. I was too drunk to remember seeing NIN (2 days after my 21st bday)
  • gossipninja, on 10/12/2007, -18/+7why does NIN need a viral campaign? also one of those sites talks about year zero taking place after a nuke strike on tehran, iran. Given reznor takes so long between albums, this could be entirely true.
  • endtime, on 10/12/2007, -34/+6Blah blah blah, diggity ding dong crap. Adolescent "I'm-fighting-The-Man-by-digging-this-marketing-for-a-CD" *****.

    I like NIN but this is kind of stupid.
  • xDFuNK, on 10/12/2007, -5/+48Trent has been doing unique stuff forever, and this concept is cool as hell imo
    • unbreakable177, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1This isn't anything really unique. The Smashing Pumpkins did this 7 years ago with their concept album MACHINA: The Machines of God. There was a contest to see who could best describe the story and it even went as far as an online animated series with some characters created by fans. There's a pretty good tribute to it at: http://www.myspace.com/gatmogfans
  • PFinn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10This is a really cool twist to advertising that will be really interesting to follow along with.... i cant wait to see what Reznor has to say about all this after the cd finally comes out
    • rationalist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The first significant ARG (Alternative Reality Game) to be heavily based on the Web was nicknamed "The Beast", a promo for Stephen Spielberg's AI movie. 42 Entertainment, who are behind the NIN promo, also did the aforementioned I Love Bees (Halo promo) and have done other similar projects. Nokia supported ARGs in Europe for years. They are a talented bunch.

      If you want to learn more about the genre, you should check out http://cloudmakers.org/ the archive for the fan discussion group that self-assembled in order to collaboratively solve the massive AI Web puzzle. It had multiple starting points, but letters highlighted on the back of a movie poster was one of them. Ultimately, tens of thousand of people participated and reading the archives is a fascinating look into the birth of a new genre of collaborative online entertainment. Several TV series have run ARGs in parallel, with mixed success, including Alias and Lost.

      Not all ARGs are promotional adverts, by any means. Many are collaborative labors of love. It is important, IMO, to make sure the commercial ventures don't swallow or swamp the indie efforts (as is the case in every frickin' media).

      There is a meta-site for online collaborative ARG fans and all things ARG-related, http://www.argn.com/

      Disclaimer: though I am vaguely in the biz, I am unaffiliated with 42 Entertainment or NIN and have no connection with the current NIN promotional game or any of the sites I mentioned, so this is not astroturfing nor a planted clue of some kind, just friendly resource-sharing. I'm also a Reznor fan and think this one could be fun, so back to clue-solving and other detective work.
    • heatmizuh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Man, that brings back some good memories. I was one of the originals over at Cloudmakers and got a solve a decent number of puzzles to help the group effort. If you do a search in the documentation and the Trail and search for 'TripCX' (my handle at the time), you can see some of the hair-pulling we had to go through.

      All for a lousy movie, and I did precisely NOTHING at work for nearly four months. And what a glorious four months it was.

      However, about a month after the movie was out, a nondescript package showed up at my office, with Microsoft (the creators of the game) as the return address. Inside was an actual prop that was used in the movie -- the handheld blue-light x-ray scanner thingy that was used to tell androids from humans. No note, nothing else.

      Very cool though -- it's sitting here on my desk as I speak.
  • clownguyx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20Marilyn Manson has also been pretty good about turning his site in to more of a puzzle and seemingly poking your brain with a needle.
    • sorrow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Radiohead is on that boat too.. good stuff
  • cocoamix, on 10/12/2007, -48/+8"Trent has been doing unique stuff forever,"

    The most unique thing Reznor has done is steal music and ideas from Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front242, and FrontLine Assembly and market it to college frat boys and the mainstream.

    Plus, he gave us Marilyn Manson.


    • schnoggi, on 10/12/2007, -38/+3EXACTLY. so played.
    • Spankov, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26There's not much about NiN that sounds like Skinny Puppy, Front 242 etc. They may be in the same genre but they sound pretty disimilar.
    • sorrow, on 10/12/2007, -18/+6@Cocoamix Yeah, Trent Reznor is OBVIOUSLY a fratboy stealing music for the past 15 years, with how many awards, tours, and songs that say "***** you" (in a sense) to a majority of society. And, for that matter, as Creep303 said a little ways back, what have YOU done in since 1987 productively? Sold millions of albums?
      Edit: And Spankov made a great point that i forgot to include, cheers for that.

      @Shnoggi Yeah, that was a stupid comment that gave no input to the discussion. Good job on that one.
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"There's not much about NiN that sounds like Skinny Puppy..."

      Actually, I've been listening to both since damned near their beginnings...and NIN is actually starting to sound *more* like SP as Trent gets older. NIN started out more pop-industrial. The last album was kinda odd for me, though...especially after The Fragile.

      Who knows? We'll see what it's like when the next album comes out. I'll reserve judgment until then.
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Direct me in the direction of the Skinny Puppy album that sounds anything like The Fragile, please.
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Actually, Too Dark Park was rather similar to The Fragile...at least in the fact that they were largely dark and soundscape-ish. Parts of Rabies and Last Rights were similar as well.
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2But here's the thing: The Fragile is such a huge album, there really isn't an album that sounds a whole lot like it (at least that I've heard). Too Dark Park is in the same vain of The Fragile, but musically, The Fragile is far more diverse.
    • AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2yeah, frat boys love songs about heroin addiction, suicide, charles manson, bisexuality and mental insanity

      have you been to college lately?
    • l0tharnt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Compare some of skinny puppy's works to that of 89 - mid 90's trent - you can hear a heavy SP influence. Not saying he ripped off their sound but you know what he was listening too.
  • fishbishop, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31This isn't viral marketing... this is art.

    Another example of this type of thing done well was with the movie Donnie Darko. http://www.donniedarko.com Albeit they only had one website, but it's the first thing i thought of.
  • brnews, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2is it like christian songs?
  • Steelfox, on 10/12/2007, -48/+4This reminds of what AFI did for Decemberunderground, but doesn't look like it has as much depth. Actually it looks pretty crappy from the links.
    • combustion8, on 10/12/2007, -4/+47At least they sound 1000 times better than AFI.
    • Namco, on 10/12/2007, -12/+8Oh AFI...I always thought it was GayFI. thanks for correcting me.
    • StatusWoe, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31000 might be an overstatement, the All Hallows EP was pretty good, even the Misfits cover was done relativly tastefully in my opinion.

      Though, admittidly that's from a while back
    • Cerberus047, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Funny you mention afi, a friend let me borrow his afi cd and the whole thing was ***** except one bonus song, which was a head like a hole, a cover of a nin song.
  • Turpitude, on 10/12/2007, -5/+35Shoulda just put fake lite-brite looking "bombs" in a bunch of major cities. Now that's marketing.
  • FiP0, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Cute.
    Reminds me of hell.com, for some reason.
  • voyetra8, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Best viral marketing campaign I've seen yet.

    Straight-up brilliant.

    • FishPoisonCon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1is it wrong that i read that as "straight-up brite-light"?
    • Namco, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Isn't Marilyn Manson doing the same thing... for about a year now?
  • celestial, on 10/12/2007, -19/+6so in the future everyone has ***** web design skills?
    • dainbramage559, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It probably took a lot of skill to create the effects you are seeing on those viral sites. All scrambly so that people have to digg around, look at code and such in order to get the message.

      Halo 2 did the same thing with ilovebees.com
    • badbox, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17Halo 2 was pretty hate machine. That existed long before any .com's existed.

      Or did you mean another halo?
    • badbox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Wait, nevermind.

      Halo 2 the video game, not the NIN catalog ID.

    • AtomicBaboon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I have a feeling it is supposed to look kind of scrambled due to the effects of a nuclear attack or some such. I know, probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense technically, but it does give it a feel of static in the signal. That's how I interpret why it looks that way.
    • Surreal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5usually distoreted images mean that there is text in the metadata of the image. I suggest looking there.
    • distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5lolol @ the "Halo 2" bit ahaha
  • DrScott, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8That is SO ***** COOL! The content of the websites makes me hope that there will be more than an album following this, much like Broken(2.0), the concept film containing a few music videos from the Broken EP. It was rumored that Trent himself released the 2.0 copy onto torrent sites himself, my copy is about finished downloading as I type this.

    Edit:
    iTunes reference? First paragraph:
    http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/
    I-VIAL? Seems like a stab at popular culture, like most of the rest of the content on the websites.
  • tgallinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The picture of the Church of Plano is actually the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in LA.

    http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&q=los%20angeles%20cathedral&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
  • fjvwing, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15I was wondering whether the current social and political morass would give us activism back like it used to exist in the 60s and 70s.

    Alas, it seems it brought back the Earnest Serious Concept Album first.
  • videoCT, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11good for Reznor. Even the kid up a ways who said "NIN is mainstream music?" has given NIN free marketing. Trent Reznor is showing his smarts.
    • g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah well he better not be planning any appearance on American Idol.
  • hecatomb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12This is awesome... At first I thought Firefox was goofing up the anotherversionofthetruth.com "forum" page... The overlaid text where you have to highlight it to read what is says is ingenious.

    By far the best deployment of f'ed up "viral" marketing I've seen on the web. Very fitting for NIN.
  • FatherG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Anyone having a problem with reading the text just needs to highlight it. I don't know what effect they used but a simple ctrl+A makes it readable.

    As long as the text in question isn't an image, like the one found in the consolidatedmailsystems link.
    • pcking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7View the Page source, and you will find extra words that are commented out. Makes the forum posts coherent.
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually, the commented out stuff is there in the duplicate paragraphs. They're just layering stuff with CSS and making it hard to read in places. I did a quick comparison against viewing the source and just highlighting...just highlight. It's quicker and there's no hidden information in the source.
  • mcway32, on 10/12/2007, -40/+2I'm with *EricCiccone*

    Since his rise to popularity with the first Lolapalooza tour, Reznor has gone on and on whining about mainstream music and marketed himself as a fringe artist. But when you have a bestselling album and every club is playing your song (closer) - - that begins to wax hypocritical and annoying.

    Bands like NIN and Smashing Pumpkins did some interesting stuff... but they see themselves as these purist gods who are anti-pop... simultaneously craving the spotlight role and and buying into their own *****. I see them as a real tragedy.... and sign of stupidity.

    Plus, the endless self-generated pain and self-pity machine is weak.

    F*ck them.
    • sorrow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Yeah, Trent Reznor obviously craves the spotlight and goes to all the normal pop culture gatherings.

      ...or not.
    • Namco, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24rejecting an artist just because they achieve success is just as weak... so ***** yourself
    • joymode, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Ah Trent Reznor never claimed to be anti-pop. on multiple occasions he has talked about his interest in pop music. and pop structure. he owes his success to being able to create dark noisy and deep themes while weaving them in with pop structure.

  • badbox, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I'm really confused by all this.
  • zerokit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Anyone catch the morse code at the end of the audio clips?
    • zzepperr, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Yeah, I think it is: 24.10.3

      Part of an IP address? Something else?
    • sleepwalkers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yup. References to Bible verses.
  • jrconn00, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I like Aaron Carter...he's Wholesome.
  • gossipninja, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3I like NIN, but to all the people saying "what have you done to win awards, tours etc." as a means to bash someones OPINION of NIN is crap. Britney spears has awards and tours and money out the ass, doesnt mean shes good. And yes NIN is mainstream, if you can ask most people about a band, and they know them, they are mainstream, not that that is good or bad, but when parents know a band, its no longer underground, when you sell millions of albums/tickets the secret is out.

    NIN used to really do alot of cool stuff, but since the mid 90s many of the bands NIN respected and emulated such as skinny puppy, front 242, and similar bands like those have gone on to do some really amazing stuff, in my opinion far out surpassing NIN in creativity.If I never was exposed to real industrial EBM music, then yes im sure i would still find NIN groundbreaking, but what reznor tries to sell as new, has been done on the industrial EBM circuit a for years, Hes like a bloated corporation now, in that he is a few years behind the curve. again, I like NIN, and if you guys like him too then that is great, but dont build him up like hes a god, he has done a lot of good in promoting music types that aren't your typical affair, but again he is not this mythic genius many people build him up to be. Hes a man who makes music, some of it good, some of it bad.
  • deadaluspark, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3thats some pretty cool stuff... good marketing...

    now if we could only get Trent to get past that adolescent whiny bitch stage of his life. i mean isn't he ***** 40 by now?

    maybe he's still just pissed off about being short.
  • cocoamix, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4This is Reznor in 1985:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYBx5NJULY

    At the same time, this is what Skinny Puppy was doing:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrgSx093lqU

    I'll stick with the original, thanks. I've even gone so far as to see NIN live twice, and I saw nothing that compelled me to listen to a mainstream version of what I'd already been listening to for 20 years.


    • Dignan666, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Not to nitpick, but Skinny Puppy's song Warlock was on Rabies (1989) and that video you posted is new (fan made circa 2006). In 1989, NIN released their debut album Pretty Hate Machine which while not completely revolutionary, was pretty damn innovative.

      Yeah, Skinny Puppy was probably more advanced, but they are also slightly older guys (about 3-5 years older). The 80's were tragic for a lot of people.
    • FishPoisonCon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9lol - good thing that chick dumped him and he started feeling sorry for himself before PHM came out...

      you're right, though - i just never got into SP as much as i did the IDEA of them. musically, i would say NIN has surpassed anything SP ever did... of course we probably wouldn't even be talking about it if it wasn't for bands like skinny puppy, cabaret voltaire, coil, throbbing gristle, clock DVA, etc...
  • peridyn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+024.10.1 is embedded in the page.....anyone?
  • ThinkFr33ly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Wow, some of this stuff is pretty intense.
  • vostek, on 10/12/2007, -17/+8Anyone else think "With Teeth" was completely lame? I've always been a huge fan, at one point I owned all the Halos up to the Fragile, but the last album made me lose interest completely. I'm excited to see they are at least taking a new marketing approach, maybe they will put a little of that inspiration into the new music as well.
    • Namco, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9WTF. If you were going to lose interest with NIN, why choose With Teeth on which to do it? With Teeth sound is a throwback to some of their earlier stuff. Personally I love all of it, the moodiness of The Fragile, the industrial grind/thrash of Broken/Fixed, and the Industrial Rock/Pop of Pretty Hate/With Teeth.
    • analogvoid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I didn't loose interest because of WT. I mean, it's not his greatest work, but i wouldn't call it bad. Compare it to what else was coming out at the time. It's still a fun album.
    • threadmore, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I was NIN's biggest fan until With Teeth. I couldn't believe how bad it was considering the quality music NIN normally puts out. I hope Year Zero is as good as TDS or The Fragile.
  • CodeAlchemist, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20How long until the city of Boston launches a full-blown investigation to test the municipal water supply?

    I give them... oh, about two weeks.
  • MSeven, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1ilovebees
    ARG, as in Alternate reality game...
  • mcway32, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2@ Sorrow:

    *Yeah, Trent Reznor obviously craves the spotlight and goes to all the normal pop culture gatherings.
    ..or not.*

    Is this a joke? Hello McFly. Lolapalooza, Woodstock, MTV Awards show... and the list goes on. Being there doesn't bother me at all... it's the hypocrisy of his self-promoted anti-pop angst guru that does. It's stupid. Much like your blind following the blind comment.
  • fetusface, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13The tour shirt with the highlighted letters; 'im trying to believe'

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v699/meathead666/tourtshirt.jpg


    im so excited. plus who would of though nine inch nails would make it on digg? hooray
  • eilorux, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4If you click on the image and move your mouse around on the picture in the digg link, it erases to show another image which says "Another version of the Truth"
  • mikebrowne, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I love this concept. Another cool idea from Trent Reznor.

    @ EricCiccone
    Touch of Grey was an awesome tune.
  • Arahka, on 10/12/2007, -5/+34This isn't just marketing.
    Trent Reznor and Co. are trying to tell you to WAKE THE ***** UP YOU MORONS!
    The government unchecked could easily take this turn. This is to jolt you into awareness. If it advertises a CD in the meantime, so be it. But this is art, sort of on the same concept as the 1984 by George Orwell.
    ....
    ....
    God I hate people. Why do you all have to be so close minded. It makes me want to cry.
    • HanSolo69, on 10/12/2007, -30/+5Dude i bet you're right. I bet Trent Reznor hopes nobody buys the same ***** Cd he's been putting out since the 90s and that they in turn destroy the capitalistic pig government that lets him make his fortune. He has no interest whatsover in you buying his CD, that's just a beautiful by-product of his intense concern for me and my well being.
    • badbox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14That coming from a guy named "hansolo69"

      lolz.

      GTFO.
    • oldJimSteele, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4trent reznor is saving us from world war three?
      give me a break, you *****.
    • ayledi, on 10/12/2007, -17/+3I agree....cool concept. But Reznor blows...and he does NOT create good music.
    • deadaluspark, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5yeah, and green day was trying to 'wake people up' with American Idiot...

      ...i mean is it just me or is it too little too late from artists jumping on the 'oh gnoes our country is ***** us' bandwagon...

      i mean really, did people forget that Rage Against The Machine was telling us the government was ***** us (with reference to specific events, not just a 'future concept story.) back when Clinton was President and the whole country thought everything was hunky dory?

      or did you forget that the government has been ***** us for fifty-some odd years if not more and im not gonna praise some douchebag for jumping on the bandwagon just because we finally got a President who really IS a moron.

      if he cared so ***** much, he could have said/done something much sooner.

      shut the ***** up.
    • RandomVillian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.
      -Daniel Barenboim
    • mmazing, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@ deadaluspark

      First of all, trent has always had this sort of stuff in all his music; it has always just been focused on religion. Now that we have ***** bush, and the rest of the crazy conservatives, it's starting to get a bit scarier.

      Second, don't you think that the proper way to get a message across to everyone, is to have a lot of people saying it? Or .... we could just sit around, putting comments on digg .... good stuff.
    • deadaluspark, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1"Or .... we could just sit around, putting comments on digg .... good stuff."

      yeah wow, you proved your point with that one... while making a comment on digg yourself.

      i mean, im sure you have a life outside digg, so i would hope you would assume the same about me.

      but this crazy interwebs!!! we must assume everyone is a loser who spends all day on digg LOLZOMFG
  • cdcdark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7This kind of reminds me of A Scanner Darkly
  • ptom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you look at the source code you will see 24.10.x at the bottom. Each page has a diff number.
  • mcway32, on 10/12/2007, -23/+3@Namco.

    *rejecting an artist just because they achieve success is just as weak... so ***** yourself*

    Who rejected someone because they acheived success? Ever hear of a book called 'a million little pieces.' It was buy a guy called James Frey... and it turned out to be a fraud. They promoted this book as one that honestly addressed pain - - emotional and psychological. And I swear to god... half of the quy's quotes could be lifted directly from NIN lyric sheets. That similar.

    My criticism is this: Reznor is a hypocrite and a whiner. Period. And man, I'm tired of listening to his self-pity. So I don't.

    Unfortunately, there are a thousand little twits like you that buy into his BS and elevate him to the position of hero. He *could* have been a good artist.

    But he's not.

    *sigh*

    Have to smile....
    • MindTrigger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Oh, and please tell us who the ***** you think a "good artist" is so we have some reference for your *****.

      You friend,

      ***** you
    • goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3 Trent? Is that you? I mean I alway knew you were self-loathing, but this is getting a little ridiculous. :)

      Or as Tori Amos once said: 'Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie.'


      Seriously though, kick ass webdesign and I'm looking forward to whatever project these are a part of. All you pretentious douchebags that think you 'know' more about what other people should like than they do can kiss my shiny metal ass.
  • ajny718, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1here some more info
    NIN.com top left says updated from lisbon portugal . 2.12.07

    24.14.3. from shirt and previous post
    searched google came up with this "Zodacite, the Mn anaolgue of montgomeryite, from Mangualde, Portugal"
    www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM73/AM73_1179.pdf

  • pixelbeat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Anyone reach this page?

    http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/end.htm
  • kingyubba, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5regarding the 24.10.x numbers....

    could it be that Year Zero (the upcoming album) is Halo 24?

    halo 22 is soon to be released according to this page:
    http://halo22.nin.com/

    halo 23 = ??
    halo 24 = "Year Zero"???
    • taosd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Halo 23 will be the next single, likely
    • kingyubba, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1i agree. the full albums tend to follow a single. maybe "another version of the truth" is the single.
    • DrScott, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4The numbers could correspond to a release date, a halo number, or just about anything else, including the track listing:
      1. Hyperpower!
      2. The Beginning of the End
      3. Survivalism
      4. The Good Soldier
      5. Vessel
      6. Me, I'm Not
      7. Capital G
      8. My Violent Heart
      9. The Warning
      10. God Given
      11. Meet Your Master
      12. The Greater Good
      13. The Great Destroyer
      14. Another Version of the Truth
      15. In This Twilight
      16. Zero-Sum
      http://yearzero.nin.com/

      EDIT:
      They're filming a music video for Survivalism, which is likely to be the single for the album:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism_%28Nine_Inch_Nails_song%29
    • kingyubba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@DrScott

      release date's been posted. halo number is more likely.

      still can't figure out the 10.x numbers other than they are incremental. but maybe the relate the song titles to the various webpages.... i.e. -- the 105th airborne relates to "the good solider" song...
    • analogvoid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I believe "Survivalism" is confirmed to be the next single which will be Halo 23.
  • ohgr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5OK who cares if NIN is mainstream or not. I understand why some people are so anti-mainstream music. I always understood that. But some music in the mainstream is not bad either. If it had not been for Nirvana for example, i would of have never discovered the Pixies, or Sonic Youth.

    I applaud Trent for doing something like this. I view it as art. This is a man who gets it.
  • fivestarsoul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This reminds me a lot of the Requiem for a Dream website.
  • oldJimSteele, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2trent reznor only wants your money.
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Then he should have hired Digg's web designer. Unlike Digg, Reznor is wasting valuable advertising space with content.
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