Released with no prior warning at the conclusion of 2016,
Not the Actual Events
unveils a new incarnation of
Nine Inch Nails
, one where
Trent Reznor
's longtime collaborator
Atticus Ross
is an official bandmember.
Ross
first entered the
NIN
orbit in 2005 when he engineered part of
With Teeth
, but he first received co-billing with
Reznor
when the pair composed the Academy Award-winning soundtrack for 2010's
The Social Network
. His addition to
does give
a hint of cinematic sweep, but
always excelled at painting with electronics, a strength that does not fail him here. Largely aggressive and noisy, the EP benefits from tight arrangements; squalls of fury might arrive out of nowhere but they're precisely timed. So is the sequencing of the EP, as it opens with the brisk blast of "Branches/Bones," moves to the muddy, cloistered "Dear World," builds to the six-minute centerpiece "She's Gone Away," which then gets blasted off the map by "The Idea of You" -- an ominous rocker anchored by
Dave Grohl
-- and then settles into the brooding closer, "Burning Bright (Field on Fire)." If
seems somewhat less than the sum of its parts -- maybe it's the brevity, maybe it's how the arrangements are more memorable than the melodies -- it's nevertheless worthy, not so much as a cacophonous palette cleanser after 2013's
Hesitation Marks
but as an effective demonstration of craft. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine