Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero

After looking at that "coming soon" text in the NIN Shop for SEVEN YEARS, I finally paid for an original pressing. With my luck, the definitive edition should be available tomorrow :-)

Now for the sound: Really, really nice. The recording is mixed quite quiet, I had to amp the volume a lot, but the sound quality really gives, even with this loud amplification. This is definetly an the CD Version.

Funny thing: For the first time ever I was able to hear "red horse vector" in the track "the great destroyer", people who were into the alternate reality game on its release know what I'm talking about.

Got a copy on ebay last week for a reasonable price... Got lucky. Mint condition too. Chuffed :)

Stupid. Dumb. Prices.

Words with words on words in words.

I finally have a copy as of June of the year this album is set in... and it is glorious. Easily one of my favorite pieces in my collection. While I'm sure the reissue will eventually happen, this will do. Shockingly good sound quality considering this was pressed in the CD era, the mix is noticeably different, I hear details I can't even pick up on with the digital/CD copies. If by some miracle you happen upon a copy, GET THIS. I am still anticipating the reissue, this is an era I am dying to read about with the essays Trent and co. have been pulling together for each reissue.

Fingers crossed for a better pressing of The Slip someday too, as that's the only vinyl I have of their major releases I don't care for the quality of.

Has anyone seen the 2020 represses? Can’t find them on discogs.

Large portions of this pressing are exceptional. Unfortunately on my copy, Another Version of the Truth, is full of surface noise. Curious if other people have had this issue.

Checking in here since we’ve (barely) made it to 2022, Reznor and co were accurate about being able to see the future. Nearly everything predicted in YZ rollout is coming true.

This is an all around excellent album and physical copy. The DE has been “coming soon” for basically forever. This is worth the price of ission.

A lot of stuff sounds exactly the same on vinyl, but releases like this prove that vinyl can definitely sound way better than digital. Would definitely recommend this or any other NIN on vinyl to any fans out there-- the difference is noticeable, perhaps unsurprisingly as Reznor is known for being an audiophile.

This is a very heavily distorted Reznor—speakers beware! Year Zero is a concept album about a dystopian America of the future controlled by a Christian theocracy which exorcises complete control over the populace, and drugs it into complacency by introducing an agent into the water supply. The story takes place in the United States in 2022, which the government established as "Year 0", the year America was “reborn”. The subject matter is very dark—but that is nothing new for Reznor. An alternate reality game emerged parallel to the Year Zero concept. Clues hidden on tour merchandise initially led fans to discover a network of in-game websites that described an "Orwellian picture of the United States circa the year 2022".

The album does contain some less distorted, melodic, head-bopin’ pieces like the single “The Good Soldier” and “Capital G”. On this album Reznor manages, with his brilliant talent, to make distortion rhythmic, musical and lyrical. That being said, there is a certain amount of ear fatigue to be experienced listening to this album at high volumes. And as distortion goes “The Great Destroyer” practically blew the cones off my speakers!

This album completes my collection of all the Nine Inch Nails studio albums on vinyl: Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, With Teeth, Year Zero, The Slip, Ghosts I-IV and Hesitation Marks. I should also include the Year Zero remix album, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, which I also have on vinyl. Some of this vinyl, like The Fragile, was rare, expensive and pretty hard to come by so I am quite proud of my collection. Most of this collection is in near mint (NM or M-) condition and it’s all in at least very good plus (VG+) condition.

This record came in a nice trifold jacket with a 16-page 12” booklet and a 3-sided record (LP + Single Sided) pressed on heavyweight vinyl. The fourth side of the album is etched with a ghoulish silhouette of a hand. The inside of the jacket lists the tracks on the center and depicts a bible on the left and a machine gun on the right. The jacket is annoyingly oversized, does not fit into my regular sized outer sleeves and sticks out about a 0.25” inch further than the other records on the shelf. Argh!

The recording had an average signal level (-6 dB) and was reasonably quiet. It had little or no dynamic range compression (average score of +0.3 as measured by DRC-Meter). My CD version of this album had an average score of +5.2, heavily compressed!

This is a great album. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars.

Interesting, my matrix run outs only include the B0008764-01 portion and nothing more. I wonder why mine is different? Maybe not all of them had the extended matrix run outs? Anyone know?