The Moonlit Path

Nine Inch Nails just recently released an awesome online exclusive 36-track album that features instrumental music that takes the band across a variety of new terrain. Now that they are no longer constrained by the contractual agreements of a record label, they are offering the first volume of the new album, Ghost I, as a free mp3 download (sans-drm and fully tagged) available at various bit torrent sites. You can also visit their official website at ghosts.nin.com for various download packages including the free Ghost I, Ghost I-IV for five dollars, a ten dollar 2XCD set and a seventy-five dollar deluxe edition package that includes 2 CD's, a DVD and a Blu-Ray disc featuring the album in high-definition sound with an accompanying slideshow. Bringing the listener back to the importance of musical content, rather than lyrical, the music is less ambient and more of a mid-90's wave of moody, layered and repeated fragments similar to the sounds of Trent Reznor's earlier work. The mood here is melancholy, with layers of screaming distortion knocking on spiritual doors while not fully blowing them wide open. It flirts here and there with pulsating and stuttering drum beats, but mostly is entirely held together by the sway of piano keys, even if by the thinnest of threads.