Nine Inch Nails Debut New Song In Las Vegas And Also Covered A Joy Division Tune

Recently Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross announced their upcoming album Bad Witch, which due in record stores and streaming platforms June 22. For the last three nights they have been performing in Las Vegas, playing deep cuts for fans, rather than just sticking to the hit singles like “Closer,” “Hurt,” or “The Hand That Feeds.”

On their first night in Vegas, Nine Inch Nails performed “Metal,” a song by fellow musician and friend Gary Numan. Then, on the second night, Trent Reznor gave audiences a classic David Bowie cover of “I’m Afraid of Americans.” On their final night, they performed a well-received rendition of the Joy Division classic “Digital.” While it was their first time covering this particular song, they have covered Joy Division before on the soundtrack for The Crow with the song “Dead Souls.”

“Digital” is noteworthy for having been the final song Joy Division performed before singer Ian Curtis’ tragic suicide in 1980.

According to Revolver, Nine Inch Nails also teased fans with a new song off their upcoming LP Bad Witch, called “Ahead of Ourselves.” Fans were unsurprisingly ecstatic to be among the first to hear new material from the multi-platinum selling band.

Nine Inch Nails have plans to tour for much of the remainder of 2018, with regulars like Robin Finck rejoining the band for live performances. While Finck is something of a staple in Reznor’s live show, only Reznor himself has been considered an official member of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor decides the direction of each album and makes the calls on every decision for every Nine Inch Nails release.

At least that was true until 2016.

After the release of Not The Actual Events, Trent Reznor for the first time in his career named another person as an official member of Nine Inch Nails. Music producer Atticus Ross is indeed now considered an equal part to Trent Reznor’s planning and recording process when working on new Nine Inch Nails material. Another first is that Atticus Ross is joining Nine Inch Nails on tour this year. Previous concerts have been devoid of Ross.

In 1994 Trent blew the minds of record executives everywhere by releasing The Downward Spiral. Before its release, warnings that the album would be “commercial suicide” abounded. While the dark, bleak, and nihilistic record was full of obscure samples, heavily layered instrumentation, and graphic lyrics, the album was a huge hit. By 1998 it had gone quadruple-platinum and to date, it has sold more than 4 million units worldwide.