Nine Inch Nails, the American industrial rock band fronted by Trent Reznor, have confirmed that they will embark on a world tour. The band last performed in 2022, but their last extensive touring took place in 2017/2018.
However, the band have decided to delay the official tour announcement due to the Los Angeles wildfire crisis.
NIN shared the following message this week:
“Since some dates and information about our world tour have leaked we are confirming that yes we will be touring and will provide more details soon.
“We are all watching the devastation that is unfolding in California and have paused our announcement while people try to deal with all that is happening.”
Jazz-metal noiseniks Imperial Triumphant have become the first metal band to play atop the Chrysler Building.
The masked trio, heavily inspired by New York City’s jazz scene and Art Deco architecture, achieve the feat in the new video for single Lexington Delirium.
The song is taken from the band’s upcoming sixth album Goldstar, out on March 21 via Century Media, and features spoken word from Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake. Listen to the track and watch the clip below.
Imperial Triumphant comment: “Ziggurats rise, skyscrapers weep and the future is not birthed from the organic but from a cosmic, mechanical womb. It speaks of posterity lost in the congestion of New Culture, a place where Manhattan’s towering ambition conceals impending delirium.
“The Throne Of Bolts becomes both a seat of power and a looming specter, begging for salvation from the soulless surge of progress. We climbed the deco spire of the magnificent Chrysler building in order to bring you a magnanimous visual experience.”
On a more personal note, bassist/keyboardist Steve Blanco talks about the significance of performing inside the Chrysler Building.
“Gazing at the building’s stainless steel Egyptian sun rays, I felt a profound connection to something greater, a deep resonance with the universe itself,” he says. “Sharing that moment with my bandmates Zachary [Ezrin, vocals/guitars] and Kenny [Grohowski, drums] and everyone involved made it all the more fabulous.”
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Lexington Delirium is the third single from Goldstar, following Eye Of Mars and Hotel Sphinx. With the new song, the band have unveiled the album’s track listing and artwork, which can be seen below. They’ve also revealed that, as well as Haake, Goldstar will feature guest turns from ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Bloody Panda vocalist Yoshiko Ohara.
Imperial Triumphant formed in 2005 and have since confounded many with their jazz-inspired extreme metal, elaborate masks, and live shows which include spraying audiences with champagne.
In a 2020 Metal Hammer interview, Ezrin confessed that the band’s avant-garde ways have “cleared a few rooms” during their career. “There’s a few people who had their minds blown,” he said, “and there were a few people who thought we were just pure shit.”
01. Eye Of Mars 02. Gomorrah Nouveaux 03. Lexington Delirium (feat. Tomas Haake) 04. Hotel Sphinx 05. Newyorkcity (feat. Yoshiko Ohara) 06. Goldstar 07. Rot Moderne 08. Pleasuredome (feat. Dave Lombardo and Tomas Haake) 09. Industry Of Misery
“I thought, What is this? I don’t understand what I’m hearing, but wow!” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor on the “life-changing” record which blew his teenage mind, and why soft rock legends Barry Manilow and Billy Joel may have influenced his songwriting
(Image credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Thanks to his work with Nine Inch Nails and his emergence, in collaboration with NIN bandmate Atticus Ross, as one of the film and television industry’s most decorated and in-demand soundtrack composers, Trent Reznor is acknowledged as one of the most accomplished, innovative and fearless songwriters of the modern era. Last year, in conversation with his good friend Rick Rubin for the latter’s Tetragrammaton podcast series, Reznor spoke about the expansive musical education he received as a teenager growing up in the 1980s, and singled out one record in particular as “life-changing” for him.
Reznor began by revealing that, had he not fallen under the spell of rock ‘n’ roll, and specifically the louder-than-life music of Kiss, as a young teenager, his life might have taken an altogether different route, as his piano tutor had suggested that his gifted young student might want to consider a career as a concert pianist. Informed that this might entail a lifetime of hard work and endless practise, the 13-year-year old Trent Reznor concluded that this “didn’t sound like it was any fun”, whereas the universe created by Kiss “seemed like it was too good to be true.”
“It was exciting. it was taboo, it felt larger than life,” Reznor recalled. “It felt like you might get in trouble if you had the Hotter Than Hell album…. It just clicked that I want to be in a band., I want to do that.”
“And I had a life changing experience,” he continued. “National Record Mart was the, the store in the mall 15 minutes away from where I grew up, and I remember walking in there and hearing something that was like, What is this? And it was Frank Zappa, the Sheik Yerbouti album, filled with profanity. They’d put the cover of the album they were playing up on the counter when they’re playing it, and it just felt like, I don’t understand what I’m hearing, but wow, man.”
Reznor’s tastes were expanded further when he signed up to the Columbia Record Club, a mail order subscription service which seduced music fans by offering a cut-price introductory deal, then sending out full-price albums that they considered might be relevant to your listening habits.
“I remember getting a Billy Joel album that I didn’t want, 52nd Street (released in 1978), but I listened to the shit out of it because I’d paid full price for it, and I liked it, you know, I drilled it into my head.”
When Rubin suggests that the album probably made Reznor a better songwriter, the musician agrees, adding “There’s some Barry Manilow in there along the way.”
‘In today’s era of hitting skip, or shuffle, you miss that learning curve,” he says. “A lot of my favourite albums I didn’t understand at first.”
Earlier this year, Reznor also cited David Cronenberg’s typically unsettling psychological thriller Dead Ringers, as a major influence on his music.
Expanding upon his, Nine Inch Nails’ mainman saluted, “The incredible sense of dread from the first frame to the end.”
“You’re not sure what’s going to happen, but it’s going to be bad,” he said. “Love it. It’s been a big inspiration for what I try to do with Nine Inch Nails. Make you feel bad. The whole time.”
In a social media statement released earlier this week, Reznor said that Nine Inch Nails will embark upon a world tour later this year. However, the announcement of the dates has been postponed due to the wildfires currently raging in Southern California.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
So after the festive break we’re back with the first Prog‘sTracks Of The Week for 2025. Seven brand new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple – we’ve collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you – makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn’t it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it’s a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn’t be easier could it?
We’ll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we’ll update you with this week’s winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you’re a band and you want to be featured in Prog‘s Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
RENDEZVOUS POINT – STILL WATER
Norwegian prog metal quintet Rendezvous Point have shared a new video that’s a reworking of their track Still Water, from last year’s well-received Dream Chaser album. The new version has been recorded live in the studio with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, better known back in Norway as Kringkastingsorkesteret, or KORK for short!
“KORK are super experienced in accompanying bands, so when we had the opportunity to do something together with them we just had to take it,” say the band. “We chose to do a new live-in-studio version of Still Water, dedicating more focus to the symphonic parts than on the album version. We are very excited about the result, and hope you enjoy it as much as we do! The song is an epic crescendo which encapsulates the moment between life and death. The moment where everything is silent and hopeless, but also a blank sheet of paper for a new beginning. In the realm of giving up, something or someone can drag you back to life. It’s never too late to search for help.”
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Rendezvous Point – Still Water (live in studio) ft. The Norwegian Radio Orchestra – YouTube
Young Scottish prog rockers Tiberius show their cheeky side in their video for brand new single Mosaic, throwing down some deliberately slinky but tongue-in-cheek moves for the catchy new single. The quintet formed ten years ago, and have thus far released two EPs, 2015’s self-titled debut EP and 2017’s The Beautiful Ones, in addition to their debut album, A Peaceful Annihilation, which arrived in 2020. Mosaic is taken from the band’s upcoming second full-length release Singing For Company, which the band will release on March 21.
“We are so eager to share with you the evolution of our sound, which comes with the same snarky lyrical content and genre-bending motifs fans have come to expect,” the band enthuse.
Tiberius – Mosaic (Official Music Video) – YouTube
To celebrate the announcement of their upcoming US tour with Taking Back Sunday and Foxing, conceptual prog heavyweights Coheed And Cambria have released a video for the anthemic Someone Who Can, which is taken from the band’s upcoming studio album, The Father Of Make Believe, which they will release through the Virgin Music Group on March 14.
“When you’re growing up, you’re perpetually trying to understand the world that’s changing around you,” explains mainman and conceptualist Claudio Sanchez of the song. Over time, it’s comforting to reach the conclusion that you’ll never truly have things figured out.”
Coheed and Cambria – “Someone Who Can” [Official Video] – YouTube
Keyboardist Don Airey needs little introduction thanks to his Rainbow past and Deep Purple present, as well as having worked with the likes of Colosseum II, Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash, Colin Blunstone, Gary Moore, Uli Jon Roth and literally loads more.
Airey will release his latest solo album, Pushed To The Edge on March 28, from which comes strident, in-your-face album opener Tell Me. Airey works with new Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride on his new album, along with vocalists Carl Sentance (Nazareth) and Mitchell Emms (The Voice UK), drummer Jon Finnigan and bassist Dave Marks.
WARDRUNA – HEIMTA THURS
Norwegian folk shamen Wardruna release their latest album, Birna, on January 24. At the same time they’ll release a live DVD and Blu-ray, Live At The Acropolis, capturing the band’s intense and mesmeric live show in full before a stunning Ancient Greek backdrop. The band have just shared Heimta Thurs from the latter and originally from the band’s 2009 debut album Runaljod – Gap var ginnunga.
“Where the previous album Kvitravn was a step conceptually from the past to the present, Birna even more so seeks to address the here and now and the way forward,: says mainman einar Selvik of the upcoming studio album.
Wardruna – Heimta Thurs (Live at the Acropolis) – YouTube
We’re talking proper multi-national with Seventh Station. Formed by Slovenian guitarist Dimitri Alperovich and also featuring Turkish keyboardist Eren Başbuğ, Israeli vocalist Davidavi Dolev, Ukrainian-Israeli bass player Alexy Polyanski and Slovenian drummer Grega Plumbeger, the band’s love of reimagining works of classical composers who were known as nonconformists and freethinkers is writ large on Tropical Limbo, taken from their upcoming EP On Shoulders Of Giants which will be released in February through Dutch label Layered Reality Productions. The video was recorded live in Slovenia and the band will be touring the UK in April and May.
“We are very proud of this track, in which lies a perfect opportunity to introduce to you our drummer Grega,” the band say. “His ability to seamlessly shift between the marimba and drum set live adds a dynamic energy to our music—it’s a performance unlike anything you’ve heard in metal before.”
SEVENTH STATION – Tropical Limbo (Live in Brezice) – YouTube
A new year and Australian prog metal quntet Teramaze show no sign of easing up. Desires, Colours N Lust is another brand new song from a band that have released no less than six studio albums over the past five years as well as various standalone tracks such as this.
“Drawing influence from bands like Motionless in White and Silverchair, Desire Colours N Lust is a testament to Teramaze’s ongoing evolution, blending powerful metal with captivating melodies. The band continues to push the boundaries of their genre, delivering a bold, fresh sound with each release,” the band say.
“With this new single, Teramaze reaffirms their commitment to crafting high-calibre music that resonates deeply with both new and long-time fans. Desire Colours N Lust is a striking example of their relentless pursuit of musical innovation.”
TERAMAZE – Desire Colours N Lust // Official Music Video // Wells Music – YouTube
Close Enemies, the new band featuring Aerosmith’sTom Hamilton, have released their first single. You can hear “Sound of a Train” below.
The new song previews an upcoming album that has been completed by Hamilton and a veteran lineup that includes drummer Tony Brock (Babys, Rod Stewart), guitarists Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow, Don Henley) and Trace Foster and vocalist Chasen Hampton. As Hamilton tells UCR, material for the upcoming album came together very organically.
“We sat around in Peter’s basement and there’s just something about that room. We put up a couple of mics and got these amazing drum sounds,” Hamilton said. “All of the guitar and bass tones were right there. I came in with a rough demo of a song that I’d had in the back of my head. Everybody listened to it and then immediately, everyone started contributing these beautiful parts to it. By the end of the day, we had this beautiful track that I couldn’t believe.”
“There’s something about that room and the vibe,” Trace Foster added. “It was so non-threatening. It was just like friends hanging out. We created so much stuff that when we got done, we were shopping for management at first — everyone we sent the demos to, they thought it was the finished record. We said, ‘No, no, we’re going to re-record all of this.’
“Finally, after we’d heard it so much, we were like, ‘Do we need to re-record it?’ So we didn’t,” he added. “Basically, all of the tracks that you’re hearing, except for some of the vocals and lead guitar parts, it’s just five guys in a room knocking that stuff out.”
Listen to Close Enemies’ ‘Sound of a Train’
More New Music is Coming From Close Enemies
“Unlike the way [bands] used to release music back in the ’70s [and subsequent decades] where you released the whole record, we’ll put out [some initial singles],” Foster said. “The next songs will probably come out in February and March and either we’ll do a fourth single [after that] or we’ll just release the whole thing at that point. We worked really hard on the album.”
Foster noted that “there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears, and we don’t just want it to come and go. We want people to really get into this and enjoy it.”
Close Enemies are currently touring and recently played a sold-out show in Boston. They’ll finish off the month with a gig at Daryl Hall‘s club in Pawling, New York, and additional dates in Chicago and St. Louis.
Nine Inch Nails started as the one-man musical project of Trent Reznor, a synth-pop fan in his 20s from Cleveland who played keyboards in a few local groups before starting one of the key bands of the ’90s.
With his debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, in 1989, Reznor set the standard by which he guided his career: the abrasiveness of industrial rock music laced with the hooky synth-pop he grew up on during the ’80s. Combined with confessional lyrics that covered everything from his drug use to personal despair, they forecasted the alternative rock scene just a few years later.
Reznor and Nine Inch Nails were primed for success when that revolution arrived. Their second album, 1994’s The Downward Spiral, is an essential record from the era and the band’s most popular and enduring work.
That Top 10 hit was followed by records that surveyed similar paths, as you will see in the below list of Nine Inch Nails Albums Ranked. Even as he regularly released the band’s albums (eventually on his custom label), Reznor, with longtime collaborator Atticus Ross, has delved into soundtrack work, winning Academy Awards for his film scores, which expand on Nine Inch Nails’ haunting and often thorny musical landscapes.
Reznor’s restlessness as an artist – Nine Inch Nail’s discography isn’t limited to albums; there are EPs, remix projects and video game compositions in there, too – has taken his, and by extension Nine Inch Nails’, music to new territory over the decades. Disquieting industrial rock has given way to more placid and introspective music, and scarred personal ruminations turned toward more universal concerns. The entire catalog offers plenty of excitement along the way.
Nine Inch Nails Albums Ranked
Industrial rock powerhouse helped change the alternative landscape in the ’90s and has continued to move forward ever since.
Billy Gibbons has a new song out: “Livin’ It Up Down in Texas.”
The track made its debut earlier this month in an episode of the Paramount+ series Landman. Gibbons wrote the song with two of Landman‘s stars, Billy Bob Thornton and Mark Collie.
You can listen to the track below.
Thornton is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, but also has his own band, the Boxmasters.
“Here’s the thing: I grew up in music. I saw the Beatles when I was eight,” he recently toldThe Guardian. “By the time I was nine, I had a band. Started with a little cheap guitar and then got a drum kit, which my father hated. I was playing pretty big concerts by the time I was 16 and then went on tour. I became a roadie from 18 to about 22. I went to L.A. to play music, accidentally got into acting. I’m still not sure how it happened. … I loved both of them [acting and playing music]. It’s all one vision, all out of the same brain. I couldn’t choose one over the other. I’d like to do both, as long as they’ll let me.”
Gibbons’ Upcoming Solo Tour
Gibbons is currently scheduled to launch a tour with his solo band, the BFGs, on Jan. 17. Approximately a month later, he’ll hit the road with ZZ Top for a tour that makes stops in both the U.S. and Canada.
Ranking Every ZZ Top Album
From the first album to ‘La Futura,’ we check out the Little ‘ol Band From Texas’ studio records.
Ace Frehley looked back at his career with Kiss and recalled that his infamous “Shock Me” moment wasn’t the only time he suffered an injury onstage.
The guitarist wrote the 1977 single after being electrocuted during a show when he made contact with the uninsulated metal rail of a stairway prop.
In a recent interview with MusicRadar, Frehley said, “I should have been dead that night. The fact that I got electrocuted and didn’t fall forward was a godsend. There must have been angels pushing me back.”
He added, “I was standing on top of four Marshall cabinets on a staircase [and] I had a heavy Les Paul around my neck. … If I fell forward, I would have broken my fucking neck.
“But I fell back, and the road crew dragged me back off of the staircase. I had no feeling in my hands for five to ten minutes. I went on to finish the show. … It was crazy shit, man, but I did get ‘Shock Me’ out of it. So, I guess it wasn’t all for nothing.”
Frehley remembered that his famous rocket-launching guitar also had a second effect built in. “I burned my leg real bad once. … A smoke bomb ignited too early inside the cavity of the guitar, and it melted the asbestos – which our fucking costumes were made from – to my thigh.”
He also admitted that he “fired one of those rockets at Gene [Siummons] and it almost fucking hit him! It flew right by his head. It would have burned him pretty bad.”
Doctor Warned Ace Frehley He’d End Up in a Wheelchair
The guitarist also owned up to falling off his platform boots regularly, which led to one of his trademark stage antics, and a permanent injury. “I used to fall a lot in those boots,” he said.
“A lot of times, Paul [Stanley] would cover for me by walking over to me like it was part of the show. He made it look like it was choreography or something. If nobody realised I’d fallen, I’d play on my knees and get back up. It [became] just part of the show!
“I screwed my knees up doing that,” he noted. “I ended up chipping a bone in my knee, and the doctor said, ‘Listen, you gotta stop doing that, or you’ll end up in a wheelchair.’ We ended up putting a pad under the carpet where I’d fall … and if you look at old videos, you can see that I’d go down one knee at a time.”
Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Counting down solo albums released by various members of Kiss.
Neil Young has released a song with his new band the chrome hearts (stylized as lowercase). “big change” (similarly stylized) for now isn’t attached to a new album but is a stand-alone single from the prolific artist.
Coproduced by Young and Lou Adler, the stomping electric track reflects current political and social issues, as Young sings, “Big change is comin’ / Could be bad and it could be good / … Looks like a collision / Ain’t the worst that you can do.“
You can watch the video below.
For now, “big change” is available digitally at the NYA Download Store and all digital retailers.
Young already seems to have another busy year ahead of him. In addition to “big change,” the veteran singer-songwriter will release Oceanside Countryside on March 7. The “lost” album was recorded in 1977 and originally intended for release before 1978’s Comes a Time replaced it.
He’s made a habit of cleaning out his archives over the past several years. Oceanside Countryside was partly released on last year’s Archives Vol. III (1976-1987); the upcoming release marks its first issue as intended in the late ’70s.
Who Is in Neil Young’s band The Chrome Hearts?
Young recorded “big change” with the chrome hearts, a band featuring keyboardist Spooner Oldham, guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo. The rhythm section has worked with Young in Promise of the Real, the group led by Nelson’s brother Lukas. (Both Nelsons are sons of country legend Willie Nelson.)
While Young’s last new music, the album All Roads Lead Home, came out in 2023 and credited individually to Young and his Crazy Horse bandmates Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot and Nils Lofgren, he and the band previously recorded World Recordin 2022. Young also released new recordings of some of his old songs on 2023’s live LP Before and After.
Since then, in addition to the third volume of his Archives box and several live sets, Young has combed his vaults for previously shelved works such as Early Daze and Chrome Dreams.
Neil Young Albums Ranked
He’s one of rock’s most brilliant, confounding, defiant and frustrating artists.
Spin Doctors have announced their first album in 12 years. They’re previewing Face Full of Cake with a video for the first single “Still a Gorilla,” which you can watch below.
Set for release on April 11, the LP finds vocalist Chris Barron, guitarist Eric Schenkman and drummer Aaron Comess collaborating with Jack Daley, who replaced longtime bass player Mark White in 2021. They recorded Face Full of Cake at Daley’s studio in Asbury Park and some of the material has its origins in the early days of the pandemic.
Additional writing sessions followed at a Vermont studio space owned by Phish’s Mike Gordon. Schenkman and Barron also spent time separately, sharing ideas with each other. Pressures were low by the time Spin Doctors arrived in Asbury Park to begin work on the album, Comess said in an official statement.
“We weren’t really thinking of it as a record,” he said. “We’ve gone through a lot of phases in our 35 years, and sometimes things really gel and sometimes they’re just extremely difficult. When we made this record, we captured a moment where it felt effortless. There’s a really fresh energy in the tracks [and] a sense of us discovering the songs as we played them.”
They Still Have a ‘Pocket Full of Kryptonite’
According to Barron, this seventh LP will make longtime fans happy – especially those who first became familiar with Spin Doctors through ’90s favorites like “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “Two Princes,” both Top 20 hits. They’re “going to be knocked out by this new record,” he said. “It’s got that vintage Spin Doctors sound of ear candy and denser material that harkens back to Pocket Full of Kryptonite but with years of experience under our belts.”
Face Full of Cake is also the band’s first album for Capitol Records. Spin Doctors will celebrate with a special release show on April 12 at Brooklyn Bowl in New York, and then hit the road for additional tour dates throughout 2025.
Watch Spin Doctors’ ‘Still a Gorilla’ Video
Spin Doctors, ‘Face Full of Cake’ Track Listing 1. “Boombox” 2. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven” 3. “Still a Gorilla” 4. “The Heart of the Highway” 5. “Double Parked” 6. “I Liked You Better When Your Butt Was Big” 7. “The Buddha on the Lawn” 8. “She Don’t Love Me Anymore (Anymore)” 9. “I’m the Man (You Got)” 10. “While You’re Holding the Moon (Over Me)” 11. “She Stands Alone” 12. “When You Got Turmoil In Your Mind”
Revisit ‘501 Essential Albums of the ’90s’ on the ‘UCR Podcast’
