The second installment in Nine Inch Nails trilogy of Eps is being released this Friday. The second Ep is titled Add Violence and the band have released the second track off the record called “This Isn’t The Place. The opening track, “Less Than” served as the first glimpse of the EP was released last week that were followed by visuals the 1980s urban legend-turned-video game, Polybius. The latest track, which was released today is followed with another set of visuals just as compelling as the first.

Add Violence has been described by Reznor as both “accessible and impenetrable,” and according to Reznor, “This Isn’t the Place” falls in the second category. The track is filled with both piano and bass sounds that slowly builds before coming back down to earth and then builds again. 

The video that accompanied “This Isn’t the Place” was directed by Alex Lieu and contains very simple visuals. The camera slowly zooms out on a machine that contains labels like “anxiety,” “deviation,” “disorder,” and “Morale.”

There is a theory going about that the video for “This Isn’t the Place” follows the same ideas behind their 2008 album, Year Zero. According to several members of NIN’s reddit account who point out that the video for “This Isn’t The Place” was done by the same team that was behind the band’s Year Zero ARG. This has brought some fans to theorize that the new EP is related in some way to the album, Year Zero. The video for the new track features keywords that fans will no doubt contribute to this theory. Watch the video for “This Isn’t the Place” below and find out.

The new track will be available digitally and on vinyl beginning July 21st, with the cd to be released on September 1st. Not the Actual Events, the first EP in the trilogy was released last December. Reznor hopes to have the third and final installment out by the end of the year.

A singular story can be heard once the trilogy comes together. There is something to be said once all the EPs come out and fans can listen to all the tracks in sequence. Not many records can say that.

Add Violence Tracklist.

01. Less Than
02. The Lovers
03. This Isn’t the Place
04. Not Anymore
05. The Background World

Nine Inch Nails have shows scheduled throughout the summer and into the fall, including upcoming sets at FYF Fest in Los Angeles and Panorama Festival in New York City.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat