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The albums ''[[Not The Actual Events]]'', ''[[Add Violence]]'' , and ''[[Bad Witch]]'' form a trilogy of related albumspieces, respectively released in 2016, 2017 , and 2018. The tours [[I Can't Seem To Wake Up 2017]] and [[Cold And Black And Infinite Tour]] took place to support it. This period marks the inclusion of [[Atticus Ross]] as a an official member of NIN[[Nine Inch Nails]], as well as a member of the live band during the tours. This trilogy is sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Cold And Black And Infinite" trilogy.
===About===<blockquote>But to be clear, the record isn’t about Trump, it’s about making sense of the world. The first record, ''Not the Actual Events'', was more of an internal fantasy of what if I lit a match to my life and just embraced burning the whole fucking thing down. You know? All of this is an illusion and I really should be dead or lying in a ditch somewhere. Who I ''really'' am is an addict that self-destructs. That’s my true nature and this is an illusion and some borrowed time. It wasn’t a pleasant thing, but it felt like, that’s a story to tell. And if felt like something I needed to internally process.
===Themes===And that supported other things that were interesting to us like aggressive music and a sense of the self-referential, looking back at other albums and pilfering bits of the art design to confuse people and also because I was thinking about those records. To try picking up a guitar, which I told myself I would never do again for whatever reason and finding, you know what? It sounds fucking good. Listening back and going, you know what? That was a good song from 25 years ago, it’s not bad to play something like that. There are no rules. That was the first record.
===Links It wasn’t fully mapped out but it was meant to other NIN material===feel like if we broke up one big record – if it was ''Downward Spiral'', which has acts, if we do an album like that, but release one act at a time, it will be more immediate and the level of adrenaline and momentum will be higher. And maybe it will be consumed in a way that feels more digestible to an outside world that doesn’t have long attention spans anymore.
====The Downward Spiral====With the second one, ''Add Violence'', the idea was, loosely, to zoom out, to be more global and to imply that maybe we’re all in a simulated reality. And that might introduce the concept of meaninglessness but also provide a safe container to explain why everything feels off.
Side B of By the time we got to the third one, we had an idea in mind but it felt … rehearsed. Predictable. In the end, what felt true was to say that we as a society and as a species are probably an accident, a mutation. Really what we are is fucking animals. And the ''Not illusion was enlightenment. The Actual Events'' vinyl features 3 additionalmore we’ve connected with each other the dumber we’ve gotten and the more we decide we want to kill each other. We’re not some elevated transcendent beings, unlisted tracks from we’re bacteria in a jar. I wanted the art direction of ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]]Bad Witch'' in reverse: "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]"to feel like shadows on a cave wall and we’re trying to figure out what it is and really there’s no nice, clean, safe scientific explanation. We’re just an accident. String theory and quantum physics is a fucking trick. And we’re not going to suddenly elevate ourselves into transcendent beings. We’re kidding ourselves. I know this will be an unsatisfying conclusion for some people. It isn’t what they want. They want it to be full matrix virtual reality, and this is the opposite of that, "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]" this is dirt and a broken computer chip and "[[Reptile]]"everything you believe in is really just bullshit. </blockquote>
In the physical component for ==About==''Not The Actual Events''was first acknowledged by Trent Reznor on December 17, 2016 in a post on nin.com stating that, the song lyrics of "Sheit's Gone Awayan unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make. It's an EP because that ended up being the proper length to tell that story." are superimposed over a copy of page 14 from the Deluxe Edition booklet of In June 2017, it was announced that ''Not The Downward SpiralActual Events'', and lyrics embedded is the first in the Apple Music release include extra, unsung words directly referencing "Reptile"a trilogy of related EPs to be released 6-8 months apart.
Additional lyrics for ''Add Violence'' was officially announced on July 13, 2017. Its first track, "Less Than" are printed , was released digitally on the physical component of same day, with an accompanying music video directed by Brook Linder. "This Isn't The Place" was made available on the official NIN YouTube channel on July 18, 2017. 'Add Violence'Bad Witch'', and they seem now being classified as an album, was officially announced on May 10, 2018. On May 19, at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to reference hear the songs "[[March Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]Goddamned Part" by using before the line "doesnalbum't it make you feel better"s release.
Additional lyrics for <blockquote>All of these EPs started out with the same question, which is, "This IsnWhere is my place in the world today?" And I'm asking myself that question as someone who's getting older and looks at a world that feels increasingly unfamiliar. Is that aging? I feel a lot differently about things than I did when I was 20. Thank god. But the way I feel about them isn't as terrifying to me as I thought it would be when I was 20. Your perspective does change. The Place"things that seem to be happening in the world at the moment seem crazier than they ever have today. Is that me saying it because I'm older? Or are things actually f—king up in a very extreme way? Or is it some combination of both?<br><br>I think we're in a f—d up situation where the world is off-axis. Originally, printed on the physical component [''Bad Witch''] was going to be an even more extreme version of ''Add Violence'', are . And what it wound up being was a direct quote from "much more pessimistic [message] where we're not living in a simulation and there's not a convenient external thing we can blame this on — at our core, [The Great Belowhumans]]"are just an accident, with the line "I can still feel youand when fully realized we will just exterminate ourselves, even so far away"and we aren't these enlightened creatures. Trent stated that "This IsnWe't The Place" is about [[David Bowie]] during a concertre really just animals. It can be speculated And I do feel that this line relates way to mourning some degree in both casereal life. Take the promise of technology. Where's that gotten us really? The more connected we are, the worse we are as a society.</blockquote>
An alternate front cover Blurbs from nin.com for ''Not The Actual Events'' is each piece of the trilogy give a re-used ''[[Still]]'' cover art.vague allusion to the ideas presented:
====With Teeth *''Not The Actual Events'': "PART ONE OF A THREE EP TRILOGY OF RECORDS. UNAPOLOGETIC, UNFRIENDLY, DENSE, LYRICALLY COMPLEX, SO-FAR-BEHIND-THE-TIMES-IT’S-AHEAD-OF-ITS-TIME, HIPSTER-REPELLING UNCOMPROMISING MUSIC SMART PEOPLE CAN FUCK TO. IT MAY NOT BE FOR YOU."*''Add Violence'': "PART TWO. THE VIEW WIDENS AND EVERYTHING IS IN QUESTION."*''Bad Witch'': "CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL." (BleedthroughThis is likely a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave Plato's allegory of the cave].)====
Lyrics ==Links to other NIN material=====''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]]''===Side B of the ''Not The Actual Events'' vinyl features reversed versions of three additional, unlisted tracks from the track ''The Downward Spiral'': "[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]"The Background World, " feature a reference to the [[BleedthroughThe Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]] concept", in the line and "Is always bleeding through[[Reptile]]".
Additional lyrics for "The Lovers" printed on In the physical component of for ''Add ViolenceNot The Actual Events'' feature , the word "godlike", possibly referencing lyrics of "[[The Life You DidnShe't Lead]]s Gone Away". In an episode are superimposed over a copy of page 14 from the Deluxe Edition booklet of ''Song ExploderThe Downward Spiral'' podcast[http://songexploder.net/nine-inch-nails], [[Trent Reznor]] and [[Atticus Ross]] explained that lyrics embedded in the song is about an alternate reality that explores what might have happened if Reznor had never left his old home Apple Music release of New Orleans and had never gotten clean and sober. It began as a sort of poem he had written in order "She's Gone Away" include unsung lines directly referencing "Reptile" ("she spreads herself wide open to explore what he calls let the "seduction of addictioninsects in" and stated that "it was me allowing myself permission to examine she leaves a period trail of my life that I had consciously chose not honey to think about very much, then immerse myself in it in a kinda show me where she'What if the path I'm currently on wasn't really the right one, and I just went hard-left the other way?s been").
====Year Zero====Additional lyrics for "Less Than" are printed on the physical component of ''Add Violence'', and they seem to reference "[[March Of The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]" by using the line "doesn't it make you feel better".
==Physical Components==An alternate front cover for ''Not The Actual Events'' is re-purposed ''Still'' cover art, in a possible nod to David Bowie's re-purposed cover art on ''The Next Day''.
===Not Additional lyrics for "The Actual Events===Lovers" printed on the physical component of ''Add Violence'' feature the word "godlike", possibly referencing "[[The Life You Didn't Lead]]". In an episode of the ''Song Exploder'' podcast[http://songexploder.net/nine-inch-nails], Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross explained that the song is about an alternate reality that explores what might have happened if Reznor had never left his old home of New Orleans and had never gotten clean and sober. It began as a sort of poem he had written in order to explore what he calls the "seduction of addiction" and stated that "it was me allowing myself permission to examine a period of my life that I had consciously chose not to think about very much, then immerse myself in it in a kinda 'What if the path I'm currently on wasn't really the right one, and I just went hard-left the other way?".
<gallery>===''[[Year Zero]]''===''Add Violence'' is in part a continuation of the ''Year Zero'' story and its [[Timeline of Year Zero Discovery|ARG]], with elements appearing on the front cover and the back cover of the album ("SIMULATION ON", "PRESENCE", "2022", etc), in the music video for "This Isn't The Place" (appearance of a "Cedocore" box), and on the physical component. They are all linked together with multiple variations of the panel, mentions referencing the concept of The Trilogy, the physical component appearing itself in the music video, etc.
Image:Ntae_alt_4.jpg|Alternate digital artwork - Origin: Embedded in first 2016 digital filesImage:NTAEvinylIt should also be noted that the physical component for ''Add Violence'' has the number "24.jpg|Vinyl cover artImage:Ntae_physical_component0.jpg|Physical componentImage:Ntae_pc00" on the front which harkens back to the "24.jpg|Physical component packageImage:bboneshidden1xx.jpg|Hidden lyrics example 1Image:bboneshidden2yy" number patterns used throughout the ARG for ''Year Zero''.jpg|Hidden lyrics example 2</gallery>
===Add Violence===Some of the posters from the [[NIN 2017-2018]] touring cycle had ''Year Zero'' imagery (the [[Art Is Resistance]] flag and [[The Presence]]) incorporated into the artwork.
<gallery>===''[[The Slip]]''===Image:Add_Violence_PC.jpg|Physical componentImage:Add_Violence_BC.jpg|While it may only be a coincidence, rotating the cover of ''Add ViolenceBad Witch'' back cover90 degrees to the left presents its grid layout in a way that resembles the track artwork for "[[Image:TITPstillDiscipline]]".jpg|Screenshot from the "This Isn't The Place" video</gallery>
<gallery>==Hidden Lyrics==Image:Bad_witch_cover_alternateSome songs in the trilogy have additional lyrics hidden in various places.jpeg|Alternate CoverImage:Bad_Witch_Back_CoverSome are hidden as "stealth" varnish print in the CD/vinyl liner notes, some are printed in the physical components, some are embedded in the digital distribution, and single lines were placed in some MP3 tags.jpg|''Bad Witch'' back cover</gallery>
===Hidden Lyrics===The trilogy was supported by a back-to-basics touring cycle that mainly visited North America. The main leg of the tour, called [[Cold And Black And Infinite Tour|Cold And Black And Infinite]] and supported by [[The Jesus and Mary Chain]], took place in 2018. The shows saw an incredible variety in the setlists and also some unexpected live song premieres, such as "[[And All That Could Have Been (song)|And All That Could Have Been]]" and "[[The Perfect Drug (song)|The Perfect Drug]]". Another leg of the Cold And Black And Infinite Tour was [[Canceled Pandemic Dates|originally planned for 2020]], but these dates were canceled due to the pandemic. Shows were eventually played in [[NIN 2022|2022]] to close out this era.
==Interviews==[[Category:NIN Discography]]
→Touring
[[Image:Trilogy_artwork.jpeg|thumb|''The Trilogy'' (Apple Music playlist artwork)]]
[[Image:Ntae_cover.jpg|thumb|200px|Halo 29: ''Not The Actual Events'']]
[[Image:Add_Violence_Cover.jpg|thumb|200px|Halo 31: ''Add Violence'']]
[[Image:Bad_Witch_Cover.jpg|thumb|200px|Halo 32: ''Bad Witch'']]
==Tracklist==
===''Not The Actual Events''===
#"[[Branches/Bones]]" – 1:46
#"[[Dear World,]]" – 4:06
#"[[The Idea Of You]]" – 3:27
#"[[Burning Bright (Field On Fire)]]" – 5:50
===''Add Violence''===
#"[[Less Than]]" – 3:30
#"[[The Lovers]]" – 4:09
#"[[Not Anymore]]" – 3:06
#"[[The Background World]]" – 11:44
===''Bad Witch''===
#"[[Shit Mirror]]" – 3:06
#"[[Ahead Of Ourselves]]" – 3:30
==Concept==
In an interview with Lizzy Goodman posted on [[nin.com]], [[Trent Reznor]] explains the trilogy’s concept in detail:
==Themes==The Fragile In an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly''[https:/ Still====/ew.com/music/2018/06/20/trent-reznor-bad-witch-interview/], Reznor explained some of the thematic ideas behind the releases:
===''Add Violence[[The Fragile (halo)|The Fragile]]''/ ' is in part a continuation of the '[[Still]]'Year Zero'===Additional lyrics for "This Isn' story and its ARGt The Place", with elements appearing printed on the front cover and the back cover physical component of the album (''Add Violence'', are a direct quote from "SIMULATION ON[[The Great Below]]", with the line "PRESENCE"I can still feel you, even so far away"2022". Reznor stated during [[2018/09/13 Phoenix, etc), in the music video for AZ|a concert]] that "This Isn't The Place" (Appearance of a "Cedocore" box), and on the physical componentis about [[David Bowie]]. They are all linked together with multiple variations of the panel, mentions referencing the concept of The Trilogy, the physical component appearing itself It can be speculated that this line relates to mourning in the music video, etcboth cases.
==Artworks=''[[With Teeth (halo)|With Teeth]]'' / ''[[Bleedthrough]]''===Lyrics from the track "The Background World" feature a reference to the ''Bleedthrough'' concept, in the line "Is always bleeding through".
==Physical Components==The first two EPs came with "Physical components", optionally purchased items that were something to physically interact with. For ''Not The Actual Events'', a sealed black envelope of artwork and lyric sheets was available, filled with black makeup powder. For ''Add Violence'', a booklet printed in the style of a manual was made, containing artwork, lyrics, and stickers. ''Bad Witch==='' did not have a component, but it's speculated by fans that the act of having to physically queue in the US for tickets for the accompanying tour, was the physical component for this release. This event was officially referred to as the Physical World presale, and each buyer was given a special presentation envelope for their ticket.
==LyricsSupport Tour==''For more information, see [[NIN 2017-2018]]''
==Live==
All songs from the trilogy have been played live except "The Idea Of You", "Not Anymore", "Play The Goddamned Part", and "I'm Not From This World".
==Artworks==
<gallery>
Image:Ntae_alt_4.jpg|''Not The Actual Events'' Alternate digital artwork
Image:Ntae_physical_component.jpg|''Not The Actual Events'' Physical component
Image:bboneshidden1.jpg|Hidden lyrics example 1
Image:bboneshidden2.jpg|Hidden lyrics example 2
Image:Sga_rep.jpg|Lyric card depicting "Reptile" superimposition
Image:Add_Violence_PC.jpg|''Add Violence'' Physical component
Image:Add_Violence_BC.jpg|''Add Violence'' back cover
Image:TITPstill.jpg|Screenshot from the "This Isn't The Place" video
Image:Bad_Witch_Back_Cover.jpg|''Bad Witch'' back cover
</gallery>