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[[Image:Bad_Witch_Cover.jpg|thumb|200px|Halo 32: ''Bad Witch''<br />[https://amzn.to/2rzrvFn Find on Amazon] - [http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=9&pub=5574848848&toolid=10001&campid=5336384580&customid=&icep_uq=nine+inch+nails+bad+witch&icep_sellerId=&icep_ex_kw=&icep_sortBy=12&icep_catId=&icep_minPrice=&icep_maxPrice=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg Find on eBay]]][[Image:Bad_witch_cover_alternate.jpeg|thumb|200px|Alternate Cover]]

'''''Bad Witch''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 32]]''''') will be was released on June 22, 2018 on Capitol Records. This album acts as the third installment of a '''[[The Trilogy|trilogy]]''' by [[Nine Inch Nails]], following the 2016 release of ''[[Not The Actual Events]]'' and the 2017 release of ''[[Add Violence]]''. The album leaked on June 18, 2018.

Like the two previous releases, ''Bad Witch'' will be is available as a 12" vinyl, a digital download and as a CD. Despite the fact that ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' were marketed as EPs, ''Bad Witch'' is marketed as an album. In a post on [[ETS]], [[Trent Reznor]] explained the decision behind the format change by stating that "EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today’s music-isn’t-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore?"

''Bad Witch'' was officially announced on May 10, 2018. The official [[nin.com]] website description states:"CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL." This is likely a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave]

On May 19, 2018, at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to hear the songs "Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Goddamned Part" before the album's release. The album makes use of saxophone on several tracks, more than any previous NIN recording. This is explained in an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly''[http://ew.com/music/2018/06/20/trent-reznor-bad-witch-interview/], where the interviewer compares the use of sax to that on [[David Bowie]]'s ''Blackstar'': <blockquote>Clearly, Bowie is front of mind, and that was certainly an influence. In terms of the precision of arrangement, I think back to [being] younger, reading about Psychedelic Furs as a bunch of students that all picked instruments and learned enough to make a record. As someone that had studied his ass off how to play an instrument, I thought, "CONCLUSIONYou can do that?" Some people worried about technique or if it’s in tune, or if it’s played well. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL[For ''Bad Witch'', I thought] let’s just use it and add to the mayhem and message we are trying to convey. All this time [the sax] had been just sitting in my studio staring at me. Taunting me."</blockquote> ==LP Title==Unlike the two preceding EPs, the title of ''Bad Witch'' is not derived from a lyric sung or printed in the album’s digital or liner notes. A definitive explanation of the title is yet to be revealed. ==Artwork==[[Image:Bad_Witch_Back_Cover.jpg|thumb|''Bad Witch'' back cover]][[Image:Despair.jpeg|thumb|"Despair" by Perham Nahl]]The "scratch marks" seen in the ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' cover artworks appear in a different form on the right border of the back cover of this album.  An alternate front cover was found, depicting different hues and contrasts on all five boxes, as well as a different hand and a different computer chip. The alternate cover appeared on a Caroline Records promo CD.

In an interview with Lizzy Goodman posted on ninThe middle bottom row image is adapted from a painting entitled "Despair" by Perham Nahl.[https://archive.comorg/details/artincalifornias00port/page/n175/mode/2up] The computer chip, Reznor explains within the trilogy’s concept in detailfifth box, appears to be an image of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004 Intel 4004 CPU].

<blockquote>"But to be clear, the record isn’t about Trump, it’s about making sense of the world. The first record, In an interview with ''Not the Actual EventsRolling Stone''[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nine-inch-nails-atticus-ross-talks-stage-fright-and-trent-reznors-musical-genius-702117/], was more of an internal fantasy of what if I lit Atticus commented: "There's a match to my life and just embraced burning the whole fucking thing down. You know? All primitive aspect or reflection of this is an illusion and I really should be dead or lying who we are 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 timethese times on there. It wasn’t a pleasant thing, but it felt seems like, that’s a story to tellwe've been led. And if felt like something I needed to internally processthink we implied that in the cover, staring at shadows on the wall."

And that supported other things that were interesting to us like aggressive music and a sense of the self-referentialIn an interview with Covet The Cover on Instagram[https://www.instagram.com/covet_the_cover/p/C4OmwiFLpJo/?img_index=1], looking back at other albums and pilfering bits of designer Hassan Rahim elaborated more on the art design process:<blockquote>"Trent provided two key words: primitive spirituality," says Rahim. The NIN frontman Reznor went on to confuse people and also because I was thinking about those records. To try picking up a guitarsay that ''Bad Witch'' represented "not literally witchcraft but the unexplainable, which I told myself I would never do again for whatever reason and findingmagic, you know what? It sounds fucking good. Listening back and goingnature, you know what? That was a good song from 25 years agobelief… not in the scientific kind of way but the unknowable, it’s not bad to play something like that. There are no rules. That was what’s beyond the first recordthreshold of death."


It wasn’t fully mapped out but it After researching hundreds of public domain photos around the themes, the final creative solution was meant to feel like if we broke up one big record – if it was ''Downward Spiral''make the cover "a sequential puzzle of images. More cryptic than explanatory. Alluding to unidentified aerial phenomena, which has actsfear, if we do an album like thatsuperstition, but release one act at a timecollapse of civilisation, 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 anymoreultimately rebirth."

With the second one, ''Add Violence'', the idea This imagery wasput through a repetitive degenerative "feedback loop" of photographing, loosely, to zoom outcopying and scanning, 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 offachieve its distinctive aesthetic. </blockquote>

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 ==Credits==*Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor and as a species are probably an accident, a mutation. Really what we are is fucking animals. And the illusion was enlightenment. The more 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 beingsAtticus Ross<br> *Written, we’re bacteria in a jar. I wanted the art direction of Bad Witch 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 realityarranged, and this is the opposite of thatproduced, this is dirt programmed and a broken computer chip performed by Trent Reznor and everything you believe in is really just bullshit."Atticus Ross</blockquotebr> *Additional vocals "Shit Mirror": [[Mariqueen Maandig Reznor]] and Ian Astbury<br>On May 19, 2018, *Mix: [[Alan Moulder]]*Engineering: Chris Richardson and Justin McGrath*Mastering: Tom Baker at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to hear the songs "Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Goddamned Part" before the album's release.Baker Mastering<br>

==LP Title==*Art Direction: 12:01- Office of Hassan RahimUnlike the two preceding EPs*Legal: Zia Modabber for Katten Munchin Rosenman LLP, the title of "Bad Witch" is not derived from a lyric sung or printed in the album’s digital or liner notes. A definitive explanation of the title is yet to be revealedRoss Rosen for Ross B.Rosen & Associates, LLC*Management: Silva Artist Management*Booking: Marc Geiger for WME*Business Management: William Harper and Michael Walsh for Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman<br>

==Artwork==[[ImageThank you:Bad_Witch_Back_Cover.jpg|thumb|''Bad Witch'' back cover]]The "scratch marks" seen in the ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' cover artworks appear in a different form on the right border of the back cover of this album. Mariqueen Maandig Reznor, Claudia Sarne, Steve Barnett, Michelle Jubelirer, Ashley Newton, Ambrosia Healy, Arjun Pulijal, Erin Cooney, Ed Scott, Jim Chancellor, Andrew Lazonby, Cesar Rosas<br>

An alternate front cover was found, depicting different hues © 2018 Form and contrasts on all five boxesTexture (ASCAP) / Administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, as well as a different hand and a different computer chip.Songs In the Key of Mink (BMI) / Administered by Downtown DMP Songs

==Live==All songs from ''Bad Witch'' have been played live except "Play The computer chip, within the fifth box, appears to be an image of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004 Intel 4004 CPU]Goddamned Part" and "I'm Not From This World".

|after=TBD[[Ghosts V: Together]]}}