It was never meant to be Nine Inch Nails 2.0. When How to Destroy Angels first emerged in 2010, the music world scrambled to figure out if this was just a vanity project or a genuine evolution of industrial music. Honestly, it was a bit of both. You’ve got Trent Reznor, the mastermind behind some of the most aggressive music of the 90s, teaming up with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig Reznor, and long-time collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan. It felt different. It was cold, clinical, yet strangely human.
The name itself isn't original—it’s a nod to a 1984 Coil single. That tells you everything you need to know about their DNA. They weren't looking for radio hits. They were looking for textures.
People often forget how quiet the launch was. No massive PR blitz. Just a self-titled EP that dropped out of nowhere. It’s funny because, at the time, Reznor had "retired" Nine Inch Nails from touring. Fans were desperate. What they got instead was something claustrophobic and rhythmic. It wasn't about the "destruction" of angels in a literal, biblical sense; it was about the destruction of expectations.
The Sonic Architecture of How to Destroy Angels
Most people get the "sound" of this band wrong. They hear the glitchy electronics and think it's just leftovers from the Year Zero sessions. It’s not. The focus here is almost entirely on Mariqueen’s vocals. Unlike Reznor’s signature distorted scream, her voice acts as a melodic anchor in a sea of digital noise. It’s a contrast that shouldn't work, but somehow, it does.
Think about the track "The Space in Between." It’s slow. It’s agonizingly sparse.
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The production relies heavily on the Buchla 200e, a modular synthesizer known for its unpredictable, organic sequences. Atticus Ross has spoken at length in interviews with Sound on Sound about how they wanted to avoid the "grid-like" feel of modern DAWs. They wanted the machines to breathe, even if that breath felt a little metallic and dusty. It’s that imperfection that makes their only full-length album, Welcome Oblivion, so polarizing.
Some critics called it "mood music for a dystopia that’s already here."
Others felt it was too similar to the soundtrack work Reznor and Ross were doing for David Fincher. But if you listen closely to a song like "How Long?", there’s a pop sensibility there that NIN rarely touches. It’s catchy. Sorta. In a dark, "the world is ending" kind of way.
Why the 2013 Hiatus Never Really Ended
After the Welcome Oblivion tour, the band basically vanished. There was no big breakup announcement. No drama. They just stopped.
What happened?
Well, Nine Inch Nails came back. Hesitation Marks happened in 2013, and Reznor’s focus shifted back to the main machine. Then came the Oscars. Then came the work on Soul and The Social Network. How to Destroy Angels became a casualty of success. It was a boutique project that required a specific headspace—one that apparently hasn't returned in over a decade.
There’s also the Rob Sheridan factor. Sheridan was the visual architect of the band. His "glitch art" aesthetic defined their music videos and live performances. When he moved on to other projects, the visual identity of the group was severed. For a band that relied so heavily on the marriage of sight and sound, that’s a hard hole to fill.
The Influence on Modern Dark Electronic Music
You can see their fingerprints everywhere now.
Artists like Billie Eilish or Phoebe Bridgers (in her darker moments) utilize that same "whisper-vocal over heavy bass" dynamic that Maandig Reznor pioneered in this specific context. It’s a blueprint for making electronic music feel intimate rather than just loud.
- The EP (2010): Gritty, experimental, and a bit raw.
- An Omen EP (2012): A bridge to the full-length, featuring "Keep it Together."
- Welcome Oblivion (2013): The definitive statement.
If you're looking for a starting point, skip the hits. Go straight to "A Drowning." It’s seven minutes long and perfectly encapsulates the dread and beauty the band was chasing.
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The Reality of a Reunion
Is it going to happen? Honestly, probably not anytime soon.
Reznor is notoriously protective of his time these days. Between scoring major films and running the NIN empire, a niche project like How to Destroy Angels is a low priority. However, the 2022 Nine Inch Nails tour saw Mariqueen join the band on stage to perform several HTDA tracks. It was the first time in nearly a decade those songs were played live. It proved the chemistry is still there.
But a new album? That requires a specific kind of silence that the Reznor-Ross duo doesn't seem to have much of lately.
The legacy of the band isn't in their sales numbers—which were modest—but in their atmospheric contribution to the genre. They proved that industrial music could be subtle. They showed that you could "destroy" the angelic, pristine nature of digital audio by dragging it through the mud and making it beautiful again.
Actionable Steps for Exploring the HTDA Catalog
If you want to actually understand the depth of this project, don't just stream it on your phone speakers. This is headphone music. Specifically, you should:
- Listen to "The Believers" on a high-fidelity system. Pay attention to the panning of the percussion. It’s designed to feel like it’s moving inside your skull.
- Watch the "How Long?" music video. It was directed by the London-based collective Shynola and serves as a masterclass in visual storytelling through a post-apocalyptic lens.
- Compare the vocal processing. Notice how Mariqueen’s voice is often left dry and center, while the instruments are heavily manipulated. It creates a "human vs. machine" tension that defines their entire discography.
- Track the Gear. If you're a producer, look up the use of the Swarmatron. It’s the same instrument used for the Social Network score, and it’s the secret sauce behind those eerie, sliding drones in "The Space in Between."
The project remains a singular moment in time. It was a family affair that happened to produce some of the most unsettlingly beautiful music of the early 2010s. Whether they ever return or not, the three existing releases offer plenty of layers to peel back for anyone tired of the standard industrial tropes.