The Year Zero Phenomenon

[VoldtaEngler]

By: VoldtaEngler
For many years Trent Reznor has been an icon of sorts in the music industry. Regardless of what you listen to, your bound to tap your toes to any of his songs.
With the up comming release of Nine Inch Nails' new album "Year Zero", a certain phenomenon is occurring, giving fans and listeners a "I need to know what happens next!" and "I just found another piece of the puzzle"

If you haven't been keeping track, there is a trailer video posted on Nin.com showing a simple drive through the desert (as shown through a home cam in the passenger side)...passing a blue road sign....and then a mysterious "thing" appears (later fans call it "The Presence")..video cuts.. It's kinda like watching a trailer for M. Night's "Signs" movie.

Curious i wanted to see it better so i re-round my Quicktime player..and played it slow mo..and discovered the sign didn't read as a normal highway sign would..it read "I am trying to believe"

So i start looking up sites about it, and people also have discovered that piece of the puzzle. What's this puzzle anyway? (I love these type of treasure hunts by the way)

In a viral marketing campaign, clues have been left on tour t-shirts, websites, thumb/pen USB drives left in bathroom stalls containing tracks and/or images from the album and hidden phone recordings.
One of the images found on the USB drive is the following


Putting two and two together in a search engine comes up with a website
http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/

A site about dirty bombs deployed in LA. With the archive a pictures of "missing persons"
More sites were to follow.
Following http://www.artisresistance.com/ looks like a site to spread your voice and opinions about these dirty bom....wait..i think the government is trying to stop me from this! (Visit the site and you'll see what i'm talking about)

So what's next? Where's the next puzzle piece going to be? I haven't personally followed NIN since the Downward Spiral album, but this time i'm sucked in.

Clever Trent...clever..

[Lady Alias]

USB Drives in bathroom stalls? Just randomly wherever? In that case I imagine validity may be an issue.

But, no matter. It is rather interesting. I do love a good treasuring hunt. Yeah, they are advertising, but sheesh, props for the fun and creative take! [similar to what Heroes is doing..hehe..]

[Lady Alias]

[ Unnecessary clarification...i.e. secret websites, hidden links, text messaging, etc. okay pretendididn'tsayanything ]

TRENT

[aXa]

i heard that the drives are not being left in 'random' bathroom stalls. they can be found in the bathrooms at his shows. hope that helps.

[VoldtaEngler]

i heard that the drives are not being left in 'random' bathroom stalls. they can be found in the bathrooms at his shows. hope that helps.

That's what I meant.

[StolenName]

http://www.bethehammer.net/ another link from artisresistence

[Lady Alias]

Oh, okay. That's was I was leaning towards. Thanks for the clarification.
Concert restrooms must be a madhouse then. Hope they are at least clean.

[VoldtaEngler]

More Sites for those interested:
http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/ (this one's neat..erase the graphic on the page)
http://105thairbornecrusaders.com/
http://churchofplano.com/
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/

http://www.uswiretap.com/71839J/
- This site was discovered through the phone number revealed to us in a spectrograph image of 2432.mp3, a file that was contained inside the .rar that "Me, I'm Not" came in. Calling this number revealed a downright scary conversation. The phone conversation can be heard in links found here, or by calling the number '216.333.1810', which is found in the 2432.mp3 file as well as on the text of the actual site.

Another "piece": On one particular tour shirt, much like the old tour shirt, some dates were highlighted, revealing the following number: 13102951040. This is a United States phone number. Calling it reveals a new "sound clip," featuring a small sample of "Survivalism.

Info from Echoing The Sound. Fun stuff. I feel like im in a Lost Episode.

[Rockwulf]

Anybody who puts a USB drive they just "found" in their computer is a retard.

[CherryCola]

and heres me still listerning to pretty hate machine like a retro freak.


it never gets old....well for me anyway

[evilstonermonkey]

for anyone still playin... this articles got a bit of infoo.
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdail...ler-than-lost/

[evilstonermonkey]

additionally, whether your particularly interested or not, you should at least check this one out (its linked to on the original article i just gave)
http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/
very cool... very well done... a little bit creepy, i thought...

EDIT: gah. should mention that you need to drag the picture on that page 'clean' to go anywhere. just click and drag on it.