Having recently and radically reinvented themselves - and their business model - with recent album Ghosts I - IV, Trent Reznor and team are back with another 45 minutes of brand new music. The Slip, released free as a download and licensed again under the Creative Commons license, follows up musically and conceptually on themes already explored on Ghosts I - IV as well as on older projects like Year Zero, With Teeth and The Fragile. Ambient electronic loops mingle with dark lyrics and searing rock riffs to create a progressive and at times prophetic tapestry, which begins with the ambient 999,999, morphs into the scintillating rock of 1,000,000, and the post-disco of Discipline and ends with seven-minute meditations like Corona Radiate. Along the way are some classic NIN moments. Head Down harks back to a more traditional sound, while The Lights in the Sky wont surprise anyone that knows Reznors fondness for blending pretty piano melodies with morbid lyricism. There are indulgences here-not least the eleven-minute The Four of Us Are Dying-but many will consider it a small price to pay for such beautiful sonic bravery.