Industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails have not only just closed Jay Z's Made In America festival with a triumphant headline slot, they have also dropped a new album, Hesitation Marks, out today (3rd September).

Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor's Back To Get Freaky.

Trent Reznor's band have signalled their return to music, having taken time off to focus on other projects, by playing at the UK's Reading and Leeds Festivals and most recently the Made In America festival in Philadelphia in a hotly anticipated headline slot. Taking to the Rocky Stage on the Sunday night of the festival, Reznor humbly thanked the crowd for being there before ripping into a hit-packed set.

Watch The Video For Nine Inch Nails' Single 'Came Back Haunted':

During the festival that had seen mainstream acts such as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Miguel, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris and Emeli Sandé take to the stage, Nine Inch Nails could have pulled a larger crowd. As Billboard describes the scenario, "Made In America was not made for this kind of headliner." However, the hard core of fans that were in attendance to watch the 90s industrial rockers play songs old and new certainly weren't tempted to wander off out of boredom; Trent and co. brought the freaky atmospherics and weird, vindictive, and sexual lyrics that fans love, in a big way, and gave fans the show they deserved after enduring manufactured pop, dance and hip-hop all day.

Nine Inch Nails
The Band Have Performed Sets At UK & US Festivals.

Jay Z was rumoured to be making an appearance at the end of NIN's set but never arrived, perhaps due to the underwhelming crowd size. Unphased by a slightly thinner crowd than the Ohio rockers may have been used to, "Nine Inch Nails presented a furiously paced, sonically rich show," praises Billboard. The band injected new life into older hits that they repeatedly smashed out, including 'March of the Pigs,' 'Head Like A Hole,' and, of course, the skin crawling 'Closer.'

Trent Reznor NIN
The Band Are Now Embarking On A US Tour.

At the close of a festival laden summer, Nine Inch Nails have now released their eighth studio album Hesitation Marks, as they prepare to embark on a North American tour. NME reviews NIN's effort "this is the sound of a cleaner, smoother Nine Inch Nails, one that delights in complexities of rhythm more than caustic blasts of rage."

If you're still wary of NME's opinion after the overly vindictive Tom Odell review, then Rolling Stone also reportedly enjoyed NIN's new record. "Reznor's first NIN album in five years, it is one of his best, combining the textural exploration on the 1999 double CD The Fragile, and the tighter fury of his 1994 master blast, The Downward Spiral," nods RS.

Trent Reznor Singing
Hesitation Marks
Is A Step In The Right Direction.

The album's name - derived from the term 'hesitation wounds' where a self-harmer tests a blade - perhaps references 48 year-old frontman Reznor's battle with substance abuse and has certainly been through some dark times. Now a sober father, with successful soundtracks for The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo under his belt, Reznor guides the band towards a more direct, smoother sound than the feedback-driven fuzz they once signified.

The consensus is: Hesitation Marks delivers. This wasn't a get-richer-quick scheme to reignite the passions of fans who were there for the darker moments on the Broken EP in the 90s, this is a well-time blood-let that will entice fans old and new into the seductively sinful folds of the NIN soundscape.