Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction

It has been at least two decades since Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction burst on the scene, inflaming imaginations with their decadent, hard-edged sound. The flame still burns bright. Indeed, this is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Jane's Addiction has reunited with its original lineup for the first time since '91, laying down a couple of classic unreleased tracks (available for free from tour site, ninja2009.com) and cutting material for a new, as-yet-unfinished album. The new tracks bristle with the band's signature white-hot tribal throb, fueled by leader Perry Farrell's inimitable shamanistic vocals. Trent Reznor, meanwhile, has recovered from a career trough extending more than a dozen years, with consecutive terrific albums — the richly conceived 2007 concept album Year Zero and last year's lean and mean free download, The Slip — since leaving Interscope. Reznor's latest cuts (featured on the aforementioned download site) confirm that no one is better at forging dark, evocative, atmospheric industrial rock.