When Trent launched Project: Retire NIN back in 2009, I watched him get emotional onstage at 2AM on a Bonnaroo night as he realized these were his last Nine Inch notes on American soil. Of course nobody believed it was actually the end forever, but for a few people bawling their eyes out nearby — and of course, it wasn’t even the end for that year (he soon announced more formal “final” shows for that year). And while he’s been plenty busy with marriage, Oscars, and destroying angles_ ever since, Trent’s been cooking up his Project: Return NIN for quite awhile. These past few months he’s made it official: Trent’s already said the band will be rebuilt from scratch for a tour through 2014, and today’s news gives that tour some promotional purpose: Nine Inch Nails will release “their” eighth album on Columbia Records later this year. After publishing, I am going to email this post to those Bonnaroo weepers, with the subject of “Told You!” and a .gif illustrating my inability to believe anything anyone says anymore. Blogging’s fun!

Here’s Reznor with that full “fucking great” quote, and how he’s been “less than honest” with us lately. (In all fairness, deceit is something he’s extraordinarily good at.) Read:

I’ve been less than honest about what I’ve really been up to lately. For the last year I’ve been secretly working nonstop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great. This is the real impetus and motivation behind the decision to assemble a new band and tour again. My forays into film, HTDA and other projects really stimulated me creatively and I decided to focus that energy on taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place. Here we go!

(via Billboard)

You can catch the new-look Nine Inch Nails — featuring Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) Robin Finck, King Crimson’s Adrian Belew, and techno band Telefon Tel Aviv’s Josh Eustis, Alessandro Cortini, and Ilan Rubin — on the festival circuit (Lolla, Outside Lands, Reading & Leeds, Made In America, Voodoo, etc.) and elsewhere. Time to add another chapter to the deconstruction. We will, of course, keep you posted.