This past Sunday, HBO aired the first episode of Watchmen, the new Damon Lindeloff adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic-book classic. It ruled. One of the best things about it was the score, which, as we learned last year, comes from Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and his longtime collaborator Atticus Ross. The day after HBO aired the episode, Reznor and Ross announced that they would release three Watchmen soundtrack albums over the course of the season. Today, we get to hear what that music sounds like without waiting around all impatiently for the next-week-on-Watchmen video clip.

Reznor and Ross’ end-credits music for the first Watchmen episode works as an argument that you might want to buy these soundtrack albums — that they won’t just be ominous tones that lose all meaning when they’re divorced from their images. The music — posted last night to Nine Inch Nails’ YouTube account — basically sounds like two stitched-together NIN instrumentals. The first is an itchy, thumping gothic dance track that reminds me of the Knife. The second is a slow-churn synthpop brooder that still has a serious pulse to it. You could easily imagine Reznor howling about how mad he is over either of these.

Right now, Reznor and Ross are keeping the details of those soundtrack albums secret — cover art, track titles, everything. That’s part of the fun. But the main draw is still the music, and this track shows why. Listen below.

The first of the Watchmen soundtrack albums is out 11/4, and it’s called How The Rest Was Really Won. You can pre-order all three albums here.