Nine Inch Nails Signs To Columbia, Will Release New Album in 2013

Reunited industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails have signed a new deal with Columbia Records, which will release the group's eighth studio album later this year.

The announcement arrives three months after band mastermind Trent Reznor officially reformed his most high-profile project for an extended tour that will kick off this summer. Reznor told Billboard last year that he had been writing new NIN songs, in spite of a dormancy that began after the group performed its final show together in Sept. 2009.

Since then, Reznor worked with Atticus Ross on the original scores for 2010's "The Social Network" and 2011's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the former of which earned him a Golden Globe and Academy Award. He also released an album with a side project, How To Destroy Angels, last March.

"I've been less than honest about what I've really been up to lately," says Reznor in a press release. "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!"

In a note to fans last February, Reznor announced that he would be touring as Nine Inch Nails beginning this summer and into 2014 with Eric Avery, Adrian Below, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis and Ilan Rubin. Avery since dropped out of the lineup, and was replaced by Robin Finck.

Nine Inch Nails will perform at Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Leeds, Reading, Made In America and Voodoo this year, among other festivals. Reznor performed with How To Destroy Angels at Coachella last month, after Columbia released the group's debut album, "Welcome Oblivion," in March.

The Nine Inch Nails signing marks another major coup for Columbia, after the label announced a deal with Daft Punk earlier this year and orchestrated a much-ballyhooed marketing rollout of the French duo's fourth album, "Random Access Memories." Nine Inch Nails' last two released, "Ghosts I-IV" and "The Slip," were released independently on Reznor's the Null Corporation label, and have sold 149,000 and 112,000 respective copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.