Breathy, hushed vocals drift over a sparse instrumental track, a stark piano and stuttering mechanised drum sound are familiar territory for Trent Reznor in his latter day work. In working this vein, ‘Keep it Together’, the EP’s first track, sounds like an intro for a song that never happens. And so the first feeling is one of disappointment. The second is of even greater disappointment, for it’s pretty much the same as How to Destroy Angels’ previous output. It’s woefully predictable and is everything we’ve come to expect.
Less expected is the hippy folk country sound of ‘Ice Age’. It doesn’t need to be seven minutes long though, because pleasant as it is, it doesn’t really go anywhere either, and its novelty value soon gives way to tedium.
It’s back to business as usual thereafter, with the dominant drum track on ‘On the Wing’ sounding very like a reprocessed ‘Suck’ with a few strings bits thrown in behind the quietly tuneful vocals. ‘I don’t believe in anything,’ Reznor croons. It’s half-believable, but even his nihilism feels tired and too off-pat to really convince these days. it’s all too safe, and if Trent suffers any kind of existential angst these days, it’s surely more about his artistic direction and his tax bill than apocalyptic rage and self-doubt. The cinematic tribal clank of closer ‘Speaking in Tongues’ is by far the most interesting track, with its ominous tension and discordant intrusions.
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After the abomination that was Reznor and Atticus Ross’ cover of ‘Immigrant Song’, the understated dark ambience of ‘An Omen EP’ is most welcome, but that doesn’t make it anything special.
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