Yesterday Nine Inch Nails released a concert DVD entitled Beside You in Time. We thought this meant we were getting a day off from this whole Year Zero Project, but some eagle-eyed NIN message boarder noticed that on the Blu-Ray Edition of the BYIT packaging, in expiration-date lettering, read the words “Secure,” “Broadcast,” “Informatics.” Add a “.com” and voila: www.securebroadcastinformatics.com.

The page resembles a futuristic Yousendit in disrepair. Reconstruct the scrambled puzzle pieces, enter the password “matt26:45-46″ (an appropriate Bible passage) and another site pops up: www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.com/pilgrims.

With the next site, Trent and the YZ crew have engineered a time capsule from the Year Zero (fifteen years from now). We learn that books are banned, perhaps the reason many of the project’s websites feature hidden text. This time it’s John Milton’s anti-censorship plea Aeropagitica. We also learn that the site operates illegally, as a means for the people of the future to catalog and spread banned art. There’s likewise a bunch of Quantum Physics talk, but that’s out of our ballpark. Maybe one of you is an expert in the space/time continuum? Help us out. What does it all mean?

[Thanks to the NINHotline]

For a few days, things were relatively quiet on the NIN front. It seemed like Trent Reznor was giving us a weekend break from obsessing over his Year Zero abyss of phantom websites, eerie phone messages and leaked album tracks. But as early as 9 a.m. EST Sunday, fans learned the Nine Inch Nails’ Manchester show would provide another leaked track. (If you have no idea what we’re talking about, this primer should get you caught up on the phenomenon.)

The Manchester clue? As we’ve previously documented, when a pixel blob appears next to one of the songs listed here, fans should be on the lookout for USB drives. At 3 p.m. EST, message boarders learned that a USB drive had been discovered. (more…)

It is no longer 2007. According to Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero mania sweeping the internation, we’re almost three months into -15 BA (Born Again). In the semi-terrifying world of Trent Reznor’s new future-based concept album, the year 2022 is Year Zero, the year we were “Born Again.” Every 12 months prior to Year Zero is denoted by negatives, thus 2007 is -15 BA. If this confuses you, give up now.

In what has to be the most innovative promotion scheme since the leaked sex tape, NIN have treated their fans to a sort of Where’s Waldo game that includes tour merchandising, a dizzying network of websites and, umm, bathrooms in European concert halls. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t checking echoingthesound, the main fan checkpoint, every hour to see what the latest update is.

In case you’ve been living under a rock (without internet), let us catch you up: (more…)