Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails have shared their lengthy new instrumental track titled “Outside”, which is featured on the soundtrack to the new Netflix film, Bird Box. The eerie 13-minute recording perfectly captures the spirit of the buzzed-about psychological thriller right down to the core, heightening the listener’s emotional sensitivity when watching the eerie new film.
Bird Box, for those who may not be up to date on the latest news in pop culture, is a new film starring Sandra Bullock where a mysterious unseen presence drives people to suicide. Pretty intense, right? So who better to call to help score such violent weirdness than Reznor and Ross, who have notably collaborated on various Hollywood film scores in recent years, including The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in 2011 and Gone Girl in 2014.
The nearly 13-minute piece begins with soft piano notes being played very ominously and softly, setting the groundwork for the possibility of more intense themes beyond the horizon. Sounds of spirits or faint voices can also be heard as the instrumental continues to build into the string sections around the 4:00-minute mark. It isn’t until halfway through at 6:25 when the intimidating low-end notes come in to really drive home the horror one would face in such a fictional predicament.
The entire recording can be heard in the audio-only video below, shared by Reznor earlier this week.
Nine Inch Nails – “Outside” – Bird Box Soundtrack
[Video: Null Corp]
“Like all soundtrack records we release, we aim for these to play like albums that take you on a journey and can exist as companion pieces to films and as their own separate works,” Reznor and Ross explain about the recording in a statement on their website. “We created a significant amount of music and conceptual sound for ‘Bird Box,’ a lot of which never made it to your ears in the final version of the film. We’ve decided to present you with this version of the soundtrack record that represents what ‘Bird Box’ is to us.”
The statement also goes on to reveal that a more expansive and “self-indulgent” physical copy with an additional hour of music will arrive sometime this spring.
Nine Inch Nails recently wrapped their Cold And Black And Infinite North American concert tour back in December, which saw them promote their 2018 studio album, Bad Witch.