Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.7/10
Metacritic	74/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
The A.V. Club	B-
Alternative Press
Consequence of Sound	C
Exclaim!	6/10
Pitchfork	6.3/10
Sputnikmusic

Not the Actual Events is an extended play by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released physically on December 23, 2016, under Trent Reznor's own label The Null Corporation, but those who had pre-ordered it received a download link a day early. The second Nine Inch Nails EP following Broken in 1992, it marks long-time collaborator Atticus Ross's first appearance as an official member of the band. It was released digitally and on vinyl. The digital pre-orders include a "physical component" that was to be shipped in January 2017.

In an interview promoting Apple Music, Trent Reznor mentioned he has started "messing around with some things" in regards to a new Nine Inch Nails album, stating, "It's not a record I'm trying to finish in a month. It's more just feeling around in the dark and seeing what sounds interesting." In December 2015, Reznor reported that "Nine Inch Nails will return in 2016". He and Atticus Ross later scored the soundtracks for Before the Flood and Patriots Day in 2016.

In December 2016, Reznor commented on his statement regarding Nine Inch Nails' return by the end of the year: "Those words did come out of my mouth, didn't they? [...] Just wait and see what happens." Three days later, Reznor announced Not the Actual Events, along with reissues of Nine Inch Nails' previous releases.

The EP marks a return to Nine Inch Nails's 1990's sound, departing from the texture and groove-oriented style of the previous album, Hesitation Marks. Nevertheless, it also preserves electronic elements of the Hesitation Marks and Year Zero, but features "more organic elements" such as "noisy guitars, nostalgic piano lines and heavily distorted bass used on The Fragile and With Teeth." Reznor described the record as “an unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make.” The sound of the EP has also been labeled as industrial metal.

...
Wikipedia