After some years of Trent Reznor and now-regular studio partner Atticus Ross doing soundtrack work and participating in the How To Destroy Angels project, Nine Inch Nails formally returned with Hesitation Marks, something of a conceptual sequel to The Downward Spiral down to the artwork by Russell Mills. It was in ways a more understated Reznor at work this time around; while there was nervous energy evidenced on songs like “Copy Of A” and especially “Everything,” the nearest he’s ever gotten to pop-punk, in general Hesitation Marks aimed for the quiet and considered, a record as aftershock.