Coachella 2026 was not the first time an act has gotten its name out there via a festival poster, but Nine Inch Noize is a standout example of the practice. The excitement and speculation as to what the title, which is a clear illusion to previous collaborators Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize, might be teasing: the subsequent performance went down as one of the most celebrated of the entire festival, cementing the success of Reznor and Ridha’s partnership. Just a little while later, the studio version of ‘Nine Inch Noize’ is out, and it’s pretty much what you’d want it to be.

It’s difficult to begin dissecting a record you can’t even define, and ‘Nine Inch Noize’ is the rare example of an album that defies the label— it exists somewhere between a live recording, a proper studio effort and a remix project, pushing crowd noise and hyper-precise electronic loops up against one another in a manner that feels quite bizarre. It seems clear that this collaborative release is aiming, first and foremost, to recapture the excitement and the energy of that Coachella performance, which would explain why the record flows more like an EDM setlist than a traditional Nine Inch Nails album. Just look at the way the urgent keys of ‘Closer’ are teased even before that iconic drumbeat comes in, or at how the ‘Parasite’ cover flows so seamlessly out of ‘Heresy:’ for all the doctoring and remixing going on here, ‘Nine Inch Noize’ still wants to feel organic and passionate in every moment. Even when Reznor is ‘playing the hits,’ so to speak, the man can’t help but inject a venom into his work that you just don’t see on stages so big.

Still, this remixed outing is much more interesting for its thumping electronic beats than for its elements of rock— if you’re listening to the 2026 version of ‘Vessel’ over the 2007 original, it must be for the sleek style that Boys Noize brings to the table. It’s ironic that this first attempt at justifying this off-the-wall collaboration feels strangely tepid, with Reznor’s refrain of “can we go any faster” going entirely unanswered: the songs chosen for ‘Nine Inch Noize’ tend to lean away from their more harsh, industrial tendencies, and the urgency that sold a record like ‘The Downward Spiral’ (or hell, even something more mainstream like ‘With Teeth’) is lost in the process. It’s not until ‘Heresy’ that we finally get a taste of the album to come, with Ridha seemingly let loose to rip apart and rejuvenate this stone-cold classic. It’s here, and in the complete confidence that defines the following ‘Parasite,’ that ‘Nine Inch Noize’ begins to demand your attention— love it or hate it, you must admit that the record’s concept is intriguing, at the absolute least.

From then on, the album proceeds to deliver precisely what its title promises, with some small caveats. Frequently, one can’t help but wish that Boys Noize had gone just a little further to amp up the source material, especially when so many Nine Inch Nails songs are defined by their volume and aggression— on a cut like ‘Me, I’m Not,’ it can feel like the band are treading water without every truly breaking the surface. What the project loses in standout moments, though, it makes up for in the downright arrogance in its execution. You can see Reznor dangling ‘Closer’ in front of your nose from a mile off, and even if the track is begging for a more daring remix, this version is nonetheless a crunchier, groovier counterpart to the original: you could say much the same for ‘As Alive As You Need Me To Be,’ which is allowed more room to breathe here than on the ‘Tron: Ares’ soundtrack. It’s no surprise that the best moments on ‘Nine Inch Noize’ are the daring blasts that overtake ‘Memorabilia’ and ‘Came Back Haunted’— this isn’t the most arresting electronica of the year, but it’s damn good.

Nine Inch Nails are a band of constant reinvention, and their latest project is yet another evolution of their sound: Boys Noize does a lot to uproot and repackage a tonne of classic hits here, giving us versions of ‘Heresy’ and ‘The Warning’ that may just overshadow the originals. ‘Nine Inch Noize’ does feel like it falls short of the overwhelming potential of its conception, but that is an extremely high bar— ultimately, the record is as alive as we needed it to be, and that’s no bad thing.