Vocalist Mariqueen Maandig brings light to the dark proceedings.


Trent Reznor, on hiatus as Nine Inch Nails' visionary, explores a less aggressive corridor of his dark imagination in the moody, synth-driven, post-apocalyptic sounds of How to Destroy Angels, a collective named after a 1984 track by British drone duo Coil.

After releasing two EPs, three singles and five videos since 2010, Destroy finally delivers Welcome to Oblivion (* * * out of four), its debut album, marked by Reznor's nihilism and electronic brio but dominated by his wife Mariqueen Maandig, a compelling vocalist whose cooing, shouts and pretty warbling often counter Oblivion's digital chill and unrelenting melancholy.

Desolation and tedium tend to swamp the needed tension in a few tracks, but the group, which also features Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, brilliantly cobbles its sinister soundscape from machined rhythms, otherworldly effects and dreamy melodic patches.

Download: Ice Age, Strings and Attractors