Yup, I picked it up on Tuesday. I love it though it's going to be one of those CD's you either really like, or probably dislike. It's almost 'old-school' industrial in it's sound, very gritty and simplistic beat and melody-wise. Not a lot of the sweeping Reznor type songs that really build. Though it does seem to be pretty artistic and different with all it's 'glitchy' sounds. It's definitely more artistic than his last album. The whole feel of the album is pretty dark of course, given that it's a context album about the dangers facing the U.S. system in the future, that could be expected.
So much of the experience is going to all the Year Zero sites (phoning the numbers, usng the e-mail addresses) and such and really absorbing the lyrics. I was geeking out on all the sites before the CD was released, was a lot of fun and very interesting.
Reznor says he's going to continue the Year Zero phenomena for about 18 months after the release of the CD so that should be fun.
Yup the CD changes color, did a double take wehn I popped it out of my car, 'I SWEAR this was grey when I put it in'.
It reveals binary code that can be converted to ASCII to give another Year Zero website.