Drawing its moniker from a Coil track issued in 1984, How to Destroy Angels unites Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor with Mariqueen Maandig—previously the vocalist of West Indian Girl and now Reznor’s spouse—alongside Atticus Ross, whose prior credits include 12 Rounds and NIN. Activity on the project commenced several months after Nine Inch Nails concluded their Wave Goodbye tour with a final performance in September 2009. The ensuing spring saw the outfit issue its inaugural single, “A Drowning,” while a video for “The Space in Between” debuted that May. Shortly thereafter the self-titled debut EP, helmed by Ross, was offered as a free download; in July the same material reached retail on the Null imprint as a physical CD. During 2011 the collective supplied a version of Bryan Ferry’s “Is Your Love Strong Enough” to the soundtrack of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a score also composed by Reznor and Ross. The next year How to Destroy Angels readied An Omen EP, marking their first release for a major label. March 2013 brought the full-length Welcome Oblivion, arriving just after Reznor disclosed plans to tour a reconstituted Nine Inch Nails lineup in 2014. The album climbed to number 30 on the Billboard 200 and spotlighted the single “How Long?”
