March 14, 2016

The work of artist Russell Mills has long had an association with the music world, having crafted some of the cover designs and stage sets for the Cocteau Twins, David Sylvian, Roger Eno and Japan. But for those of you on this site, you most likely would be most familiar with his collaboration with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.

Mills and Reznor first collaborated back from 1994 through 1997, first with all the accompanying art on the band’s landmark album “The Downward Spiral” and all its follow-up singles, remix albums and even the home video VHS collection “Closure.” Reznor once again teamed with Mills for their 2013 album “Hesitation Marks.” In fact, Mills is the one that mentioned the term “hesitation marks” to Reznor which inspired him to make it the album title.

A few months back, Nine Inch Nails and Mills released the epic “Cargo In The Blood” deluxe book. It’s a limited edition 320 page book with all of Russell’s art for “Hesitation Marks,” as well as one piece of an original mixed media painting enclosed. The following is a great 10 minute mini-documentary that goes into detail about the collaborative process between Mills and Reznor, how the art came about for the album and some details about the book project. It’s definitely worth a look.

The sets are still available via either the Nine Inch Nails webstore, or you can visit Mill’s “Cargo In The Blood” website. It retails at a hefty $300 dollars (!), but as the video shows, it’s quite a lot for the die-hard collector!