[5][6] Hesitation Marks received positive reviews from critics, with the new sound attracting praise, which some found to be a natural evolution from their previous work.

For the last year I've been secretly working non-stop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great.

My forays into film, HTDA and other projects really stimulated me creatively and I decided to focus that energy on taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place.

"[16]The album began life as a couple of tracks that were meant to be included in a forthcoming greatest hits package for Interscope Records.

[5][6] Each version of the album has its own cover with artwork by Russell Mills[22] whose art was previously used 19 years earlier on The Downward Spiral, its accompanying singles, and the double VHS set Closure.

He also described the artworks as a "cross between the forensic and a pathology of the personal in which only fragments remain, in which minimal clues can suggest events that may have occurred.

"[25] During the creation of the cover arts, Mills used traditional materials such as oils, acrylic paints, varnishes and wires as well as miscellaneous objects which were subject to various chemical processes, including burning, bleaching, calcification and erosion.

[34] AllMusic critic and senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated: "Hesitation Marks makes it quite clear that Trent Reznor is no longer an angry young man but rather a restless, inventive artist who is at peace with himself, and the result is a record that provides real, lasting nourishment.

"[43] Dave Simpson of The Guardian wrote: "Hesitation Marks is a very different beast to an intense industrial classic such as 1994's The Downward Spiral, but the darkness remains in lyrics that address self-doubt and the struggle for identity with honesty and candour.

"[38] Writing for Kerrang!, George Garner inferred that "Hesitation Marks would provide Nine Inch Nails with a future every bit as promising as their illustrious past.

"[44] NME critic Louis Pattison stated: "This is the sound of a cleaner, smoother Nine Inch Nails, one that delights in complexities of rhythm more than caustic blasts of rage.

"[39] Stuart Berman of Pitchfork wrote that the album is "much more in tune with the spartan grooves of the xx and the elastic electro of the Knife than his [Reznor's] usual arena-rattling influences.

"[40] David Fricke of Rolling Stone described the album as "one of Reznor's best", stating that "it combines the textural exploration on the 1999 double CD The Fragile, and the tighter fury of his 1994 master blast, The Downward Spiral.

"[1] Christopher R. Weingarten of Spin regarded the album as "the most important artistic statement from NIN leader Trent Reznor since the late '90s.