Trent Reznor is giving his fans The Slip.

Less than two months after giving away part of his instrumental set Ghosts online, the prolific Nine Inch Nails mastermind is at it again. Early yesterday morning, Reznor surprised the music community by dishing up another freebie: His new full-length effort The Slip.

"As a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new Nine Inch Nails album 100% free, exclusively via nin.com," reads a posting on Reznor's website. "We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.

"For those of you interested in physical products, fear not. We plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in July. Details coming soon."

Getting the tunes yesterday from Reznor's unresponsive site was easier said than done, likely due to massive traffic. But as with Ghosts, the 43-minute Slip quickly spread to file-sharing torrent sites, where users applauded Reznor's methods.

"Once again NiN rulz," commented a fan calling himself Donfallo. "Look and learn how the artist should act ... Bravo for Mr. El Rezzo."

Fans will likely be applauding The Slip on its own terms. Unlike the haunting instrumentals of Ghosts, these 10 tracks are a welcome return to the noisy aggression and angst of classic Reznor. The set list is dominated by walloping, distortion-filled industrial rockers like 1,000,000, Letting You and Discipline, augmented by a mournful piano ballad called Lights in the Sky and some ominous soundscapes like The Four of Us Are Dying.

And hey, even if it isn't quite up there with The Downward Spiral, you can't complain about the price.

Track Listing:

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. letting you
4. discipline
5. echoplex
6. head down
7. lights in the sky
8. corona radiata
9. the four of us are dying
10. demon seed