Two years after the group's original EP,
How to Destroy Angels delivered a second EP,
An Omen EP, in November of 2012. Unlike the 2010 set,
An Omen EP isn't quite a stand-alone release, as it's comprised of songs slated for their 2013 full-length debut, and it does indeed showcase a diverse band, one that certainly recalls
NIN in places -- the opening "Keep It Together" has a bit of the icy industrialism of
Pretty Hate Machine -- but this largely instrumental effort is spookier, richer than such a reductive statement suggests. "Ice Age" provides a prickly, seductive showcase for Mariqueen Maandig, who harmonizes effectively with
Trent Reznor on the closing "Speaking in Tongues," but what's so appealing about
An Omen EP is how it's at once out of reach and immediate. It is elusive yet not elliptical; it luxuriates in its sound but digs deeper than the surface. If it's not wholly satisfying as an EP, blame that entirely on how it winds up showcasing promise: hearing it, you want to know what
How to Destroy Angels will do over the course of a full album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine