The year 2009 was said to be the end of Nine Inch Nails -- certainly their touring days -- but it was only a new beginning, as the band announced Tuesday it would release an upcoming album, due later this year.

Frontman Trent Reznor said he worked hard to keep things under wraps until now.

"I've been less than honest about what I've really been up to lately", Reznor said in a statement. "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 f---ing great."

The as-yet-untitled album will be the band's first in five years, since 2008's The Slip. They recently announced a new deal with Columbia Records, home to Reznor's side-project with wife Mariqueen Maandig and collaborator Atticus Ross, How To Destroy Angels.

In fact, said Reznor, the new album's creation came as a direct result of inspiration he found from the other projects he worked on in between; he has worked on soundtracks for movies and video games, and in 2011 he and Ross won Best Original Score Oscars for The Social Network.

"This is the real impetus and motivation behind the decision to assemble a new band and tour again," Reznor's statement continued. "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. Here we go!"

Reznor suggested in a November 2012 Rolling Stone interview that there might be a renewed Nine Inch Nails in the future.

"All signs point to yes," he told the magazine, "there are some things in the works."

The band will be making the rounds on stage, playing at inter nations festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, beginning on Jul. 26 at Fuji Rocks in Niigata, Japan.

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