Review Summary: like a molotov cocktail on the rocks. down, dirty, and delicious. but not for everyone.
Sometimes, the best way to start a serious, academic review is with a story. This is, to me, one of those times.
The first time that I saw Nine Inch Nails live was during the With Teeth tour, at a sports arena. It was the best concert I had ever seen, and to this day still is (which is a lot considering I’ve seen the likes of Tool, The Police, and Slayer). What wow’d me at the time though was not only the mechanical precision and execution of the band, or the seemingly limitless amounts of stage presence and charisma Trent Reznor can exude, but the fact that it wasn’t just an electronica concert, it was a healthy, violent, rock concert. Emphasis on the rock. Quite the shock to a young man whose experience with NIN was limited to their album work, which is for the most part mid tempo and extremely keyboard driven. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of that: the presence of La Mer and The Wretched, as well as With Teeth itself kept the central act of the concert largely a lighter-waving affair. However, the presence of several extremely kinetic songs I’d never heard (indeed several of my friends had never heard) made sure that the instant I returned home I scoured forums, amazon, and various other webpages. A few hours later I discovered that most, if not al of these tracks had originated on a somewhat difficult to track down EP called Broken, released during the long hiatus between fan favorite Pretty Hate Machine and the career-defining Downward Spiral(at the time occupying five of my top 25 most-played ipod track slots). Needless to say, two days eight dollars and several CD boutiques later the disc was mine.
What I found astonished me.
I’ll be out with it and say in my opinion this is Trent Reznor’s finest work to date, although not by a large margin. It is not, however, a perfect piece and it is in many ways odd. For one thing it’s almost too long to be an EP. Clocking in at just over half an hour not counting the ninety nine tracks of silence (don’t worry, I’ll get to that in a bit) it’s longer than most EP’s, in fact longer than many eighties thrash albums. The disc is thick, and packed, so if you’re the kind of music fan that considers economics heavily into their disc buying; this is the most NIN for your buck you’ll get, especially considering the prices on all of Trent’s discs are rather inflated. However, don’t let the eight track count fool you, two of them (Pinion and Help Me I Am In Hell) are short instrumental interludes that, had they been any longer, would have counted as pure filler and not atmospheric breaks from the heavier tracks. Part of me wishes Trent had written a little more, and filled the disc out into a full blown album, but now I realize that would only remove some of its charm.
Put simply, this is NIN’s most focused and angry music all in one convenient package, and I don’t type those words lightly. While the staple lust and self loathing that Trent’s so fond of expressing exist on the disc, Broken is the closest to the militant industrial-metal rage of Ministry that NIN’s ever put out. It is their most industrial release, and simultaneously the closest to true heavy metal they’ve ever gotten. Those expecting the introverted piano ballads of The Fragile or the bondage-pop boogies on Downward Spiral will be sorely disappointed. This disc has no Closer. What it does have is the sound a band makes. Not just a little recorded guitar and bass to accentuate the keyboard and vocal flourish of Reznor’s presupposed style, NO! This EP has live drums, thick bass, and riffs! And what’s more, GOOD riffs!
The disc begins with the industrial mood setter of Pinion before exploding into album standout the punk-drum fueled thrasher Wish (one of the songs that whipped me into frenzy at that concert). You can tell from the opening lines; ‘This is the first day/ Of my last day’ that Reznor has more viciousness in his snarling vocals than ever before. But he hasn’t lost his way around an anthem chorus, as Wish’s chorus is simple enough that even a child can throw horns and scream along to it after a listen or two. But like every track on the disc, wish does have its more soaring, quiet moments to allow the keys and industrial noise, particularly Trent’s now-famous ‘glitch’ sound to deliver the atmospherics the NIN-loyal come to expect.
Next up is the titanic Last, my pick for best track on the disc. Its drums are heavy, and simple, creating an infectiously dirty kick-stomp that’s as much mosh pit as triple-X dance club. It alternated the slow chorus with the speedy ascents and descents of the one again easily memorizeable chorus. It’s worth mentioning that anyone who can take two liens that do not rhyme, let alone have similar syllabic structures (‘This isn’t meant to last/ this is for right now’) and make an anthem out of them has unquestionable talent.
What follows, after the much needed breather of Help Me I Am In Hell, is the longest, most varied track on the disc: Happiness in Slavery, whose monumental sampling solo and breakdown mixes with the drums and thick, gooey bassline to create another hot slab of industrial goodness. This track’s the most typically NIN on the disc, but simultaneously the most boring. Still, calling any of the true tacks on this disc ‘the worst’ or ‘the most boring’ is like referring to someone as the bottom of the honors class. They’re still on a whole excellent. After Slavery comes another concert regular: Gave Up. I’ve heard rumors that Gave Up was written, in part, by the infamous Marilyn Manson, and it wouldn’t surprise me. The track has all the good parts of Manson’s music, including the perfect amount of vocal distortion to allow Reznor’s verses t stand out amidst the high speed industrial fuzz that surrounds the most punchy guitar work on the CD. Another standout n a disc full of them.
After that... 99 tracks of silence. Excuse me? Apparently the final two track s on the disc, which compose over a third of its running time, were meant as extra, or bonus tracks. It’s an irritating thing that requires you to do an inordinate amount of skipping on a non-digital stereo in order to listen to an Adam Ant cover. That said the cover of (You’re So)Physical is outstanding, and suitably different from the original to keep it thematically interesting. The track is big and full of hard power chords, as Trent’s singing and crooning takes center stage; a welcome change after a disc where he spent most of his time yelling. Don’t misunderstand, yelling is all well and good, but the melody’s a welcome change. Suck continues the heavy grooves and hard riffs of Happiness, but with a bit more uptempo oomph, and a much more interesting hook in the form of a keyboard arpeggio comprised of the ‘Glitch’ sound.
Not to say the disc is perfect. Like all NIN discs, and indeed all industrial in general, it’s not extremely melodic or easy to listen to. Sitting through it all at once will require dedication. The lyrics are, to a great extent, more of the same as far as NIN goes, but asking Reznor to stop talking about self loathing, drug abuse, and kinky sex would be like asking the bible to be less preachy. It is exactly what it intends to be, unapologetically, and if you don’t like NIN’s other work there is no way this will make a convert out of you. Thankfully its instrumentals and feedback loop interludes are sparse, and its runtime is short enough that it avoids most of the problems that plagued the last half of The Downward Spiral and all of The Fragile.
Overall, NIN’s least conventional, and most hardened work. People expecting more of what they’ve heard on the radio should know better: Trent never makes the same disc twice… unless it’s the inevitable remix disc. Those who expect Reznor to abandon his self loathing, snarling singing and take on something a bit more listener friendly should just stop trying. Those things may be, in a sense immature and grating to more ‘conservative’ ears, but they’re part of what makes Nine Inch Nails what it is. Those with an open mind will find the most harrowing of NIN listening experiences here. This disc has equal appeal to fans of Depeche Mode and fans of Dimmu Borgir, and for that alone it is noteworthy. Praise Trent that it’s full of good material as well.
