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Album: "The
Fragile" (1999) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight The wait is over. After five years of silence, Trent Reznor returns with a new NIN album. Was it worth the wait? Not in my opinion. The first thing that I noticed about this album is how dull, plain, drab and boring the packaging is. But so is the music, so it's quite fitting. This album is a two CD set. The first CD has 12 tracks, while the second CD has eleven tracks. I guess Trent wanted to deliver a lot of new material since he took so long to bring it out. NIN fans will most likely be quite happy about this, but I myself feel that this is NIN overload. After the first CD, I had enough of Trent's typical NIN sound. I was not looking forward to listening to another eleven songs. Especially considering the fact that all of the songs basically sound the same. Nothing stood out or grabbed my attention. Trent sings the same on every song. He talks out the lyrics slowly over some mellow ambient music, and then shouts out the lyrics when heavy guitar kicks in. It's the same for EVERY song here. He does nothing interesting or creative. He just follows the same formula over and over again. This can not be considered electronic music. This is rock music with some electronic sounds and keyboard melodies in the mix. Guitars, bass and drums are the up front instruments. A lot of the songs here basically sound like Marilyn Manson and Stabbing Westward, but not quite as enjoyable. After five years since NIN's last album, I really expected Trent to do something new and different with NIN. But he decided to keep everything exactly the same. This should please NIN fans, but people such as myself that listen to underground industrial music will instantly find this new NIN release to be an utter bore. NIN is strictly for the mainstream crowd that like Filter, Gravity Kills, Marilyn Manson, Orgy, Stabbing Westward, etc. Anyone into underground industrial music will fall asleep listening to this new NIN album. It's just the same old thing over again.
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Album:
"The
Day the World Went Away" (1999) |
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Reviewed by: Nicholas I was happy to hear the drifting ambience at the beginning of the first track, which is one of the aspects of NIN's music that I most enjoyed. My contemplation of these sounds was unfortunately interrupted by loud slow guitars that progress in an awfully predictable manner. The predictability is that there are only four chords which are repeated. Squeaky elcetro sounds and drum patterns begin "Starfuckers, Inc.", with Trent's vocals about media stars being morphed with sampler techniques. This is much better than the first track, but still falls prey to the thrash guitars and screams that Trent calls a chorus. Even more embarrassing are the lyrics lifted from "You're So Vain". The Quiet version of the title track begins with the most whiny aspect of the original song, a melody very much like "The Wall" sung all in "nah nah"s then repeated with a guitar (single notes this time, not chords). A piano finally comes in at about 2 minutes, just to plink out a boring rhythm behind Trent's whining which sounds like it's an imitation of Faith No More's "Zombie Eaters". This is probably the worst release by Nine Inch Nails that I have ever heard. Take Trent's warning to heart that the new album will be in no way industrial in the sense that we think of it.
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Album: "The Downward
Spiral" (1994) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight This is the second full length album by Nine Inch Nails, and it's everything that "Pretty Hate Machine" wasn't. This album has a lot of energy in it. It's very aggressive with distorted screaming vocals, and thrashy guitars. The electronics are all over the place, and the drum beats are fierce. My favorite songs are "Mr. Self Destruct", "Heresy", "March Of The Pigs", "Ruiner", "The Becoming", "I Do Not Want This", and "Big Man With A Gun". But nothing else on the album really excites me. This is the album that made Nine Inch Nails a household name. I don't feel that it's commercial at all, but the mainstream did take to it like flies. It shows what a little exposure can do for a band. I have never really been a big Nine Inch Nails fan, but this album is definitely a step in the right direction.
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Album: "Pretty
Hate Machine" (1989) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight I could never really understand the popularity surrounding this album. I don't really like Trent Reznor's voice. I prefer it when he distorts it. Well, his vocals are not distorted here. Also, he seems to be holding back his anger. He lets loose on a few songs such as "Head Like A Hole", "Terrible Lie", and "Sin". These are the best songs to be found here. But everything else on this album is pretty damn boring. It's slow paced and mellow. It never really takes off. But I do admit that all of it is well done. The electronics are catchy, the synths are harmonic, and the drum beats are constant. This is a decent album if you like slower paced industrial music.
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