Realmdemagic, you have it right. Those releases and others stand up as great works because there’s tons of aesthetic glue holding the songs together as being seminal releases in his canon; Reznor’s visions for his music being executed without the weighted heft of expectations that have started turning his recent output more stale…
Unlike a lot of bands who run wild with hinting, referencing to or at worst rehashing their past to diminishing returns, Nine Inch Nails was up until With Teeth offering consistently original songs on every release. Writing anything about The Downward Spiral is kind of pointless and boring but something I don’t always hear discussed is how much personality every song has. “Piggy” sounds nothing like “Reptile” as that song sounds nothing like “The Becoming”. Every single song from Broken through The Fragile era is ripe (haha) with unique sound construction. Never being the guitar, bass and drums band, I think this is where Reznor’s meticulous focus was: really making songs stand out, giving them real identity and connection with the listener.
Starting with With Teeth the songs are all enjoyable and have their own merits but less consistent is the ingenuity. The structures start sounding very predictable. There’s like five songs on Year Zero that begin and end with repeating drum measures and nothing else. Hearing a genuine bridge in a NIN song is now rarer. He’ll now, with Atticus’ encouragement I’m sure throw in some noise loops and call it a day. Becomes rote sounding to my ears.
What would make me very happy are some real dynamics again. The massive shifts in mood on “Somewhat Damaged” leading into “The Day the World Went Away”, for example.
[reply]I don’t understand the With Teeth hate either.
People that are into supposedly cutting edge or quasi-underground bands have to hate any inkling of commercial breakthrough and success. The “Bite The Hand That Feeds” song was all over the damn radio, Guitar Hero, etc. etc.
That’s probably the only NIN song from the last 20 years that I can name or recognize. It killed any interest I might have randomly had in checking out what Trent and his buddies have been up to then and continuing on forever.
That song always cracked me up. It just sounds so perfect for Jazzercise/ Aerobics that whenever I hear it I want to run in place or do some jumping jacks.[/reply]
‘Only’ was a good single off that album. Miles better than The Hand That Feeds. And it was played by radio stations just as often. After first hearing ‘Only’ that made me want to buy the album. Hand that feeds was one fo those I skipped all tthe time. It was awful.
it’s the same notes/intervals, though used in shit ton of different combinations and orders in numerous songs, for example black sabbath’s paranoid and one of the nu-revco tracks as well.
in case of “Peace Sells” it’s the guitar lick just before the “If there’s a new way” lyric line. It goes E-E-D-E.-G-DhE. now if you play that lick in a loop from the last hammer on and remove one E, you get basically “Hand That Feeds” riff, but in E, whereas Hand That Feeds has that in A.
WHICH is actually closer to Kinks “You really got me” song
Ever really listen to the song 1,000,000? Doesn’t the opening drum beat make you wanna scream Just One Fix?
just put that on, yeah, the drum beat is the same. for a minute i thought that J1F intro guitar thing (5h6, 5h6…) gonna be played afterwards.
It also rips off the riff to Peace Sells by Megadeth.
In what way? They both have guitars and that is the only similarity i can see, but maybe i just can’t hear it. Anyway, NIN were announced this week for Belfast in August, tickets picked up by my friend this morning, so i will be seeing them again. I saw them in 94, absolutely amazing, then in 2005 (absolutely shite) and never wanted to see them again. But they’re playing a couple of miles from my house so i may as well check them out. I loved With Teeth, to be honest, i’m surprised people don’t like it. Sure, it’s no Broken, Downward Spiral or The Fragile, but it’s much much better than the boring shit-pellets he emitted after that, although Year Zero has some great tracks.
Ah right, they were one of the bands signed to Nothing weren’t they? I never heard them but i remember the name from the days before i had internet access, and i never saw any of their stuff in shops so i’ve never heard them. Nothing seemed to be a pretty aptly named label, because apart from NIN that is precisely how much of their stuff i ever saw in record shops. It’s a shame because they had a few bands that i was interested in hearing. This is the first time i’ve been really excited to hear new NIN for years, i hope it’s not another samey-sounding autopilot job. Like someone said above, every song used to sound different, but his current production style kinda renders everything pretty similar-sounding. It’s amazing production, no doubt, especially when you compare it to Ministry’s stuff from the last decade, but it just doesn’t have the vitality, grit and dread of his old style.
Fuck, how did i miss that, hahaha. I was a huge fan of Manson, saw him for £5 the first time he played the UK on (i thnk) some Kerrang! tour. How times have changed, he’s an absolute parody of himself. If he was attacked in front of me now i’d probably just look for my camera rather than try to intervene, maybe land a few kicks of my own in return for the last time i saw him.
Someone mentioned Belew isn’t part of the live band anymore? Curious where that info was found as I can’t find anything of the sort. Doesn’t mean it’s not true, I just can’t find anything.
Yeah,I couldn’t find any info either…I saw several about Avery but none concerning Belew…
“I think it’s in line with the first two albums,” Worden continues. “It’s got a great beat, it’s not the experimental material [NINE INCH NAILS mainman] Trent’s [Reznor] done in the last five years.” Worden indicated the song didn’t strike her as angry. Rather the beat is what made an impression. “I wouldn’t say that it’s dance-y, but it does have a great beat, a groove. Trent really brought it with this song. It’s going to sound amazing to new fans and old. It’s just cool.”
“I think it’s in line with the first two albums,” Worden continues. “It’s got a great beat, it’s not the experimental material [NINE INCH NAILS mainman] Trent’s [Reznor] done in the last five years.” Worden indicated the song didn’t strike her as angry. Rather the beat is what made an impression. “I wouldn’t say that it’s dance-y, but it does have a great beat, a groove. Trent really brought it with this song. It’s going to sound amazing to new fans and old. It’s just cool.”
This is the kind of music a Billy Corgan or a Scott Weiland would make if they wanted to suddenly “go wild and go electro…y’know cuz it’s what the fanz would have wanted me to do, oh the calamity of it all I feel so precious” all of a sudden.
It’s fucken angsty pantsy dance junk for 15 year olds who write band names on their arms with felt pens.
“Oh but Peligro…you just hate pop!!”
No, I don’t hate pop at all you pompous ninnies…but I can smell garbage a mile away if I’m offered it for breakfast.
This is the kind of music a Billy Corgan or a Scott Weiland would make if they wanted to suddenly “go wild and go electro…y’know cuz it’s what the fanz would have wanted me to do, oh the calamity of it all I feel so precious” all of a sudden.
It’s fucken angsty pantsy dance junk for 15 year olds who write band names on their arms with felt pens.
“Oh but Peligro…you just hate pop!!”
No, I don’t hate pop at all you pompous ninnies…but I can smell garbage a mile away if I’m offered it for breakfast.
Know what I mean?
Blah blah honestly I could predict your response to basically anything from miles away. The only real incongruity is your random interest in Tool…
Also if you’d heard Billy Corgan’s attempts at “electro” (I’m not even going to go there with your Scott Weiland comment) you would realize you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.
Well actually you already did know that…or should…because everything you say about something you don’t like is hyperbole and that’s part of your “schtick”.
Ironically it’s pretty angsty to spew that kind of criticism on a message board. Who is the angry 15 year old now? Here’s a felt pen so you can go draw the Tool penis wrench logo on yourself.
Oh and I am no NIN fanboy by the way, but I’ll call a spade a spade.
Seriously though, lyrics aside (which I admit can be called angsty for sure…that’s Trent’s bag), can you not tell the difference in quality between the “electro” linked above and this: