NINE
INCH NAILS
Nine Inch Nails, the one-man band of Trent Reznor, brought industrial
music to the masses with 1989's Pretty Hate Machine. With its
electronic rush, incessant beats, and distorted guitars, the album
appeared to be like much industrial music on the surface, yet
Reznor wrote pop songs, not the soundtrack to a personal horror
movie. NIN's scarred, harsh soundscapes were bleak enough, yet
Reznor's lyrics raise the despair and self-loathing to new heights;
at times, his relentless darkness can veer dangerously close to
self-parody.
Pretty Hate Machine wasn't a hit when it was released; it charted
in 1990 and stayed on the charts for years afterward. By the time
Reznor assembled a band for the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991,
the group had a sizable following that only grew with NIN's ferocious
performances on the tour. Legal troubles with his record company
delayed the release of a second album; in 1992, he released a
stop-gap EP, Broken, that was harder and more abrasive than the
debut, yet still conformed to conventional song structures; it
debuted in the Billboard Top Ten.
With their second full-length album, Reznor showed his true roots
-- '70s progressive rock. The Downward Spiral was promoted as
a concept album, a cohesive piece of work; it also featured ex-King
Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew. Still, NIN is able to straddle
two seemingly opposing genres easily, gaining alternative and
mainstream hard rock fans alike; whether he likes it or not, Trent
Reznor is the man that made industrial palatable for pop fans,
and audiences eagerly anticipated his third album, 1999's The
Fragile.
