Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth - A Question of Size

It has been quite a long time since Trent Reznor and his moniker Nine Inch Nails had a proper release. In fact, The Fragile was released in September of 1999. All the die hard Nine Inch Nails fans remember that release without any problem, but it is impossible to ignore the fact that it was largely ignored in the music mainstream, at least compared to the level of attention and success that was reached with The Downward Spiral as measured by radio airplay and videos. Not all could be blamed on the music as The Fragile was as intense and beautiful as all the other NIN releases, if a bit different and (gasp) mature.

The climate had changed in 1999 since The Downward Spiral blew a generation of kids’ real and imagined wounds wide open with Reznor’s brand of self loathing and confusion in 1994. On top of the fact that Reznor packaged his artistic triumph in the less commercially viable form-factor of a two-disc set, the odds were stacked against him as Napster had opened the world up to many new types of music. Modern rock radio had become as limited and formulaic as Carrot Top’s stand-up. A video as cool as Closer might have been produced, but who would have seen it at 4:17 AM on MTV2?

Not that a whole lot of people listen to the critics, but some were still on board.

Rolling Stone said of The Fragile

“. . . Trent comes on like an avenging disco godfather returned for the big payback. The Fragile is his version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, a double album that vents his alienation and misery into paranoid studio hallucinations, each track crammed with overdubs until there’s no breathing room. The stun-volume guitar riffs, intricate synth squeals and interlocking drum-machine patterns flow together as a two-hour bubble bath in the sewer of Trent’s soul. . .”

Not all the critics were believers, like Brent DiCrescenzo at Pitchforkmedia.com. His review speaks almost as much to the environment as it does to the music on NIN’s release.

“Sometime over the last decade, music that is intrinsically meant to be menacing (i.e. Nine Inch Nails) has become a banal syndicated- action hour soundtrack. It’s easy to imagine the overproduced grind of “The Wretched” blaring through a TV screen as Nightman kicks a henchman off a roof. This stuff could be the score to “The Crow 4: In Space.” And this time around, Trent has unanimously failed to shock anyone above the age of 15 and under the age of 54. I mean, have you listened to old Judas Priest lately? Now, this is not to say music must be confrontational, although the best of it typically is. However, in a pop society that has become numb to industrial sounds through ESPN2 and Surge commercials, it’s no longer interesting or tolerable to base one’s entire output on volume and amplified cliches.”

(But, really. are the people at Pitchfork ever happy?)

So, now in 2005, Trent Reznor is ready to release the follow-up to The Fragile, entitled With Teeth. Gone is the two-disc opus with movement-like sections, but the environment is more confused than ever. With the advent of ITunes, IPods, and the further degeneration of rock radio and MTV it is difficult (dare I say impossible) to predict what will happen with anything that is released nowadays.

The internet has become more powerful, and while there have been great stories of success infused with help from the internet, like Wilco finding themselves a success and the continuing saga of Fiona Apple’s unreleased disc, but not including the internet-born William Hung debacle, we have yet to see a serious musical success outside of hip hop in this newest iteration of music culture. Certainly it is tough to think of anything that approached the level of success reached by The Downward Spiral.

So as the release date, May 3rd approaches, we will have to see if Trent Reznor can appeal on the wide level above and beyond his core party of fans who think in terms of halos.

(This also appears at Blogcritics.org)

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