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Nine Inch Nails – "Year Zero" Album Review
16 July, 2007
"Nine Inch Nails" is Trent Reznor. That's it, that was always it. From time to time, he calls out to his friends for session recordings or live performances, but he has always been the one-man musical army. He sometimes screwed up, had a few problems with various temptations of celebrity life, but now is back on track, angry as always, and more determined to write and deploy a conceptual music bomb. But the music was not enough for him. Before he released the album in April, with a few months before, he started a marketing hype that kept conspiracy theorists and puzzle-solvers really busy. It started with hidden messages from tour T-shirts, USB sticks "forgot" in public bathrooms with various sounds and songs from the upcoming album, fake websites from "the future" and all sorts of back stories that paved the way for this 16-track noise fest that was yet to come. When it finally did come out, the album was an instant hit, ranking 2nd in the Billboard Top 200, and first in Billboard Top Internet Albums, Billboard Top Rock Albums and UK Rock Albums Chart.
I wish I could be objective while reviewing this album, but it being a personal favorite and all that, it is kind of hard for me to find something wrong with it, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the story isn't sufficiently complex and intricate as a conceptual piece should be, but from what I've read, this is just the beginning of a longer story, with new episodes yet to come. And so, we come to the track list. The first song is in fact an introduction, named "HYPERPOWER!", that does a good job at preparing us for a sound storm complete with static, white noise, metal clicks, glitches and everything. The second song is a bit more peaceful but still punky and naughty, an integral part of the introduction, as the name indicates: "The beginning of the end". "Survivalism" is the first single out from the album in the form of a controversial and voyeuristic video complete with police and domestic brutality, non-explicit gay sex and satire. Even with all these sensitive subjects, the single was still widely successful, coming up first in Canadian Singles Chart and U.S. Modern Rock Tracks. The other tracks complete the soundscape of a dystopic police state, exploring every point of view possible, from the oppressing army general in "Capital G" to people selling their bodies for food in "Vessel". Also, this album explored the mystical side of things to come in songs like "God Given" and "The great destroyer", this last one being noise-intensive and quite scary for someone who is not used to industrial rock. Overall, the album sounds great, it is way better than the last one and its success proves that sometimes, the public knows real quality when it hears it. It is clearly the most mature NIN work up-to-date and a strong political statement, for those who enjoy good music with political overtones. Posted by admin at 05:43 PM | View: (187) |
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