While I am a NIN fan, I will admit, the awesome marketing campaign behind Year Zero forced me to acquire this album as soon as the internet would allow. I have thus been listening to Reznor's sonic malevolence for the better part of a week and while this may not be new ground musically (admittedly containing the best elements of Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile), Reznor's world destroying contempt seems to be entering its final phase as he heralds Armageddon in "The Beginning of the End", and the arrival of aliens in "The Warning". Tying his extreme predictions together is Reznor's career defining hatred of God; again he waxes supernatural with "God Given," again with a seeming description of demon posessed rapture christians (who probably wearing uniforms), describes a final judgment of sorts for said radicals in "Meet Your Master," and ultimately issues an apology of sorts to God in the finale "Zero Sum".
What intrigues me about this album and all of NIN's work is the fact that Reznor admits that God exists and yet is unyielding in his contempt for Him but is ultimately resigned to His judgment (sorta like Lt Dan on the shrimp boat in Forrest Gump, yunnerstan?); he seems to be expecting a bit of the ubernatural in our future, but is it real or is it fake?
CLAVOEDIT: To fix yer borked Photobucket link. Watch your trailing /'s :>
On 2007-04-16 at 21:04:55, Clavis_Apocalypticae pooped back and forth... forever
Yeah, I'm buying this no later than this weekend.
I'm sure it will sound exactly like With Teeth, though, especially considering "The Hand That Feeds" and "Survivalism" have the same 3 notes in their riffs.
edit: poop
On 2007-04-16 at 21:25:39, government_death_robot pooped back and forth... forever
____________________ slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you.
____________________ slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you.
I finally deleted this album from iTunes, and I'm not really sure why I added it in the first place. As much as I loved NIN at first, his music really isn't relevant to my life anymore. "Survivalism" is the only track to make the final cut, as it were.
____________________ LSD? Heck no, those were Opal Thompson's dinner rolls.
'Year Zero' beats the hell out of 'Ghosts,' but of the last three, I like 'The Slip' best. That's the free album he released just after 'Ghosts'. It reminds me of his earlier (better) works.
____________________ No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
ghostrider: As much as I loved NIN at first, his music really isn't relevant to my life anymore.
Agree++
It feels something like a performance art piece that never got shut off and is now kind of on auto-pilot that you leave on cause hey, maybe the kids will come home later and appreciate it being left on.
____________________ slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you.
with teeth - trash
year zero - trash
ghosts - trash
the slip - trash
i can see how i used to like nin, but listening to the new stuff either makes me wonder if the new stuff is just shit, or i'm a better person than before.
while we're on it, i'm sure the next album will be trash, too.
I saw NIN on their Downward Spiral (Closer, AKA Halo 9) tour with Marilyn Manson and the Jim Rose Circus. I had previously seen the Circus Freak Show on cable TV… but live it totally rocked! I was on the sidelines of the pit during the Mason performance and was at one point almost shoved into the brutally bloody insanity of morons attempting to catch the lung loogies (with wide open mouths) that he was launching into the audience. I started dry heaving and about blew chunks…But regardless of how revolting I found him to be I was mesmerized by the extreme groin rubbing with pelvis thrusts and the masturbation with a huge black strap on dildo. It was only when Trent came on stage and the house lights were up turned up to dim for a few seconds that it become apparent to my companions and I that we were nearly surrounded by a civic center of adolescents, adult pedophiles and in-breeders. I have not cared much for NIN since the mid 90’s but Finck is back after a long hiatus with a shit band so I expect to be doing much downloading… however live concerts are creepy.
____________________ Easier to get into than a community college.
I'm still feelin' Year Zero and The Slip. In a lot of ways the Year Zero Remix album is better than Year Zero, so it's gotten much more airtime on my playlist. I completely delete my playlist approx. once month anyway--I get bored. I'm gonna check out Ghosts soon.
Now this shit right below prompted me to buy some snazzy general admission floor tickets. I got to admit, I trust the source. It looks to me like they aren't going through the motions and there's some urgency in the music. For whatever reason I still relate, which without a doubt means I fuck cattle.
No, I think of Mr Reznor as an actual artist, for better or worse. I just see him in a lot of deep slumps. Downward Spiral was ground-breaking, and then there were like 173 pointless navel-gazing remix EPs, and I lost all patience. I still like a couple of the things he does, here and there -- I like the ingredients if not the general recipe -- but he's gone from a lock to a crapshoot for me personally. These days I can barely be bothered to download his music for free.
I saw the tour he did with Bowie. Was neat.
____________________ slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you.
Dumbskull: I saw NIN on their Downward Spiral (Closer, AKA Halo 9) tour with Marilyn Manson and the Jim Rose Circus. I had previously seen the Circus Freak Show on cable TV… but live it totally rocked! I was on the sidelines of the pit during the Mason performance and was at one point almost shoved into the brutally bloody insanity of morons attempting to catch the lung loogies (with wide open mouths) that he was launching into the audience. I started dry heaving and about blew chunks…But regardless of how revolting I found him to be I was mesmerized by the extreme groin rubbing with pelvis thrusts and the masturbation with a huge black strap on dildo. It was only when Trent came on stage and the house lights were up turned up to dim for a few seconds that it become apparent to my companions and I that we were nearly surrounded by a civic center of adolescents, adult pedophiles and in-breeders. I have not cared much for NIN since the mid 90’s but Finck is back after a long hiatus with a shit band so I expect to be doing much downloading… however live concerts are creepy.
I saw them on this tour as well. I guess it was a much different time back then because some faggot grunts were allowed to wear their flak jackets into the stadium. They were fucking leveling young kids and stout old bastards in the same motion. It was the bloodiest pit I have ever been in.
But when they dropped the special curtain for "Hurt" and projected all of the sick, decaying imagery with Reznor standing behind, pouring his pain, I realized the beauty in the twisted performance pieces I had seen for the hours prior. With the words he cried and the death displayed before him, he transmuted the aggression of the night into a reminder of the decay of civilization and even life itself to the little warmongers he had driven, perfectly balancing the profound and the profane.
It was enough to stop the beasts he had led to violence to at least stand and contemplate... or just really listen for a minute.
It was moving.
____________________ "Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage."
vasudeva: No, I think of Mr Reznor as an actual artist, for better or worse. I just see him in a lot of deep slumps. Downward Spiral was ground-breaking, and then there were like 173 pointless navel-gazing remix EPs, and I lost all patience.
Yeah, I think there's something to bands (or singular "artists") who actually take some time to work on their art and not just sling shit at the wall and hope it sticks.
____________________ "Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage."
Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, and The Downward Spiral are all excellent pieces of work... some of my favorite music ever actually. I haven't really enjoyed anything he's come out with since then. That doesn't detract from the brilliance that is his early work.
"Heaven's just a rumor she'll dispel
as she walks me through the nicest parts of hell"
^One of the the many genius lyrics that have spewed forth from Senor Reznor.
____________________ Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction
Ghosts is cool. For me that record (no lyrics) was perfect for the long drive through the Tehachapis to Vegas, the desolate landscape passing me by, and serving as great background sound for the conversations and planning for the mayhem that would inevitably soon come.
This is cool too....Badass even.
____________________ "Kill him! Kill the fuckin' indian! What am I watching here two fuckin' fags!?"
Rodney Dangerfield as Ed Wilson
