MUSIC: nine inch nails, Year Zero

Year Zero

Nine Inch Nails

nine inch nails

Year Zero

Interscope, 2007

Trent Reznor is hot pissed, and this time he actually has a lot to be irate about. Year Zero is probably the first post-Katrina album, if there exists such a sub-subgenre—it’s apparent that the tragedy in New Orleans had a profound effect on the making of this disc. The pretty hate machine no longer sounds "pretty", its wires fried and short-circuiting and its engineer standing on the edge of sanity in a world even less sane.

It’s a concept record, though it’s not as gutwrenching of a listen as The Downward Spiral tends to be nowadays. It’s heavy but less internal. This is the sound of a man who is speaking for the people of a damaged world moreso than himself, and that in itself is a refreshing change (for all Year Zero’s fatalism, George Orwell would be proud). The contrast in sounds is even more drastic this time around—muted synth sounds clash with glitchy rhythm, often with Trent’s voice serving as an instrument just as much as a focal point. "The Greater Good" is a perfect example of the latter. It’s also important to note that guitars often take a backseat on this record (hell, the bass in "The Warning" practically carries that song most of the way through) and thus this album is not quite as muscular as 2005’s _With Teeth_. If you’re looking for balls-out rock, this is not the disc for you.

What Year Zero is, though, is probably the best nine inch nails record in 13 years.