Hesitation Marks
For the first Nine Inch Nails release since 2009, Trent Reznor has resorted to the most radical release strategy an independent-minded artist can employ in 2013: he’s re-signed to a major label. But unlike the themes of depression, madness, and addiction that defined his most enduring works, the skeletal Hesitation Marks chronicles a more existential crisis.
Before Nine Inch Nails went on what turned into a several-year hiatus, the group’s entire career could be seen as one long, tortured attempt at finding catharsis. Whether aggressive, industrial, razor-burn guitar rock, or ambient electronica, Trent Reznor’s music captured the tension of emotional frustration—a powder…
Whatever Reznor promised, this isn’t an evolution for the band but a very confident assertion of what they do well - heck, what they do better than anyone else.
He can certainly write a song – ‘Hurt’ was one of his, of course – while Nine Inch Nails’ 1994 masterpiece ‘The Downward Spiral’ demonstrated his gift for abbatoir atmospherics.
“I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow/ Always trying to catch up with myself”—this album is where Trent Reznor takes…
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In a recent interview, Trent Reznor alluded to feeling restricted creatively when recording under the Nine Inch Nails name.
Album review: Clash covers 'Hesitation Marks', the eighth studio album from Trent Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails
In almost every way, this is the least outré effort Nine Inch Nails has proffered since Pretty Hate Machine.
Many people remember where they were, if they are of a certain age, when JFK was shot or, more recently, when the twin towers fell.
NIN's Trent Reznor ditches the industrial onslaught of his old days in favour of a lighter electro-pop sound, but some darkness remains, writes <strong>Dave Simpson</strong>