Trent Reznor returns with his 6th studio release, “Year Zero”,available April 17th, it is based off of the concept of a corrupted and dilapidated
The inspiration for the album came from an experiment with sounds on his laptop while touring. The sounds evoked images of the end of the world and with that, the themes of greed and power consuming the earth. In a statement where he describes his album he said “I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don’t. This record is the latter.” He added “Once I tuned into it, everything fell into place… as if it were meant to be.”
The sound of the album is a lot more electronic and noisy than the clean, live band sounding, 2005 effort “With Teeth”. The beats are heavy, the noises are scratchy, and Reznor’s lyrics open up in a more descriptive way than the usual angry and swearing grunts and groans. There are even tinges of optimism in various songs. Like “In This Twilight” (15) which starts with a typically twitchy beat, it climbs out of the dark to produce a strangely inspiring moment. It evokes the image of someone crawling through the rubble of an old building to find a loved one they thought had died, or a new or lost technology that could save us all. While the music is still distinctly industrial you can hear hip hop influences in the funkiness of the beats. Many songs have a very dance-able groove, but the inner fury of the static noise editing keeps it, thankfully, from ever turning disco.
One example of a this is when the raging noise ballad gives way to a storm of 8 bit percussion in “The Great Destroyer” (13). The fist pumping, foot stomping anthem of the record would have to be the shock and awe bombing campaign of “My Violent Heart” which goes from spoken word and a minimalist beat to all out sonic mayhem. The song that grabbed my attention after repeated listenings is the bass heavy groove machine called “God Given” (10) which employs, at the bombastic chorus, an 808 cowbell. I think you can infer the greatness.
Nine Inch Nails have crafted a unique return to form that will no doubt have hardcore fans enthralled once again and will also draw in new fans with its, dare I say, more intelligent sound.
