Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (CD Review)

01.The Eater of Dreams
02.Copy of A
03.Came Back Haunted
04.Find My Way
05.All Time Low
06.Disappointed
07.Everything
08.Satellite
09.Various Methods of Escape
10.Running
11.I Would for You
12.In Two
13.While I'm Still Here
14.Black Noise

Trent Reznor (Vocals/Various)
Pino Palladino (Bass)
Lindsey Buckingham (Guitar)
Adrian Belew (Guitar)
Eugene Goreshter (Bass)
Alessandro Cortini (Keyboards/Guitars)
Ilan Rubin (Drums)
Joshua Eustis (Bass)

Looking back Reznor has had an intresting and very diverse career working alongside people like David Bowie, Josh Homme, Marilyn Manson, Al Jourgensen to Tori Amos and Busta Rhymes, doing numerous film sountracks and endless side projects.

The career of NIN began with 'Pretty Hate Machine' in 1989. It was a moderate commercial success, and was certified Gold in 1992.Amidst pressure from his record label to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference, resulting in an EP called Broken (1992). Nine Inch Nails was included in the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1991, and won a Grammy Award in 1993 under "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for the song "Wish".

The second album, 'The Downward Spiral' remains the highest-selling Nine Inch Nails release, recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive mansion, where the 1969 Manson Family murders took place.He built a studio space in the house, which he renamed Le Pig, after the word that was scrawled on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood by her murderers. Reznor told Entertainment Weekly that, despite the notoriety attached to the house, he chose to record there because he "looked at a lot of places, and this just happened to be the one I liked most".
This somewhat contrived approach helped gain his repuatation and along with controversal videos, and songs with "Fuck" in it gave the kids a new band to piss off their parents with.It did contain the song 'Hurt' an emo anthem if ever there was one, but a song that when covered by legend Johnny Cash found new meaning and true soul.

Nine Inch Nails toured extensively over the next few years, including a performance at Woodstock '94, although he admitted to the audience that he did not like to play large venues. Around this time, Reznor's studio perfectionism, struggles with addiction, and bouts of writer's block prolonged the production of a follow-up to The Downward Spiral.
But there were many follow ups over the years and eventually scored a huge pop hit with 'The Hand That Feeds'.

In February 2009, Trent Reznor stated, "I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while."
But he has returned and recruited King Crimson's Adrian Belew and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham to provide the guitarwork.

So an albums worth of sub techno/dance with downbeat ambience, a somehwta waste of talent from the musicians involved, this just sounds like another one of Reznors extended suicide notes set to his own music.

That said 'find my way' sounds a bit like ultravox's vienna, 'everything' could be a new order song and the end piece 'black noise' could have been from the industrial noise master Boyd Rice.

The albums called Hesitation Marks', this refers to the marks left behind after an attempt at self harming or suicide, so in many ways this is a Hesitation Album, an attempt to make a statement but falling short.

Rating 5/10
For fans Of : Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Skinny Puppy