readingthedark

New nin inch nails in April.

Oh my.

So neat.

I see every fan he's ever had loving this new sound and dark global vision.

I didn't know that you could rock world peace and vengeance in the same song. (Though VNV Nation or LeaetherStrip come close from time to time.)

My nihilistic and bitter heart is doing a happy dance! (While still getting evil chills so I can keep my street cred...)

I know Trent Reznor is a fan of Clive Barker and Fight Club. In "My Violent Heart," he's combined them into a tantric anthem for stopping a zombie or mind parasite uprising.

Is there a sax being strangled in there somewhere near the end? Trent has never merged one of those David Gilmour-style guitar solos (a la "Ruiner") with drum machines and electronic chaos this well and that bass sample at the begnning gives the spoken word part a marchy Rage Against The Machine feel.

I'm easily confused. I want songs like these played at my weddings AND my funerals.

My heart freezes on that little spot where he goes, "Time will feed upon your weaknesses..."

"Survivalism" is scary in the opposite direction. It's a persona song like "Big Man and a Gun." Environmental destruction through consumerism SHOULD be scary. The sarcasm on the "All a part of this great nation" line dripped right out of my speakers and I had to mop it up with a paper towel.

Thank you Trent Reznor for reminding the bleak aesthete in my core that plasma televisions are bringing us closer to guns in the street and the world going up in flames. It really makes me look forward to going to Best Buy to get the new album!

And, yes, "Year Zero" is an appropriately apocalyptic album title even if it accidentally has a retcon comic book gimmick sound at first notice.

PS -- If anyone cares, there's a phrasing in "Survivalism" that sounds so Dresden Dolls / Amanda Palmer that she should be proud that Trent lifted her cadence and lyrical style. (Hint: it's not the breathy gasp near the beginning though that almost counts...) (Others have heard a TV on the Radio influence in there too. It all goes to show that Trent's ear is still to the ground.)