Industrial was conceived long before Trent Reznor wanted to make love to you like an animal. But the reason they stood out from their peers and predecessors is because they wrote music that was accessible to the masses. Go listen to Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats and try to tell me NIN doesn’t sound like Madonna in comparison. Trent had an ear for melody, and that’s certainly noticed in his music.
There are two eras in NIN’s timeline: the manic, unnerving output of the late 1980s/1990s, and everything that came after. Their early work was frightening and vicious — it was trying to make a statement, and it did. However, between 1999’s The Fragile and 2005’s With Teeth, there was a noticeable shift. The band still sounded like NIN, but the guitar-heavy brutalism of those first few albums was replaced with more electronics that made their music much more approachable — a “toned down” version of the band, if you will.
Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile, the run that made the world notice NIN, is commendable. All are great for their own reasons especially since they sound nothing alike. Admittedly, I do think Pretty Hate Machine sounds a little dated at times because it was still hanging on to certain 80s trends. However, it set the stage for what NIN would eventually become, which started with an EP in 1992.
Broken was released smack dab between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral. The amount of punch it packs in a half hour is impressive in and of itself, but it’s the fact that these songs, as abrasive as they are, contain some of the most memorable hooks in their entire catalog.
The EP opens with “Pinion,” a looped guitar chord progression that gets louder with each measure, setting the stage of uneasiness. And what follows is pure madness.
Songs like “Wish,” “Last,” and “Gave Up” hit you like a freight train with what would become that signature nightmarish guitar and drums that beat you senseless, while “Happiness in Slavery” sounds like it could’ve fit on Pretty Hate Machine had the distortion not been turned to 11.
The EP closes with two covers, “Physical (You’re So)” (Adam & the Ants) and “Suck” (Pigface), which I’ll admit I didn’t know until recently. Both stay true to the original versions, but NIN’s renditions have that bite that became a staple element in NIN’s music back then — these songs slow down in tempo, but they’ll still skin you alive. NIN could turn your eardrums to dust regardless of the speed at which they were playing.
At this point, NIN have kind of done it all. Their catalog is comprised of full-lengths, EPs, and instrumentals. Additionally, Trent has proven to be such an incredible film-scorer that he now has not one but two Academy Awards under his belt. He’s become a bit of a renaissance man in the world of music.
But to me, it’s Broken that makes the most of its stay. It was the calm before the storm that was The Downward Spiral. It’s a full-fledged sonic assault and not for the faint-hearted.