Trent Reznor is one pissed-off dude. Pissed off, writhing in
\nemotional agony, and lashing out at everything and everyone who
\ncomes close enough to bask in the corrosive burn of his personal
\nwrath. Some people, when they get hurt, curl up and pout, lamenting
\nwhatever wrongs were done to them. Some tighten down the emotional
\nscrews until the pressure draws blood. Trent is definitely the
\nlatter.<\/p>\n
Broken is one solid blast of unmitigated hopelessness and rage.
\nEvery track drips with venom. Each song is like a whip, flaying his
\npsyche and laying bear raw, stinging flesh to pour fresh salt into.
\nWhere does all this anger come from? Reznor was going through legal
\nproblems with his record label at the time, which would certainly
\nget ones hackles up, but I can’t believe there isn’t a bad, bad
\nbreakup behind this outpouring of emotion.<\/p>\n
It’s bad enough to be full of loathing, but worse when feel it
\nlooking in the mirror. It’s hard to figure out who he hates more,
\nwhoever it was that hurt him, or he himself. On the track “Wish,”
\nReznor exclaims: “I put my faith in god and my trust in you, Now
\nthere’s nothing more fucked up I could do”.<\/p>\n
On the next track “Last,” he counters with: “Look through these
\nblackened eyes, you’ll see ten thousand lies “My lips may promise
\nbut my heart is a whore.”<\/p>\n
From beginning to end, this disc creates a raw, grating symphony
\nof pain and discomfort. Even the short instrumental tracks have an
\nunnerving quality that feels tainted in some way. This is not a
\nhappy collection of songs. There is no joy here. Even the sexual
\npleading of the Adam Ant cover “Physical” is both a plea for
\nrelease, and a warning to stay away.<\/p>\n
Musically, the disc is a masterpiece of caustic industrial
\nmetal. Grinding, blistering, obnoxious and spectacular. Reznor
\ntakes the groundwork started with his debut
\nPretty Hate Machine<\/i>, and creates an even heavier and
\nemotionally charged set of songs. He does this in a more chaotic,
\nyet mature fashion, sustaining a continuous texture of raging angst
\nthat propels the listener through his personal hell. Anyone
\nfamiliar with NIN’s later work owes it to themselves to listen to
\nthis. This is still in my opinion, Trent Reznor’s best work to
\ndate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5836],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37846","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nine-inch-nails","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37846"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}