Ranting and Raving

AMAZING!!

I picked it up Monday afternoon on the ride home. Immediately Survivalism and Capital G stood out as great songs. I was able to listen to the entire album this morning while stuck in rain induced traffic. I am utterly impressed. Not since The Downward Spiral and The Fragile have I been this impressed. The best way to describe it is Modern Industrial. Where as the older stuff brought up images of rusty and dirty industrial landscapes this album inspires vistas of futuristic precision and sterilization. Gleaming metal smokestacks and smooth Metropolis inspired lines. The hard edge sound that they had in the past is there, but cleaner and more modern. It’s just really good.

This album is what With Teeth should have been. With Teeth seemed obligatory and poppy. It had it’s good parts, but it just seemed like Trent changed his style to get a radio friendly album out for his corporate masters. Zero Hour is more what I believe is Nine Inch Nails. Like I said above, I have only listened to the album all the way through once so far, but I can tell you that I was not bored or disappointed with any song. There are songs on With Teeth that I skipped through on my first listen. Not so on this one. And the beats….PHAT…with a P and H. I was actually listening to it and I heard ringing in my ears….it was magical.

Seriously, buy this album.

Edit: And one more thing…the CD changes fricken colors!!! It’s friggen heat sensitive. It’s black at first but if you run it in a CD player or a laptop the damn thing turns white! Freaked me out when I took it out of my laptop last night…I stared at it in disbelief for 5 minutes. Ask the wife…flabbergasted is the only way to describe it.

Edit Part 2: Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero