Nine Inch Nails
With Teeth

THE REVIEW

Last year, seven years after the previous work, The Fragile, the new album by the band led by Trent Reznor was released, recently coming out of a struggle with substance detoxification. The album reflects this a bit, as you can feel less aggression in the lyrics, which become slightly more introspective. The electronic component changes function in the album, shifting from the music's basic structure to a vehicle for sound; indeed, the drum machine and synthesizer have been replaced by Dave Grohl (drums) and Jeordie White (bass), to make the sound more realistic (although the use of the computer is obviously included); the album thus confirms Reznor's ability to meld metal with electronics in the genre defined as "industrial," which has influenced dozens of bands from the nineties. It's therefore a good album, although far from the masterpiece that was The Downward Spiral.

The first track, All The Love In The World, is a very introspective and melancholic electronic piece, unfortunately disrupted by an agitated finale that I find inappropriate; the beautiful You Know What You Are? introduces Reznor's classic aggression, with transporting distortions and synths and a very powerful, almost cruel drum. The Collector, another pounding track, results in a rock/metal piece akin to Muse, coordinated by synths that give that classic Nine Inch Nails aftertaste impossible to forget. The Hand That Feeds is the single, a radio-friendly track, yet very engaging; the song has an almost dance rhythm but stays on the album's overall levels despite being clearly designed as a single to prompt album purchases. The next, Love Is Not Enough, is a very dark piece, with almost apocalyptic sounds, softened by heavy but at the same time reflective distortion, and Reznor's evergreen voice. Every Day Is Exactly The Same is a ballad filled with melodies as introspective as they are effective, an almost sad piece yet very compelling. With Teeth, which gives the album its name, is the classic Nine Inch Nails piece readapted in the new, more involuted and timid style, branching into a rhythm we can define as tribal surrounded by insane distortions, which once vanished with a piano interlude attack even crazier and more devastating. Only is perhaps the most beautiful song on the album: the track, somewhat commercial (which is why it was made a single), is a mix of electronics, NIN's typical industrial, Prodigy's techno-metal, and '80s funk, with elements that one way or another will make anyone love it. Getting Smaller, a track with rather clever guitar phrases, connects with professionalism the Nine Inch Nails' madness, misleading distortions, the band's general aggression, and Grohl's extreme precision on drums. Sunspots, with a falsetto chorus, is another very introverted electronic ballad, almost enclosed in a journey to discover Trent's mind; the bass, synths, and voice here form a single melodic organ that creates a particular atmosphere, truly appreciable. The eleventh track, The Line Begins To Blur, like the subsequent Beside You In Time, are pretty aggressive pieces, with carefully curated sounds where Trent's ability to combine industrial elements with new melody is evident, always achieving good and never boring results. The first is a piece dominated by sounds that tear at the hearing, before launching into a melody of rare beauty; the second is a psychedelic tunnel that gives the listener that special something that Trent managed to place, with the musical maturation of 16 years of career, in his renowned music. The final track, Right Where It Belongs, is a very calm piece, very "trippy," with truly splendid lyrics, where the piano combined with distorted synths that increase in intensity until the end of its 5:04 duration, concludes an album truly worthy of Reznor's greatness.

In the end, this album confirms how Reznor is musically a great composer, and how he has been able to sustain for over 15 years a genre he practically invented without ever veering off course. This album, although partly desecrated by critics who describe it as the commercial turning point of yet another band to discard, contains as many commercial influences as innovations, which doesn't hurt because the new material seems to work really well. A recommended album.